Odd Side Black Friday Bottle Release

For starters, I'm saying 4-5 months because we are two days away from being 5 months from the BBIMM release and 4 months from the Hipster release. And 4-5 is easier than typing 3.5-4.5.

But I guess what I'm getting at is that I personally have a different standard for my general experience-based expectations and the point at which I feel that the brewery should be on the hook for their product. Even though I know many beers--especially in certain styles--will be good 6, 9, 12 months after bottling, I also get that beer is "alive" and will change in unexpected ways, whether we're calling it an actual infection or not. To me, the fact that some very high-profile and competent breweries have had issues over the past several years underscores that there is a risk involved, and I'm not willing to say that the risk belongs 100% to the brewer after a certain amount of time has passed. I suppose for me, that timeframe is ~3 months.

I get that it's different for others and I'm not criticizing those who are looking for a different outcome here.

I'm not sure FBS is terribly relevant, given that it doesn't spend time in barrels, which seems to be a pretty big wildcard factor.

A post was made recently in the GI Bourbon County Refunds thread that I think does a pretty good job at getting at the fact that it's not nearly as cut-and-dry as you're making it sound. The gist of it is more or less that short of actual lab results showing an actual unintended yeast in the beer, you don't really know if that's the cause of the issue or not.

While storage conditions have an effect, the ratio of people reporting problems to those that aren't is so small that it's not crazy to think there's something else at play here. None of my bottles have had issues and none of them have spent time in a refrigerator outside of the time to chill down a bottle I was about to drink.

But at this point, I've talked about it long enough. If people want to stop supporting Odd Side because of their response or the issues people have experienced with their own bottles, then they should. I'm not willing to write them off yet.

 

I just look forward to a lack of lines for BBIMM, Hazels & Hipster next year!

 

We can dream. I doubt this will make a dent in it though.

 

I wasn't aware of this - has this been documented somewhere? I don't doubt that a certain number of people that complain about this stuff will still go to the next release, but saying 8 out of 10 people that actually say they are done with a brewery will still show up seems pretty specific.

 

To your points here, the onus is then on the brewery to clearly state their recommended enjoy by date for all their beers then. Remove all ambiguity. As mentioned in posts above, perishable food is clearly dated. If a brewery wants to take the perishable food angle, then date your product accordingly. It should not be up to the consumer to guesstimate; it should be the brewery which knows their beers best. I've not seen OSA specifying any sort of enjoy by date prior to these releases yet after these reports have come in they jump to a perishable food defense to absolve themselves. How convenient.

 

There is too much good stuff out there for me to go back on my word. I'm done with Oddside unless something more is done about this issue that at least creates some level of satisfaction. I'll also make sure plenty of people know about it as well.

 

Whether the production overlapped or not likely wouldn't matter - if the culprit is an unintended yeast strain or something, some of them can definitely hang around a facility for quite a while between batches.

 

I fall kind of in the middle on this issue, but if you follow this "lack of product-dating" logic along to its endpoint, it would imply that nothing without a best by date should ever "perish" or change unfavorably. Could you come to OddSide in 10-15 years because a bottle you'd been cellaring that whole time tasted like shit? It never said on the bottle that it wouldn't last that long, right?

 

I can certainly see that argument. And maybe they'll start doing it now. Or maybe they'll start pasteurizing. No idea.

As frustrating as this is for consumers, I'd be shocked if it's not 10x as frustrating for them.

 

8 out of 10 obviously plucked out of air to make a point but that will prove itself damn close to legit at the next Odd Sides release. Beer is definitely not a necessity for myself and our shelves are overflowing with options so I love being able to pick and choose who I feel is deserving of my hard earned cash. Hell I wasn't even burned by this instance and was a huge fan of Odd Sides for the last few years but difference is if they don't make good to the consumer I can guarantee you will never find a bottle of theirs in my pile. Curious to see just how many others will truly take the same stance but I think many of us know exactly the answer.

 

8 out of 10 seems extreme. I'm betting it will be more like 4 out of 5.

 

If they are going to argue, "well it's been 5 months since packaging so you're on your own" then let customers know this prior to the release with a best by date. You can't just come up with some value after the release that seemingly coincides with reports of off flavors. So if another beer happens to impart off flavors in 2 months time, it's fine to come back and claim it's a perishable food and it's been well over a month since release?

 

Yeah, I was just yanking your chain a bit...I knew it was just picked out of air. I am a bit similar to you for this instance in that I haven't been burned personally, but I do not care at all for how they have handled this. I had been considering making the trip up for Black Friday this year, but my desire to do that now is next to zero. I also had planned on grabbing some of their beers that hit Chicago recently to give a bump of support, but my desire for that has decreased as well. I'm not saying I'm done with them completely, but their reputation has taken a big hit in my book.

 

Putting a "best by" date on the bottle would be nothing but a CYA on the brewery's end. The consumer will ignore it. So are they going to start putting best by dates on their event flyers so you know in advance how much to order? Who is going to ask while standing in line for hours what the best by date is and adjust the number of cases they buy? Kia guy going to say "oh shit, better only buy 26 cases?" It's not going to happen. There are MANY barrel aged stouts, with adjuncts or without, that will stand the test of time aging in a cellar. Any that can't last more than a few months should at least be acknowledged by the brewery or deemed a lower quality product as compared to other similar products, or in this case even their very own same product of previous vintage.

 

So much this. People even suggesting a few months is acceptable for these bottles to turn bad is ridiculous.

 

The problem Oddsides has now is they recalled Morningwood. They admitted a problem. Now, they say there are no problems with their other barrel aged beers. Could the tart problem be the same problem with all of this year's barrel aged beers? When I had several of their 2014 barrel aged beers after 6 months, I didn't taste tartness. This leads me to believe something obviously happened. Lots of people will show up for next year's releases. Lots of new money in the game. I doubt I will show up., however.

 

You might not have seen it, but I believe it was mentioned upthread that the Morningwood had issues pretty much immediately, whereas this problem seems to have only begun popping up much later. I don't know if that indicates a different source of the problem or not.

 

A bug probably got loose when they brought their sour program online. Similar to what happened with the Bruery when all their sh*t started getting infected, and what contributed to them establishing an entirely different facility for their sours.

 

Was it really though? I could be totally wrong here and don't have time to dig old posts, but if I remember right the last bit of MW that was sold was "found" in OddSide's cellar stash, or something like that. IE, it wasn't a fresh brew, but something left over from a previous release. That's why it was extremely limited sale. So if it had been sitting around the brewery for a little while, they experienced what all of us are experiencing now with Hipster.

 

Boom....found it. October 27 post on Odd Side's Facebook. That MW had been sitting around much longer than acceptable for a perishable food item. No wonder the sour was immediately noticed.
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Saturday starting at noon we will be releasing the following:

Bourbon Barrel Imperial Mayan Mocha Stout
No Limit- (there is plenty of this beer, no need to rush in line to get a case, stay and enjoy a pint first)
$5 Bottle, $17.50 4 pack, $100 a case

...
Bourbon Barrel Citra Pale Ale
No Limit
$3 Bottle, $10 4 pack, $50 case

Joker of Tarts - Blueberry Sour ale
No Limit
$8 500 ml Bottle

Morning Wood - Bourbon Barrel Imperial Coffee Stout
(we had some excess aging over the past year and some excess labels, so we bottled a limited about)
There is a Limit - 1 case per person
$5 Bottle, $17.50 4 pack, $100 a case
For those of you who miss this beer, we are saving some for Black Friday. And for those wondering about Black Friday we will have a small amount of Hazel's Nuts in bottles that day too.