2 year beer?! unbelievable! **rant**

[fretsforlife]

I travel almost non stop which sucks sometimes but is great because I can try great beer from all over the country. I am in the baltimore/ D.C. area right now and decided to try the Oxford Hefe by Clipper City Brew.

I stopped at a small liquor store called GI Liquor in Morningside, MD (the only one i could find that sold micro) and picked up a sixer of the Hefe. I got back to my hotel and cracked a bottle. It foamed heavily in the cup and tasted like sour apple juice. I thought maybe i had to give it time, but it just got more and more disgusting. I figured, something was wrong and checked the "born on date" February 2007!! can you believe it?

It was almost closing time so i raced back and gave it to the lady who sold it to me. I had to point to the label because she didn't speak english. She had the nerve to tell me "Pick different,,. hurry!! we close!" I started checking all their sixers and EVERYTHING was expired. I saw beer from 07, and 08 all over the place.

I finally had to settle for a Sam Adams Hefe that was 2 months expired (freshest i could find that wasn't BMC) because they're registers were closed down and I couldn't get a refund.

I am the kind of person that, if i don't like a store/restaurant/whatever, I don't complain, I simply don't return.. but what they are doing is downright wrong. They are ripping off the public and taking them for fools. How could they expect to get away with selling rancid beer at full price?! Im wondering if I shouldn't do something, or call someone about it..

from now on, Im checking all dates. Anyone ever run into anything like this? what do you guys think?

 

[SkewedBrewing]

Wow, that sounds like a classy place.

I was just home back in Cleveland and I tried a big bottle of an ESB from some micro that I got at a local wine store.

I brought it home and chilled it, excited to try it, and cracked it open. It tasted like someone mixed cider and koolaid together. I checked the expiration date, same thing.

You'd think that they would have some sort of quality control going on. Wait, didn't Sam Adams used to advertise that...

 

[AnonyBrew]

Call the local TABC on them.

 

[jmulligan]

Yeah, Clipper City stopped even BREWING that hefe like more than a year ago. It WAS a really good beer - but obviously not 2 years later. Sorry you had a crappy experience.

 

[gregorywbrown13]

Not exactly the same thing, but once a friend an I got a 6er of duck rabbit milk stout, and all 6 were completely over carbonated bottle bombs. Never had that from a comercial brew until that one, and I don't even think it was a bottle conditioned beer.

 

[fretsforlife]

Yeah, Clipper City stopped even BREWING that hefe like more than a year ago. It WAS a really good beer - but obviously not 2 years later. Sorry you had a crappy experience.

Thats ok, their Heavy Seas Loose Canon and Ox Raspberry Wheat were both great and I look forward to trying some of their others

 

[carnevoodoo]

Ugh. I had a 5+ month old Pliny the Elder bottle last month. I just about yacked.

 

[remilard]

Hey time heals everything man. You won't fit in here until you acquire a taste for stale beer.

 

[Revvy]

Hey time heals everything man. You won't fit in here until you acquire a taste for stale beer.

Gee, Remmy, I see you still haven't come to terms with the fact that I'm not gay, and am not attracted to the whole "dipping pigtails in the inkwells" method of wooing anyway. So your pathetically transparent attempts at that won't win my heart.

Sorry....



And besides very few of the people who have set there LIVING HOMEBREW as opposed to pasturized COMMERCIAL brew have ever commented that their beer was stale, quite the contrary....Perhaps if you have attempted to age some of your beer to less than satisfactory results there is some flaw in sanitization, or some deficiencies in the brewer's process....since many of us have had different results..Maybe if you actually paid attention to what some of us have written on here, instead of being belligerent and abrasive to us (and be less disliked too, I imagine)...you might actually learn something...but that is neither here nor there, since sometimes it appears you can't teach an old trol...er I mean dog a new trick.



And since, as usual your contribution to this thread is about as helpful to the OP as lipstick is on a pig, once again I guess, I might as well pick up the slack, and actually offer some advice, or at least sonething substantive....(How you ever could conceive of you and I tigether is beyond me, you being so vacuous and sarcastic and all.)

Now to fretsforlife's complaint (and not another of your trollish attempts at sarcasm, remmy baby)...

That really does suck...I can imagine buying a two year old Arrogant Bastard or Stone Vertical that was well stored in a bottle shop, BUT not any Sam Adams...

I would send an email or online note to Sam Adams, I bet they wouldn't be too happy finding out that some stores are selling outdated or expired products.

It's not a good reflection of Sam Adam's or the other breweries carried in the store...

I wouldn't be surprised if Sam Adam's attempted to make amends to you...

But I betcha they will have a word or two with their distrubutors in that area.

Sorry!

 

[fretsforlife]

You know I think i just might try the email to Sam Adams approach. Hell I might even get a T-shirt!! Ha!

Actually, I remember when this guy from my home town (with too much time on his hands) called Budweizer and complained that his hand was raw from trying to open bottles that were "Supposed to be TWIST OFF!". They apologized up and down and he ended up with a care package that consisted of t-shirts, bottle openers and a bunch of other useless AB junk.

 

[EcuPirate07]

+1 on contacting breweries these guys need to know that they are selling bad product. Esp since Jim is big on his fresh beer ads.

 

[jmulligan]

Thats ok, their Heavy Seas Loose Canon and Ox Raspberry Wheat were both great and I look forward to trying some of their others

Glad you found the Loose Cannon - excellent, well-balanced IPA. They make a pretty good stout called Peg Leg, and the Below Decks barleywine is pretty tastey too. They also put out a saison called Red Sky at Night which I enjoy now and then.

 

[DrinksWellWithOthers]

You know I think i just might try the email to Sam Adams approach. Hell I might even get a T-shirt!! Ha!

I remember a thread on BeerAdvocate where someone emailed Sam Adams regarding a similar situation and they mailed him a check for the price of the 6pack.

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

One time I took back some Paulaner Hefeweizen that was a couple of years old, the guy behind the counter argued until I opened one against his will and he caught a whiff of it, arguement ended!

BTW nothing agains Orval because it is awesome, but it kind of reminds me of that taste you get in your mouth in the morning after too much drinking and forgetting to brush your teeth? But in a good way? Kind of like a cider gone bad, lol...