What I am fed up with in Craft Beer.

What did you think of TBA?

 

Good reminder, I liked that one very much. Totally forgot about it. It had something different about it. Don't know how to describe it.

 

Tap takeovers

 

I thought Boogoop was a great collaboration.

 

Rig

Right, but it wasn't flat, just very cold. It's thicker when it's cold, allowing less turbulance to rouse any head. Pour it at an appropriate temp and it's fine.

 

You know what I'm fed up with?? Cool can and bottle art! F that noise. Stupid brain for being stimulated by colors and designs. I blame you artists everywhere!!

 

Treating beer like an indie band. "Oh, man. That beer was soooo good when nobody knew about it. Now the brewery is making enough for everyone and something's changed. I think they've changed the {insert water, hops, malt, adjunct complaint} in the beer. Won't be buying that one anymore."

 

That sucks that you had such lousy experiences. However, and I don't know this for sure, but I am willing to bet many others (including myself) would praise their beer drinking experiences at places he owned/operated.

 

why?

 

Thanks. I was referring to a specific subset of craft brewers, namely those that overdo classic styles and claim legitimacy based on homebrewing competition accolades.

And, yes, these brewers could certainly benefit from taking (and passing) an exam or two at places like UC Davis or Weihenstephan instead of relying on the feedback of so-called BJCP "judges" for identifying off flavors...especially when the bigger, bolder interpretations they tend to brew much more easily mask off flavors.

I had the privilege of talking to the owner/brewmaster at Schlenkerla/Heller-Trum about his experiences studying at Weihenstephan. He told me that the students are tested by having chemically derived off flavors added to a sample of Pilsner, and the students were required to identify not only the flavor, but also the chemical compound causing it. You don't pass, your studies are effectively over.

And finally, yes, now that you mention it, I for one would have a whole lot less to be "fed up with" about U.S. craft beer if there were more people out there like New Glarus's Dan Carey, who worked for A-B -- or even just more people who had visited the world's great brewing nations and consumed the classic styles in their original setting -- brewing beer.

 

It's not suspect if you look beyond the brand of beer he is recommending and look at the style he is suggesting. Sure he is promoting the product of his partner, but he could have said DFH Festina Peche, or DFH WWS, or DFH Sahti. But he didn't he said their DIPA. So while it's a shameless plug for his partner, it's also a clear indication that Batali thinks IPA's go with us pasta fagioli. In other words, if you substituted a bottle of torpedo in there it'd still be awesome and Batali would still approve of it (but when the camera's are running, yeah, he's going to push Calgione's stuff).

 

The HELL! you say!

 

My buddy visited and had their Chestnut Mild. He really enjoyed it.

 

Whoa, he calls a bad beer a "sinkpour" (bottom of the 2nd to the last paragraph).

Even when they don't like a beer, the Brits still sound classy.

 

People getting annoyed that an all brett fermented beer isn't exciting or funky when fresh.

 

The only thing I am really fed up with in the craft beer world is the IPA/DIPA falling off mantra. It has just reached such a ridiculous level. I understand you don't want to drink an eight month old IPA, but there are people that complain if they don't have the beer straight off the bottling line.

 

Basically what I'm fed up with is chasing and hording . I'm fed up with hearing about a release and it being sold out in a matter of hours once its on the shelf. Now I know there are good BAs that are getting the beer to drink, but I have to imagine there are also those that come up and get 5 or 6 bottles to either horde or sell on the secondary market.

I'm fed up with the fact that on the odd chance I may actually find that beer that was just released the store its at thinks its gold and wants double MSRP for it.

I'm fed up with 15 dollar + bombers...yep I'm a cheap bastard, not cheap really but broke lol.

I'm fed up with beer I cant get in my state, ie the 3 tier system. Why can beer just come from the Brewer to the store or bar. Would be so much easier.

I'm going local, there is plenty of great beer right here for me to drink that's priced reasonably that I don't have to jump through 15 hoops and fight everyone else to get a hold of. My new goal is to get a growler from every brewery in my easily accessible area.


Collabs are marketing..they know people will buy them nearly blind. Shorts Freedom of 78 was fantastic though.

Yeah Im there too.

Tap takeovers with off the shelf beers. Im ok with them if something shows up that I would have otherwise not gotten to drink outside of the brewpub.

Ive drank 8+ month old IPAs/DIPAS that were just fine. Hell I swear Liberator somehow gets better, not worse with age.

 

Undercapitalized breweries that expect consumers to subsidize their hobby ($8 IPA bombers, no thanks) and think that numbered batches is an acceptable form of quality control.

 

This is truth you speak.
Also... Giggity.

 

Assuming a beer or style is improved by soaking it in a barrel or stuffing the bottle full of hops.