How long do you give a brewery to dial itself in?

As that one old commercial used to say, "you never get a second chance to make a first impression." Was that for deodorant? Or cigarettes? Can’t remember.

For me, I think location has to play into this. If you’re opening the 56th nano in Chicago, you might want to be interesting. If you’re in Portland (Oregon or Maine), you’d better be ready out of the gate. If you’re in a beer starved area, guess what, you’ll probably have time to figure it out after you’re already pouring beer. Good for you in that case.

I went to one nearby-ish brewery the week of their opening, wasn’t impressed, and haven’t been back. That was a while back, and if I get back up that way (which I don’t often), I would give them another shot. There’s a brewery maybe 15 minutes from me that I’ve heard nothing good about and have no desire to check out. There are at least three breweries that should be serving beer sometime in the next 6-9 months that I’m totally stoked for because I’ve had samples and can see they’re going in a good direction.

Basically, I’m pretty open minded and will give anyone a chance or two, but really, without any vested interest (knowing the people behind the brewery, close-by location), I have no problem walking away after one bad experience. There’s just too much good stuff going on to waste time and energy on bad beer.