Disappointed with Newcastle

[bakeup]

I bought a bottle of Newcastle yesterday because I've never tried it and was very disappointed. The beer was so skunky I wanted to throw up. When I grabbed one I wasn't even thinking about the fact that it was in a clear glass bottle. I felt like it was good behind the intense skunkiness. I will have to give it another try from a tap somewhere.

 

[MichaelBrock]

Newcastle on tap is one of my favorite beers but I don't buy it in bottles for that very reason. I'm sure they have a great reason for selling it in clear bottles but it doesn't seem to be related to accumulating repeat buyers.

 

[pm5k00]

Every time I have had this from a bottle its always horrible. Defenitly better on draught or can.

 

[bob3000]

IMO it's not a great beer to start with. For me i would only pick one up if the only other option was nasty mass produced larger.
Unfurtunatly a good example of a UK brown ale is hard to come by. Even in the UK!!

 

[bakeup]

It was a make your own 6 pack, so I thought I'd try it. They didn't have Sam Smith Nut Brown, so I went with Newcastle. Should have gone with something else.

 

[uncommonsense]

They make mini kegs of it that isnt bad.

 

[Runyanka]

They make mini kegs of it that isnt bad.

+1
Newcastle is a great session beer, especially if your running low on homebrew.

 

[bob3000]

It was a make your own 6 pack, so I thought I'd try it. They didn't have Sam Smith Nut Brown, so I went with Newcastle. Should have gone with something else.

Sam Smiths all the way!!!!

 

[solbes]

Newcastle and Fat Tire are two beers that I can taste a distinct difference between bottle and keg. Newcastle being the greater difference. Go with the keg for both!

 

[rhamilton]

Of all the commercial brews I've had, I've never seen bottling inconsistencies like New Castle has (its the SWMBO's favorite for some reason). Every time I buy a 12-pack, at least one, sometimes two bottles are either skunked or didn't carb....

 

[Shawnylocks]

i usually dont mind new castle too much wich has prompted me to make a brown ale for my second batch. my first was an ipa because ..who dosent like an ips right. but i like new castle and told my supplier that i wanted something a bit more "warm/fall" tasting and he recommended my current batch to me. i hope he was right

 

[dantheman13]

There was a time before I drank craft beer when Newcastle was my beer. I recall distinctly that the bottled beer tasted significantly more skunked from the nearest supermarket in my area. But from one of the better liquor stores, it tasted more fresh. I wonder if it was a difference in how the distributor handled the beer, or the stores. Probably both.

 

[DrunkleJon]

It was probably turnover. The beer at the better liquor store probably sold faster and spent less time directly under the fluorescent lights and was probably stored better.

 

[TopherM]

These guys have made and sold billion of these things for a long, long time, do you think they don't know what makes most beers skunk?

Newcastle is served in clear glass bottles because they use hop extract instead of fresh hops or hop pellets in their beer. The enzime that reacts with UV rays to "SKUNK" beer is NOT present in hop extract, so you can not skunk a Newcastle. Same thing with Miller High Life or pretty much any other beer served in a clear bottle.

You may not like the taste of Newcastle, it is very light, low alcohol, and super malty (high relative proportion of Crystal Malt in the recipe), but you did not drink one that was skunked. Old, maybe, but not skunked. Scientifically impossible. Do your own research if you don't believe me.

 

[bakeup]

I got it from Cost Plus World Market, so who knows how long it sat there.

These guys have made and sold billion of these things for a long, long time, do you think they don't know what makes most beers skunk?

Newcastle is served in clear glass bottles because they use hop extract instead of fresh hops or hop pellets in their beer. The enzime that reacts with UV rays to "SKUNK" beer is NOT present in hop extract, so you can not skunk a Newcastle. Same thing with Miller High Life or pretty much any other beer served in a clear bottle.

You may not like the taste of Newcastle, it is very light, low alcohol, and super malty (high relative proportion of Crystal Malt in the recipe), but you did not drink one that was skunked. Old, maybe, but not skunked. Scientifically impossible. Do your own research if you don't believe me.

It may have just been really old, but the aroma was of skunk and the taste was of skunk, just like the animal.