Anyone know why Jester King

I learned some time ago, when your opinion differs from others on here, they will look for a reason you are wrong. They don't "stalk", they just KNOW they will find you slipping up somewhere on the internet.
If I am really enjoying a beer, I will give it a 5. It isn't beer advocate. The ratings on untappd are to recommend beers for others to try, nothing more.

 

I think JK beers are inconsistent and that is why the ratings vary so much. I think I am biased because I have had so many fresh from the brewery and local pubs. I have only sampled Thrash Metal from the bottle. I love JK.
I also agree with an above statement that Black Metal was better in its original form. I was blown away the first time I had it early on at the brewery....have yet to duplicate that experience.
Why I do love JK? They really sit apart from the pack and hold their own. Beers are unique, creative, and well executed. Every beer I have ever had from them is identifiable as theirs too, they have some distinct qualities that always show up beer after beer.They also put on one hell of a party.

 

I almost must agree with this. Jester King's bottling is sadly very inconsistent. I almost always feel their beer tastes better on draft (or even better from a cask).

I definitely found Thrash Metal way more enjoyable on tap compared to from the bottle. I haven't noticed it as much with the sours, and since all of their beers are bottle re-fermented, they should age well.

Either way, I still enjoy trying all their stuff, and going out to the brewery is a ton of fun.

 

I have only had regular Black Metal a couple times and it was good, and different. It wasn't an A+ beer though.

 

I personally am quite alright with the variance in bottles for now. I respect that they bottle condition everything in order to get the best taste possible. Their are many variables that come into play when trying to get the right amount of carbonation in the finished product. The yeast strain that they've developed and what souring a beer does the yeast/sugar comes to mind first. I do expect that they make improvements on the carbonation levels though. The brewery is only a year old and is advancing at a very rapid rate.

 

If their locals are 90+, what's the problem?

 

It's called Marketing. All it takes is for word to get out about a fantastic new beer and then everyone just HAS TO HAVE IT!! Black Metal hit the hype train early on, and while it may not be in the top ten percent, it got close behind it for a moment. I myself have made over a dozen trades including Jester King. The way they have been spitting out new brews, and many funky and sour styles that don't really get play in TX breweries, it just keeps the train-a-comin'.

 

The awesome thing with the instance of JK, was the people of TX really got word out there and spread Jester King around via trade! People often are surprised upon finding out Jester King is only 1.

 

WS;SP

which team are you on?

 

(Higher) ratings should ideally be independent of how sought after the beer is. If anything, it should be, and generally is, the other way round. Higher ratings (might) make a beer sought after.

However, then you may ask that why are they sought after at all. Well, TX is not as rich in beer as some other states. And many people want to try different beers, right? So why not try (one of the) best of TX?

 

Thanks for the words of support. I don't disagree that we've had inconsistency issues with bottle conditioning, especially in the past. The Commercial Suicide recall speaks for itself. Some of the batches of English yeast Wytchmaker and Black Metal were too highly carbonated. Our recent release of Boxer's Revenge is a little on the low side in terms of CO2, even though we're very proud of that beer as is and were excited to release it (we aimed a little low in terms of CO2 because we anticipate it picking up additional CO2 during aging from continued fermentation in the bottle).

We do feel however that we've hit a bit of a sweet spot over the last three or four months in terms of dialing in our yeast and sugar additions at bottling. We've been pleased with the conditioning of Noble King, Le Petit Prince, Farmhouse Wytchmaker, Farmhouse Black Metal, Mad Meg, Das Wunderkind!, Beer Geek Rodeo and Thrash Metal. Has every batch of each of these beers been flawless in terms of CO2? No. We're continuing to this day to make tweaks to our bottle, keg and cask conditioning process. But we're feeling pretty good about where we are in terms of our process and results (I feel like I'm asking for something to go way wrong by saying that!) We'll certainly continue to naturally carbonate all our beer because we enjoy the character it lends to the finished beer. Again, thanks for your words of support.

Jeff Stuffings
Owner/Brewer
Jester King

 

...just keep sending your bottles to HEB at O'Connor and 620 in Round Rock Jeff...I'll keep buying 'em!

 

Just bought a $115 worth of mad meg and weasel rodeo today at Specs and the mad meg was better than expected, keep doing what your doing. I can't wait to try the weasel.

Some of these chumps don't want no help and they ain't gonna get no help.

 

Every trade I have made in the past year has involved at least one bottle of JK. I have one trading partner that is pretty much strictly JK for whatever he wants to offer. It's only available in TX...or has been until recently and it's good stuff. People want what they can't have...I know I've traded for many beers for the very same reasons.

 

People give breweries a ton of grief over inconsistency that is very undeserved. Beer is not an exact science, especially when bottle conditioning. Craft beer by design isn't one perfect batch after another IMO. JK must know what they are doing, because I favor them 90 percent of the time over other local brewers.

 

How is it undeserved? If a company puts out a sub-par product, then how do they not deserve the resulting customer response?

That is true, but so what? Thousands of breweries around the world are putting out consistent, high quality products. If an individual brewery does not do this, then it is their fault.

I love the majority of the beers that JK puts out. I think they are a fantastic brewery and a great addition to the TX beer scene. I bought 4 bottles of Commercial Suicide because of the experience I had with their previous beers, and I ended up drain pouring all of them (unfortunately before the recall :<). I am still buying JK beers, but no longer 4 at a time until I am convinced that their consistency issues have been fixed. To exempt a company from their mistakes is just blind fanboyism.

Major kudos to JK and Jeff for admitting the issues, realizing their customers were right to call them out on it and doing a recall, and then talking about how they are getting fixed and working on continuous improvement. This is one of the reasons JK is a world class brewery, and I plan to continue to support them.

 

Thanks for your kind words. We're happy to exchange the four bottles of Commercial Suicide. If you're unable to bring them back to the brewery, please contact us directly.

- Jeff

 

What makes them undeserving is that they are very honest with the problems and they are working hard to improve it, brewing is a learning process. It isn't as if they have ignored a problem for years like some breweries do. I also think people tend to hold JK to a higher standard because they often appear to be Texas' one shot at a world class brewery.
Besides, they are 1 year old. In time, I can only imagine some of the stuff they will be putting out.

 

QFT! They are only 1 year old and doing some already great brews. Give'em a couple more years and Tx might be creating some highly sought after brews and maybe a whale or 2.