Odd Side Black Friday Bottle Release

They could stop blame shifting (ie "our beer tastes fine, it must have been how you stored it") and even offer some sort of reimbursement quietly to those parties that have contacted them.

And no, not one of the first, just confirmed what other were already saying.

 

Playing devil's advocate here for a minute: there have been plenty of people here noting that their bottles taste fine. The same is true of Untappd--there are a few isolated comments about sourness, but the vast majority of check-ins don't note any kind of signs of infection.

Isn't it at least possible that the bottles they have sampled ARE tasting fine? It sorta depends on how widespread the problem is, because they probably aren't going to go just cracking open cases of beer--they're going to sample a few.

 

of course mokka munt is fine. I just said that to get some of you to actually drink your beer.

 

You are making the assumption that people have NOT offered to bring their bottles in, an incorrect assumption. I have no doubt that if kept under refrigeration this beer has a significant shelf life as it would ****** the growth of what is likely a wild/unwanted yeast strain. This does not appear to be a bacterial infection, as some may suspect. I've said enough at this point and am going to try to be an observer in this thread, to "see how it develops".

 

I'm not assuming anything. All I pointed out was that Odd Side may not have found any issues with the bottles they've sampled at the brewery. Bottles over which they have had control.

Whether their argument about storage conditions is fair or not, offering to bring in bottles doesn't really help put it to rest.

For what it's worth, I'm not denying there is an issue. I have friends whose opinion I trust who have reported off flavors. I'm just trying to put myself in Odd Side's shoes--I'm sure they are trying to find that balance between going overboard for what might be a very isolated issue and not being responsive enough to their loyal customers.

Nicely done.

 

A I suggested above, perhaps quietly working with the people that have reported issues to them via email may have been, in hindsight, the best way to handle this?

 

It has come to our attention here at OSA that there are a few patrons that are unhappy with the way BBAIMM is cellaring. We strive for quality in all of our beers. All of our Imperial stouts released this year met our satisfaction upon release, and our current cellared beers still do. Except the Morning Wood, which we immediately took full credit and accountability for after its release. We are a small craft brewery (using many nontraditional ingredients) that does not filter or pasteurize our beers. Beer is a perishable food product and its cellaring life is not guaranteed unless otherwise stated on the label. These few issues with BBAIMM have been brought up now, 5 months after packaging. We will not be taking any action regarding this issue. This is a debate over flavor not infection and how flavors change or fade over time. After 6 years in business as a tiny brewery, we realize we cannot please everyone, we hope you understand. However, we do the best we can and keep striving for excellence. We sincerely hope this will not deter you from remaining a loyal fan.

 

Curious, your canned email response sent out today contains the following comment, "This is a debate over flavor not infection and how flavors change or fade over time."

Would your position change if a third party lab detected unwanted contaminant yeast in this beer? Proving that it isn't a debate over flavors changing over time, but actual infection?

 

Anyone friendly with a lab tec?

 

The problems with BA Mayan became public before the beer was released for 120 days. Seriously? Your product is not shelf stable for that long? So this time line they are stating is not accurate.
It's more than a few people having problems otherwise why comment in a national forum? The local West Michigan Fbook groups are positively buzzing over this as more bottles are displaying a sour/tart character as time goes on.
Oddside did not immediately own up to Morningwood problems though they have brewed an exchange batch for folks.
The number of bottles of BAIMM that they sold at the brewery was huge. It's my opinion they are not fixing this because they want to transfer this tremendous financial burden to their customers. Case discounts, no limits. They sure seemed like they wanted us to buy a lot of it?
Blaming the customers for their failed products is reprehensible. Alot of Michigan and probably Chicago people are stuck with a beer that is bad and going to get worse. I was a big Oddisde cheerleader and sent their beer all over the country. Can't trust them now.

 

I am not, but I will gladly sample any remaining BBAIMMS you may have.

 

All 2014 BBA Odd Side beers are still tasting amazing. Most 2015 BBA Odd Side beers are getting reports of sourness.

I'm pretty sure all anyone could expect this far from the release date is an acknowledgement that something is up. Wild yeast or bacteria from their sour beers has probably gotten into the BBA beers and Odd Side is blaming the customers for not drinking it fast enough. Unreal.

 

Well, I guess instead of driving up to Odd Side for their Black Friday release this year, I can stay here and focus on another BBA beer release that doesn't have these kind of issues...oh, never mind.

 

It's a huge stretch and is purely speculation, but sadly, this theory might hold water. If they knew the beer was contaminated with a rogue yeast strain, why distribute it at all. Handing over control of the beer to the distribution chain could accelerate the rate of spoilage (sitting in warehouse, sitting on warm store shelves, random environmental conditions, etc.) Sell it off as fast as possible without any financial ties to their contracted distributors. Again, purely speculative.

Would this beer really sit on shelves that long? Not likely. But, some stores like to hold beer back, and release it at random times or have drawings with other high profile releases (ie. KBS, BCBS, etc.) Selling it all, or most of it, direct to consumers shifts a considerable amount of risk away from them and passes it directly to the final consumer.

Hang on, I think I just saw Elvis riding a unicorn....be right back.

 

I am sure this has been discussed but does anyone know what the base beer is for BBIMM, Mokka Munt and Hipster?

 

I believe it is Chocolate Koffie Stout

 

On the one hand, you're using the fact that they've commented here as evidence that the problem is widespread, but on the other hand, there have been several comments in here decrying a lack of response from Odd Side. It looks like they are damned if they do, damned if they don't.

As far as the actual scope of the problem, I'm not sure witch hunts on a FB forum present an accurate picture. To me, something like Untappd, where people are checking in to the beer in real time, is a better survey of how widespread the problem is (even though I know that limits our sample size to Untappd users). If you go back over a month on Untappd (so prior to your 120 day timeframe), the ratio of reviews that mention something "off" (whether it's infection, metallic flavors, sourness, tartness, acidity, funkiness, etc) to reviews that don't mention anything of the sort is less than 10% of the check-ins. As noted, that's far from a scientific sample, but it's less anecdotal than forum comments. At the very least, it seems to line up with the idea that the scope of the problem isn't big (yet--maybe it will get bigger with time).

I think the idea presented earlier--quietly taking care of the people who reached out to them to mention an issue--is a good one, but it's not without problems. People who get taken care of that way will mention it to their friends (much in the same way the rumors have spread like wildfire already) and I don't think it would take long before they are handing out compensation to people on a large scale, and without any sort of guidelines in place.

To be honest, I'm glad I'm not the one making these decisions, because there is no perfect solution. It's not as easy as the "hey, just refund everyone's money/recall the beer!" strategy that some have suggested. Especially for a smaller brewery like Odd Side. As evidenced in this very thread, owning up to it and spending time/money compensating people doesn't even earn them much goodwill--we're here speculating about Odd Side knowingly pulling one over on customers a mere months after they just did the right thing. Speaking of which, using their brewery-release tactic as evidence to support that theory is ridiculous imho. Especially since BBIMM *did* see ultimately see distro.

TL;DR - I think people are overestimating the breadth of the problem, but can understand why some are still frustrated. If people are angry enough to stop buying products from Odd Side, then that is their prerogative. I'm not to that point, even if I discover infected bottles in the few I have left.

 

Brew a make up batch . Bring x bottles in, get x bottles back cheaper than giving $ back. Tap room credit? These things have flaws but it's a start.

 

Well I'm glad colossal oversight tastes just fine

 

For now...