Breweries of Eugene: Falling Sky

I've got a love/hate relationship with Falling Sky.

They break my heart every time I visit them. They've got great ideas, two well-designed pubs, friendly, attentive staff, and they got their start by running the most comprehensively-equipped brewing supply store in town. I want to like them so badly..

But the sad truth is, their beer is terrible. Whether due to ill-conceived recipes, poor cleaning practices, or simply the belief that what they're making is 'good enough' - the vast majority of what they serve just doesn't work.

I visited their Deli last week with a couple of friends from out of town, and experienced nothing to change my mind. We tried 14 beers, most of which were new to me. One thing you can't fault Falling Sky's brewers for is a lack of willingness to experiment - they've brewed hundreds of different beers since opening 3 years ago. Whether this is a deliberate choice for variety's sake or because they've not come up with a recipe worth brewing twice is unclear.

Of the beers on tap during my visit, most were nigh-undrinkable. A couple were decent, average - but I'd pass them up in a heartbeat for anything coming out of pretty much any other brewery in town. Heck, I know several local homebrewers who make beer that's way more flavorful, interesting, and thoughtful than anything I've had from Falling Sky. And though we didn't have any food on our visit, in my experience it suffers from the same problems as the beer - good ideas ruined by careless or sloppy execution.

And yet, despite all this, Falling Sky's been very successful somehow - they opened their brewpub to great fanfare at the beginning of 2012, with the Deli following just a year and a half later. And I've met people who enjoy both the beer and food very much. Perhaps it's just an issue of personal taste.

What I can say is that my party of 5 people couldn't finish a single 4oz taster of beer between us. We left almost all the beer behind in favor of walking over to Hop Valley.