They got wacky after their head brewer left to start Crux.
Started cutting successful beers from the lineup, making beers like Red Chair a seasonal, and taking Black Butte Porter from an 8.2 abv beer to a 5.7%abv beer. I do NOT recommend a Porter if it’s under 7 they don’t taste right IMO. They did right by Abyss for a while then that got wacky too, I appreciate growing and not being stagnant, and was it just this they did differently it wouldn’t have been so bad.
Main problem I have with them is their focus on IPAs, I love a good IPA but having 20 different ones not so much. Make a handful of different styles and nail them is better. I said this to them on social media and they were receptive to the input and responded that they “may just bring back” their white IPA if there was enough support to do so. Then a crap ton of people started asking why did you discontinue the white IPA. The. I never saw them respond again.
Good company good beer. They were the first major brewer in the northwest to bring different styles of beer to the masses. Back in the day I can’t tell you how much Mirror Pond, Black Butte Porter and white IPA I drank. They kickstarted the beer growth here IMO by getting folks curious about different things.
