Variability in craft beers

[SuperX]

As I drink more craft / local brews, I am starting to notice that beer quality and taste can vary wildly across the same brew. I've purchased 2 of the same beer at the same store and same time and had one be great, and the other be sterno. From week to week, a beer might be super dry and clean finishing to bitter and cloying.

I'm pretty sure it is the beer but it could be my palate. I've never noticed this before in big brewery beers like miller, coors or but, but I don't particularly drink those for the taste anyway.

Does anyone else see this on a regular basis?

 

[IL1kebeer]

I notice that if I eat certain strong tasting foods like curry, spaghetti, or something vinegary then my palate will be wrecked for awhile and beer will taste different. Same goes if I eat something sweet or minty.

Also, freshness is important. I went to a sports bar this past weekend that had a stone ipa that expired in August. It wasn't horrible but it definitely tasted different than one two weeks off the bottling line.

Finally, most of the respectable craft breweries have their processes dialed in. Joe Schmoe nanobrewery might not be as spot on.

 

[oconnorshomebrew]

A lot of beers, especially from smaller breweries, can vary from batch-to-batch depending on the emphasis on quality control, that brewery's access to ingredients, and variation in brewing process. Things like how fresh the beer is and how the distributer/retailer stored the beer can also have a great affect on the flavor and aroma.

 

[grathan]

check your palette first. I buy 6 packs that taste different on different days of the week. Other things besides food previously eaten can affect flavor perception. Such as: thirst/appetite level, How many beers your drank this week (especially strong beers), mood, tiredness, even pouring a beer can affect flavor. Also your ideal beer flavor will change over time as well.

 

[bzwyatt]

I had a Budweiser at Black Angus once and I still remember it as one of the best beers I've had. It was early in my 'drinking life', but Budweiser has never tasted the same before or since. It wasn't the beer, but the pairing with steak and potatoes at that moment was delicious, to me. It must have just been a lucky pairing of food and drink with my taste and hunger/thirst at the time.

Even boring beers are pretty complex beverages.

 

[Hammy71]

It happens. Usually the smaller the brewery, the more likely you are to come across subtle (and sometimes large) differences in their brews. It's easier to blend 1000 barrels at BMC, and not so easy with 100 barrels.

 

[davekippen]

Our beer-holes are very mysterious and complex. Its much more about variability in our mouths than variability in the beer.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Taste buds can be different day to day. Sometimes your own beer wonlt taste the same 6 hours later.

One major issue in brewing is hop freshness and consistency. Besides storage and transportation, depending on your order your alpha and beta oils can change. Brewers will compensate for IBU's but the flavour oils are not so easy to compensate for.

Well, technically Megaswilleries can due to an army of lab technicians and other processes they have in place. But even AB Inbev has issues with brews tasting different, especially brewery to brewery. Though the differences are fairly small and most people would not notice.

 

[Phunhog]

Personally I think the variability can be a good thing. I don't know why we want/expect the same beer everytime....Anything "craft" has some inherent variability.

 

[SuperX]

Personally I think the variability can be a good thing. I don't know why we want/expect the same beer everytime....Anything "craft" has some inherent variability.

Phunhog, I agree, I think my title might be a bit under-stating the reason I asked. By variability I don't mean "this batch has a bit more hoppy aroma" variability, I mean "this batch is completely different from our flagship brand" variability... if you get what i mean

 

[SuperX]

Taste buds can be different day to day. Sometimes your own beer wonlt taste the same 6 hours later.

One major issue in brewing is hop freshness and consistency. Besides storage and transportation, depending on your order your alpha and beta oils can change. Brewers will compensate for IBU's but the flavour oils are not so easy to compensate for.

Well, technically Megaswilleries can due to an army of lab technicians and other processes they have in place. But even AB Inbev has issues with brews tasting different, especially brewery to brewery. Though the differences are fairly small and most people would not notice.

DEC, I hear ya but my own beers within a batch taste the same to me - even down to which bottles were put in the fridge at 2 weeks or 4 weeks. I wonder if like you say it is batch to batch inconsistency due to hops and hop substitutions?

 

[SuperX]

I had a Budweiser at Black Angus once and I still remember it as one of the best beers I've had. It was early in my 'drinking life', but Budweiser has never tasted the same before or since. It wasn't the beer, but the pairing with steak and potatoes at that moment was delicious, to me. It must have just been a lucky pairing of food and drink with my taste and hunger/thirst at the time.

Even boring beers are pretty complex beverages.

bzwyatt, good thought. I have experienced the same. I'm talking about you having that same dinner and ordering 2 of the same beers and one tastes totally different from the other.

 

[IL1kebeer]

bzwyatt, good thought. I have experienced the same. I'm talking about you having that same dinner and ordering 2 of the same beers and one tastes totally different from the other.

Lol maybe they gave you the wrong beer. It's happened to me a few times and when I let them know they usually give me a new one and let me keep the wrong one!

 

[NickTheGreat]

I know my batches have a variability between them, even if I do the exact same recipe. I also assume this is not a good thing, and something I need to work on in my brewing process. Keeping temp fluctuation down, do a better job of sparge temps, boil offs, etc.

So, no, variability in craft brews is not something they should be proud of.

 

[feinbera]

I think it's a matter of quality control. Intentionally evolving your recipes, having a dedicated line of "experimental" brews or a seasonal release that's a different improvisational riff from year to year on the same general theme is one thing, picking up a sixer that tastes drastically different from can to can or bottle to bottle is another.

This isn't something I've experienced a lot, but I have experienced it. The most notable time was when one of SF's local breweries had just switched contract-brewing/packaging providers for their retail brews, which is a time you'd expect them to still be dialling in their processes. Although, who knows, maybe they're still screwing it up; even at their best, their beers aren't any better than other local and regional offerings, so, I haven't exactly been motivated to find out.

That being said, born-on dates are key -- if you got a fresh bomber and a bomber that'd been gathering dust on a warm top shelf for a year and a half, there's nothing in the brewer's control to keep those bottles tasting the same.

 

[SuperX]

I think it's a matter of quality control. Intentionally evolving your recipes, having a dedicated line of "experimental" brews or a seasonal release that's a different improvisational riff from year to year on the same general theme is one thing, picking up a sixer that tastes drastically different from can to can or bottle to bottle is another.

This isn't something I've experienced a lot, but I have experienced it. The most notable time was when one of SF's local breweries had just switched contract-brewing/packaging providers for their retail brews, which is a time you'd expect them to still be dialling in their processes. Although, who knows, maybe they're still screwing it up; even at their best, their beers aren't any better than other local and regional offerings, so, I haven't exactly been motivated to find out.

That being said, born-on dates are key -- if you got a fresh bomber and a bomber that'd been gathering dust on a warm top shelf for a year and a half, there's nothing in the brewer's control to keep those bottles tasting the same.

I agree on the date thing, but I never can find one on most craft beers - is there some code or something the might use?

 

[bobmcstuff]

Small breweries over here definitely change the recipes based on availability. I presume it's the same in the states.

We have periodic hop shortages as home brewers. Nelson Sauvin in particular, also simcoe and citra quite regularly sell out - I guess that's the same in the US as well. Smaller breweries are in a similar boat and aren't as able to buy in bulk out of next year's crop like the big boys.

So, hops can vary between batches.

Obviously all the taste stuff people talk about above is probably just as/more important!