Bad Commercial Beer

Went to a brewfest yesterday and tasted some really bad beer. And I'm not talking about watered down beer, I understand the need to appeal to the mass market. I tasted several that were astringent, medicinal, and full of off-flavors. So bad I had to pour them out. I'm curious how commercial beers can go to market when they are so poorly made. Do the brewers know their products are flawed?

Like what?

With the rash of 'brew pubs' this is happining a lot. Many people that shouldn't be making beer are, because if it says 'craft' on it....people line up, hold up their pinky and say how great it is. Most of what I make is far superior (to me....and that's all that matters right?), than what most of the local places around here are putting out. I just got back from Colorado (wow, what a beer scene)....and the places around here are making mostly sh#$, and telling us it is great. MHO, thats all.

I live in the UK and the commercial beer is awful! Their seems to be a lot of real ale pubs closing down because people would rather drink watery yellow alcohol that gets them sloshed than decent beer that has taste!

Now that I think about it, the two that stick out in my mind (a rye mild ale and an amber) were both from brewpubs. I expect most brewpub beers to be watery, but I was surprised at how striking the off-flavors were in these.

I have had the occasional flawed sixer from some of the bigger craft brewers, but that isnt too often. Mistakes happen, even for the big guys.

That being said, Breweries are popping up all over the place. The craft breweries ive been to here in Denver are putting out some legit beer. I've noticed the beer from brew pubs - restaurants and breweries in one, in general arent as good as the smaller craft beer places that focus on beer alone. My guess is that they have to focus on the food more so than the beer to be successful. I think most of them will hire a guy who has been through a course to run the brewery. None of the courses I have looked at (and ive looked into several) go over how to truly formulate a recipe. They do cover science, systems and all though. This may be part of it. A guy running a brew pub might not have the best recipe sense, and is throwing in some off combinations resulting in off beer, compared to others. If the brewpub is corporate, the guy brewing the beer is just running the system. No creativity on their part, just corporate recipes, whether they are good or not.

I have also seen some brewpub systems being sold where they provide all the equipment, and some crash course training, then send you kits to make different beers for your restaurant. I doubt these kits produce award caliber beer, and operator error is more likely if the guy isnt a serious brewer. I think a lot of places outside of the big beer areas are going to run into this type of setup, at least for a while.

The beer boom is going, I'd sure like to get in on it, but its going to be like restaurants, where there are great ones, OK ones, and lousy ones. The consumers will sort it all out eventually.

Right,to make it,you need good beer and good food to be a good brewpub/probably good service as well.And you may as well make some good food with some of your good beer as well. As far as service,I appreciate when I ask about beer and the waitress doesnt know anything about the beers on tap that a manager comes out Knowing what they are talking about with beers on tap.It annoys me the servers dont know anything about them. Its their buisness,they should know.

"I expect most brewpub beers to be watery"
What area are you in? I'm spoiled living in Portland, I guess, because I have yet to find that issue around here.

Hate to say it because I enjoy them and they're a great local company, but I've had some bad stuff from Upland. A wheat that tasted like band-aids and a triple that tasted like nail polish remover. Yum! Usually their product is very good in my opinion though.

pdxal said:

"I expect most brewpub beers to be watery"
What area are you in? I'm spoiled living in Portland, I guess, because I have yet to find that issue around here.

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Maybe talking about large chains?

In Portland, brewpubs are making anything but watery beers.

When I go into a brew pub, I try to make a quick evaluation: is it a restaurant that also makes beer, or a brewery that also makes food. I try and temper my expectations accordingly. I've only been to one where I liked their food and beer equally.

A brewpub recently closed here. Their beer was ok, better than Gordon Biersch but not as good as some of the craft brews I could get at the liquor store...when I went I made sure I wasn't expecting the best beer I'd ever had and it was fun.

I had a Yuengling (sp?) lager last week and it had a solvent-like taste to it. Are my taste buds now sensitive to commercial brews since drinking my own homebrew? Oh no...not that!
Susie

pdxal said:

"I expect most brewpub beers to be watery"
What area are you in? I'm spoiled living in Portland, I guess, because I have yet to find that issue around here.

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Buffalo... Pearl Street Brewery and Buffalo Brewpub both play to the Labatt drinking crowd, so everything they offer is light in flavor; similar to Saranac, Magic Hat, or other second tier breweries.

One of the "bad" beers I tasted was from a new brewpub called Pan American. I believe its run by the same owner as Pearl Street. Tasted like they didn't filter out the chlorine. I couldn't even finish the 3 oz glass.

I've noticed with a lot of the newer brewpubs their recipe's aren't dialed in. So sometimes you'll get some pretty tasty beer and other times you get a watered down mess. I like that fact that more and more people are getting into with craft beer, but at the same time I feel, like with anything, no one should jump into starting a brewery/brew pub. Perfect your beer first!

I think another thing that will affect quality for a lot of these brew pubs is the water they have available to brew with, if they don't filter or add chemicals appropriately. Most of the places with a big beer scene have great municipal water. Colorado, Portland, etc. a brew pub in some of these places with water that tastes like a swimming pool have a lot of work to do just to make the water taste ok, and that's the biggest ingredient in beer.

I went to college at Texas A&M, and College Station had really bad tasting water. Clean, but tasted bad. Dodge City KS also comes to mind. Boot Hill Brewing Co would be cool for the town, but the water there tastes like sewage.

Might be the problem for some of these places too.

People will buy whatever you put in front of them if the price is about average and the label says what they want.

"Artisan" anything, for example. Usually costs 2-3x as much as the regular stuff, usually tastes about the same if not worse.

Kate00 said:

I think another thing that will affect quality for a lot of these brew pubs is the water they have available to brew with, if they don't filter or add chemicals appropriately. Most of the places with a big beer scene have great municipal water. Colorado, Portland, etc. a brew pub in some of these places with water that tastes like a swimming pool have a lot of work to do just to make the water taste ok, and that's the biggest ingredient in beer.

I went to college at Texas A&M, and College Station had really bad tasting water. Clean, but tasted bad. Dodge City KS also comes to mind. Boot Hill Brewing Co would be cool for the town, but the water there tastes like sewage.

Might be the problem for some of these places too.

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It's interesting that you bring that up because a local brewery out here, Four Peaks, had that issue and they to purchase an RO system with tons of tanks to handle their product.

tagz said:

Buffalo... Pearl Street Brewery and Buffalo Brewpub both play to the Labatt drinking crowd, so everything they offer is light in flavor; similar to Saranac, Magic Hat, or other second tier breweries.

One of the "bad" beers I tasted was from a new brewpub called Pan American. I believe its run by the same owner as Pearl Street. Tasted like they didn't filter out the chlorine. I couldn't even finish the 3 oz glass.

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They are the same owner and the same brewer. They make excellent Amber Ale and Stout, but some of the other offerings are average. I've had a few bad ones too. Overall the stuff they do well is fantastic. I highly recommend the Trainwreck Amber and Brawler Stout.

I occasionally get a few cornys filled there. The head brewer is a really nice guy. He was one of the original partners in Fying Bison Brewery, which makes a decent Lager and a really good Barleywine.

Don't know about you guys, but I'd definitely tell a brewpub about these problems...especially the band-aid taste. It's their product, and you're paying a premium for it. I'd tell them specifically what their fault is---use or chlorine cleaners (band aid taste) or astringent taste ( according to Palmer, any number of problems could be to blame).

Would you eat a steak that tasted like crap?

In Massachusetts there's a chain brewpub called Beer Works. The food is consistently good between locations but the beer definitely is not. Hingham has an excellent house ipa. Went to one near Fenway and there house ipa was flat, watery and tasted like wet cardboard. There beer is brewed at each individual location so I can only assume crappy brewers equal crappy beer.

This is probably just an issue I timing but I live 3 blocks from a brewpub/pizza place called Piece Pizza in Chicago. Never a big fan of their brews but the place is always always packed (pizza is great though). However, just had a beautiful DIPA called Wack Job. And therefore I am temporarily biased.
Wonderful deep reddish color, low on the carb volume, and I think I know who got a bunch of Simcoe and Amarillo despite its scarcity at times.
But in spite of that, I agree. Most of the time the brewpubs are often only 70% there with their beer (better than me at times to be sure) but then again, I do not own a $200,000 "brew rig".
Somewhere between Applebee's and Lagunitas/Russian River/Stone/Avery etc.lies a big market. Can't blame people for going after it.