"Pro" brewers who make beers with obvious flaws

[krackin]

Well,just take a look at how many products today just plain suck. Find the good stuff and support those businesses, especially your local ones.

Rant narrowly avoided by cracking a test batch of cream ale.

 

[jesserizzo]

We've all had underwhelming beer. But one thing I can add re: selling beer you know is "bad", is that once it's brewed, they have to pay all the taxes on it. Dumping beer costs big money, not just from the ingredients, but also federal and state taxes.

There was a brewery in town that closed not too long ago. They had so-so recipes but a huge infection issue that never went away - I guess they were forced to choose between selling known 'bad' beer or dumping it and spending tons of $ on taxes for unsold beer and disinfecting/replacing equipment. In the end, didn't seem to matter.

Yeah, this may have been some state or local thing, which sucks. But it isn't the way the feds do it. From the Code of Federal Regulations

25.151 Rate of tax.
All beer, brewed or produced, and removed for consumption or sale, is subject to the tax prescribed by 26 U.S.C. 5051, for every barrel containing not more than 31 gallons, and at a like rate for any other quantity or for the fractional parts of a barrel as authorized in § 25.156.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I had a really cloudy bottle of mead I payed some pretty big bucks for. I wont name names, but I wont buy another bottle of it again. Especially since the first mead I ever made tasted better than it (and it wasn't just my own bias comparing my work to commercial work).

 

[b-boy]

There is a place near me that has some issues.

I had an English IPA that was completely undrinkable. I couldn't believe they would even sell this stuff. At first I thought it was just due to the difference between an English and American IPA, but I made it a point to try some other English IPAs and they were nothing like this.

They do have some good beers. Their Amber Ale and Oatmeal Stout are great. Unfortunately, all their other beers taste very similar to the Amber Ale. I think maybe it's the yeast, but when you're drinking a Blonde Ale, you expect it to taste like a Blonde Ale. It's a little off-putting.

 

[Conan]

A certain 'must-visit' brewery near me only has one beer that I'll gladly drink, and it's an IIPA. The rest are essentially the same beer with different color. It sells well to the masses and keeps them in business. With that being the goal, I guess they're successful. I just don't care for their product.
b-boy and I seem to be talking about the same place, in fact. Kyle

 

[b-boy]

A certain 'must-visit' brewery near me only has one beer that I'll gladly drink, and it's an IIPA. The rest are essentially the same beer with different color. It sells well to the masses and keeps them in business. With that being the goal, I guess they're successful. I just don't care for their product.
b-boy and I seem to be talking about the same place, in fact. Kyle

I'm pretty sure it's the same place. It's nice to know I'm not the only one with that opinion.

I do enjoy a few of their beers, but I've learned to stick to those and not deviate too much.

 

[bovineblitz]

I had one last night and it pisses me off. An American IPA that was very obviously fermented at too high a temp, I cant imagine what it tastes like when they ferment in the summer.


Anyways, these brewers:

1. Cant taste the flaw

2. Don't know enough to fix it

3. Don't care as long as people are buying their beer



Honestly, I don't know which option is the worst.

/rant

I've run into this quite a bit recently with all the new breweries popping up everywhere. I think it's mainly the first one, they either can't taste it due to lack of experience or they're not that sensitive to the flavor. When you're a new brewery nobody gives you real honest feedback so they likely don't even know it's a problem. Couple that with the fact that most of their customers don't know a good beer from a bad, and will even be impressed by the 'awesome butterscotch flavor', I think it's mainly a lack of having a proper feedback mechanism to critically evaluate the beer.

 

[ACbrewer]

that might be PA's liquor laws. they have some strange ones.

probably not the same in other states

Nope talked with a vinter (winery) in VA. He said he is taxed for what goes into the fermentor, and that is by the Feds, not the state (well the state might also, but he said it was the Feds who taxed him on all of what goes into the fermentor)

 

[GrogNerd]

Nope talked with a vinter (winery) in VA. He said he is taxed for what goes into the fermentor, and that is by the Feds, not the state (well the state might also, but he said it was the Feds who taxed him on all of what goes into the fermentor)

figured Cæser would want his rendering before the point where you would decide to dump a batch

 

[woknblues]

So you just write off the entire loss, tax and all.. ?

 

[MrNatural]

So you just write off the entire loss, tax and all.. ?

Or, maybe do something like this?
"Aged for 30 days in oak barrels", "Brewed entirely from free-range coastal water"

 

[ACbrewer]

So you just write off the entire loss, tax and all.. ?

If the creator of a product decides that it would be detrimental to his brand's reputation, then he would write it off. If however he can figure out how to sell it as a 'Aged in 30 days in barrel' or some other thing, "Limited addition wicked beer."

 

[MrNatural]

If the creator of a product decides that it would be detrimental to his brand's reputation, then he would write it off. If however he can figure out how to sell it as a 'Aged in 30 days in barrel' or some other thing, "Limited addition wicked beer."

Actually was a pretty green whiskey, 80 proof. Any off flavors probably evaporate long after the whiskey is harvested.

 

[doubletapbrewing]

Someone mentioned it a few pages back about putting the snob in beer snob. While I do think that some of these beers being criticized as not that good, probably are pretty damn good beers to about 90% of the population. I also think that your taste may be different then mine or the next guys. I compare it to restaurants. I may love everything a restaurant offers and never had a bad meal while others hate it maybe because they had a bad meal or simply don't like the flavors in the dishes. To each their own. I also think we hold the "pro" brewers to another level as home brewers. I never thought about the whole tax thing but as an accountant, I can find a way to get around that tax loophole, you just have to look hard enough. Some of these beers may be underwhelming but maybe some just critIcize others creations too much because they have the title of a"pro".

 

[beaksnbeer]

I wonder how many of are pallets have acquired a taste for our own brew. I have noticed it with water which here in Florida varies from one end of the spectrum to the other. This one of the reasons I have 12 taps and try to get as many other brewers/beer drinkers opinions as I can. Plus no matter who you are or what you do every pallet is different. An IPA I made got went from not hoppy enough to overhopped across 4 judges.

 

[Phunhog]

If the creator of a product decides that it would be detrimental to his brand's reputation, then he would write it off. If however he can figure out how to sell it as a 'Aged in 30 days in barrel' or some other thing, "Limited addition wicked beer."

or better yet donate it to some charity function. That way the brewery can write it off on their taxes, gets some good PR for donating beer, and gets rid of substandard beer. After all who is going to complain about getting free beer??

 

[moti_mo]

or better yet donate it to some charity function. That way the brewery can write it off on their taxes, gets some good PR for donating beer, and gets rid of substandard beer. After all who is going to complain about getting free beer??

Depends on the quality of the other beers that are donated and how well the patrons can pick out obvious flaws in beer. We actually had a local brewery donate a keg of beer to our fundraiser that was quite bad - crazy phenolic off flavors and very obviously beer they were trying to get rid of - no one would touch it (despite its low low cost of zero) and it turned several people off to the brewery. Not very good PR at all in terms of drawing people into their taproom.

 

[Phunhog]

Depends on the quality of the other beers that are donated and how well the patrons can pick out obvious flaws in beer. We actually had a local brewery donate a keg of beer to our fundraiser that was quite bad - crazy phenolic off flavors and very obviously beer they were trying to get rid of - no one would touch it (despite its low low cost of zero) and it turned several people off to the brewery. Not very good PR at all in terms of drawing people into their taproom.

Yeah I guess it depends on the brewery too. I went to a charity film festival that was selling Sierra Nevada. The beer was donated by a local bar. The beer had very definite flaws...odd phenolic flavor, no hop flavor/aroma, etc. Everyone in CA knows what SN is supposed to taste like and this was NOTHING like SN!! There was still a line for the beer, even at intermission. I doubt anyone will throw in the towel for either SN or the local bar.

 

[moti_mo]

Yeah, I'm sure the big breweries can get away with it once in a while. Could definitely hurt a small brewery trying to make a name for themselves though.