Who are your top 5 influential breweries?

[Sadfield]

Who's sculpted what and how you brew the most? What do you take from them?

I'll start.

Red Willow - Ex-homebrewer and main player in my local beer scene. Planted the seed that I can All Grain brew at home.

Brasserie de la Senne - Everything about their philosophy on fermentation is an inspiration. Nailed home the idea that attenuation = refreshment.

De Ranke - Top quality beers using dried yeast. And that bitterness matters.

Kernel - I love how they manage to have a core range of beers whilst never brewing the same thing, by switching the hops.

Seirra Nevada - I love that they place value in open fermentation, even at their scale. And how they navigate brewing so many beers with Chico yeast.

 

[chopps]

Good post! Had to think a bit as it’s not about favourite beers, although these guys make a good drop too.

Harrisons Brewery - Chris Harrison. The busiest man in the worlld built an award winning brewery and pub by hand, with no money, and helped countless other startups along the way. Inspirational.

Brewdog -Yes I know this might be controversial and I’m not sure I like them so much now they are all grown up, but… what a journey. Hard work, creativity and determination to win.

Elusive - Andy Parker. Keeping it intentionally ‘small’ to focus on quality not quantity. No empire building here. Always happy to help.

Emporers Brewery - Coalville. Find one thing that you’re really good at and focus on that. Imperial stouts. Oh my word, do they do it well.

Alechemist Sheffield- Martyn runs a workshop in a boathouse to support terminally ill patients in Sheffield. He’s set up with lathes, drills, woodworking and metalworking tools and provides a place where mostly male patients can talk in a non-medical setting. Martyn’s no youngster. He’s struggling with arthritic hands and has not much dexterity - yet he’s just used them to build a small commercial brewery to support the workshop.
Amazing man. @madebymartyn on Youtube.

 

[MashBag]

Very good post. Are you OK?

I came to brewing from winemaking so breweries didn't really feature.

But influences definitely.

Bob Morton & another vote for Brewdog in that order.

Inspirational : Peter Lavery

 

[jof]

I am surprised nobody has listed the big commercials as the reason you started making your own as what the pub served was just pish

 

[MashBag]

I am surprised nobody has listed the big commercials as the reason you started making your own as what the pub served was just pish

I think pish in pubs is a given not an inspiration

 

[Sadfield]

Only if you drink in the wrong ones. There's always been free houses and small family breweries.

Brewdog have been mentioned twice. Hardly a small independent. Neither are Sierra Nevada, small.

 

[MickDundee]

Brewdog - like many other people they were my “gateway” into craft beer and the brewery that inspired me to start homebrewing.

Paulaner - Helles is my favourite lager style and, whilst I prefer Augustiner, Paulaner is the most widely available. They also do a cracking hefeweizen.

Verdant - when it comes to British breweries and hoppy beers, there’s not many better!

Anchor Brewing (RIP) - their steam beer was my favourite beer for years and when I first started brewing I had 4 or 5 attempts at making a California Common.

Holy Goat - they push the boundaries and I’ve always been quite a “safe” brewer. They make me want to try new techniques.

Honorable mentions to Brooklyn Brewery (similar reasons to Anchor, ie Brooklyn Lager was one of my first proper favourite beers), Harvieston (responsible for some of my favourite cask beers), Vault Brewing (similar reasons to Holy Goat) and Camden (even though they are owned by big beer now, their pale is a very reliable option from the supermarket).

 

[aolcot]

Yep another nod here for Brewdog - I don't drink them much nowadays but they one of my gateway breweries into craft many years ago and I spent hours skimming through their DIY dog recipe booklet for ideas when I started homebrewing.

Weird beard - again another brewery I loved when I found craft beer many year ago and defo helped me explore the variety of styles at the time.

Torrside - I love imperial strength beers and these were the first that I regularly had and taught me that beers can be drunk sloooooowly and enjoyed rather than necked!. I loved their dogs of war series and one day once my process is bob on, I will start brewing 10%+ barleywines etc.

Verdant - whilst didn't sculpt me in my early journey, they are prob one of the best IPA/DIPA brewer in the country today and would happily pay top dollar for their beers as it is the style area I love to drink/brew the most.

Harrisons/four priests - Whilst I watch dozens of YT channels, these two really stand out for me to showing the other side of drinking a beer and I've learnt loads from their processes. Its awesome to sit and drink one of their beers and know pretty much exactly the recipe and how it was brewed.

This was tricky as I've been influenced by so many breweries/brewers over the years, large and small

 

[Sadfield]

Torrside - I love imperial strength beers and these were the first that I regularly had and taught me that beers can be drunk sloooooowly and enjoyed rather than necked!. I loved their dogs of war series and one day once my process is bob on, I will start brewing 10%+ barleywines etc.

Lovely to see Torrside mentioned. They're a honourable mention for me as we were all part of the same homebrew group and I certainly learnt a lot from the three of them. I've helped brew there a couple of times. Their 'Monster Series' are done by taking the first runnings from the mash for a 10%er then they sparge to make a second beer. One mash two boils. An easy way to get a high gravity brew.