Infected Bourbon County Barleywine 2015

Glad to see there has been no deterioration of quality since AB/InBev took over.

 

I heard from industry sources Goose Island was claiming the infection in Coffee was due to the coffee. This was prior to release. Seems less credible now that there is apparently an issue with the barleywine.

 

Because there are so many infected batches of Bud but smaller breweries never have infection issues? Sucks they might be infected, but until the source is known it might be unfair to blame AB/InBev. It isn't like there are a lot of batches of infected Bud Light on the market, and I can't imagine they made money dumping 2/3 of the coffee.

 

Replaced with what another bottle that may or may not be infected ?

 

And Goose Island is AB/InBev.

 

And the microbes that attack beer don't give a shit who owns what brewery.

 

Cracked mine open about a week ago and it was fine. I actually wish I sat on it longer; still a little hot.

 

sadly i had to trade for a coffee and it was infected... i was pretty pissed since i had been really looking forward to trying and i offered a great beer as part of the trade, but really.. what am i going to do , sh!t happens. We poured it down the drain and opened another beer. My fingers are crossed tho that my BW isnt infected as well.

 

Can happen to any brewery, if anything the money In Bev can back its breweries is immense, I'm guessing they're not trying to short cut or cut costs. Just bad luck here, I'm sure they're less than pleased to have to be dealing with this.

 

i didnt like the BW this year as much as previous years, but it wasnt infected.
I do have another bottle and i planned to sit on it for a while...

 

AB/InBev is all about cutting costs. Carlos Brito, the CEO of AB/InBev is renowned for cost cutting.
"Carlos worked under Marcel Telles, a partner of Lemann and learned the art of cost cutting. Carlos would later be known for being extremely accomplished as a cost cutting executive..."

http://todaysexecutive.blogspot.com/2014/10/carlos-brito-ab-inbev-ceo.html

 

And yet the current employees at GI report an influx of resources and increased freedom to do their thing. With the movement of flagship beers to other sites they are more free to do the stuff they want to do. Furthermore there have been some who left and some who came on board.

But no signs yet of "cost cutting" that is associated with cheapening the product. How much longer do we have to wait for that. Seems like 3-5 years would be more than enough time.

 

I feel bad for anyone who gets an infected bottle, for all the quality control mechanisms they had in place, when it was released, and so on, this is something that should not have occurred.

 

Sooo, was Mr. Brito also behind all the other infected beers at the other breweries over the years? Maybe he snuck in and infected the beers while no one was looking? I mean, ABI tries to use its power to get more shelf space, just a short jump to breaking and entering into rival breweries and fouling their beers. Whattaya think?

Or looked at another way: Were all the other infected beers in the history of beer a result of cost cutting at those breweries?

Or is this just a convenient way for you to tilt a little harder at your windmill, ABI?

 

Somebody poked the bear. You never poke the bear.

 

OTOH if they try any of the crap Short's pulled when they had the infection problems (presumably not related to Mr. Brito's cost cutting), i.e. blanket denial and no refunds or redress for anyone, I will be part of the crew recommending boycotting them.

I still have not put a Short's beer to my lips since then.

 

There is certainly a bit of windmill tilting. And I have to admit that I am enjoying the fact that there are apparently severe problems with AB/InBev's flagship "craft product."

However, the CEO is renown for his ability to cut costs. In fact that is the main reason that he is now CEO of GI's mother-company. My response was certainly appropriate to someone stating "I'm guessing they're not trying to short cut or cut costs."

I believe you would agree that an infection is certainly a Quality Control issue. QC is a department that is always ripe for cost cutting. Just saying..... Only time will tell why this situation occurred.

As to infections at other breweries. It is unlikely that Mr. Brito broke in and sabotaged those beers. More likely than not, it was poor quality control on the part of those breweries.

And despite of all this influx of resources, Bourbon County has it's first major infection issue.

 

Had mine NYE and it was fine, very tasty beet

 

Sure, and depite lots of care and attention and no ABI, Victory, Bell's, Lost Abbey, Flying Fish and dozens of others have had similar issues with no ABI. Ever hear of "coincidence?" As you say time will tell. But I also disagree that Quality Control is the first place that costs are cut. Its just the first place where the general public may notice it and often lots of other cost cutting has taken place behind the scenes. Often times cost cutting is to eliminate unnecessary costs.

If you want to face down an enemy, it helps if you understand its real weakness and strengths not those imagined or based in speculation.

Edit: BTW, on what basis do you day its the "first." How do we know there have not been others that were less widely publicized because GI was neither as big nor owned by ABInBev?

 

For someone like myself who bought the full range of BCS this year, but has not run into infections like this before... Does the company (Goose Island/AB-InBev) do anything in these cases if someone were to contact them? Or since beer has living creatures in it (those delicious little yeasties) is it one of those "oh well, that's part of the risk" sort of thing?