New Brewery - Bad Beer

I'll probably still give any local a second chance.

 

I'd go back, because as with most new ventures, there ARE growing pains. I'm not smart enough beer-wise to know the ins and outs of defective beer(s).. only what my nose and taste buds tell me. I do expect the staff and/or representative to be receptive to my comments/questions regarding what I would believe to be an off-putting brew.

I've read a few replies to this post stating that some breweries did NOT have very good batches during their infancy, yet went on to become top-notch breweries. That's enough right there for me to go back a 2nd or 3rd time.

 

D.
In Denver this is a pretty common occurrence. Places that are founded by people with their hearts in the right place, but have no business running a brewery.
At one point I would have just shrugged and given them a few months to straighten things out. Now I just can't be bothered. There are literally 100 choices within an hour, so I'm going to need strong word of mouth to make me go back. Some have absolutely turned a corner and are rocking it. Most are still on my no fly list.

 

Actually about to retry a new place myself in the next couple days. Beers were just a little off when I went on opening weekend. Today is their 1yr anniversary and have heard good things from people who also said it wasn't quite ready in the beginning. Looking forward to it.

TL;DR - Try a brewery/pub/etc at least twice with a good chunk of time between to get a true feel if they are keepers or forgeters.

 

I equate this somewhat to going to your kid's 4th grade play. If you go in not expecting a lot, and you're there to be supportive, then it's all good. It will only get better, but it might take a few years.

 

I'm not buying and drinking beer to be charitable. There's a learning curve attached to opening a new brewery? Tough shit. Do it right or you shouldn't get a dime. Bad beer should never reach a customer.

 

Absolutely up to you whether you sample early or wait until they're established, but yes there is a learning curve in any new endeavor. In the food and drink business, you do initial market research, but end up adjusting after you test your original market assumptions. You think Stone, Founders, or any of the other big name breweries hit the ground running?

 

The last two breweries to open in town (Gibbs 100 and Preyer Brewing) came out with very good beers from day one. I don't remember ever having a truly crappy beer at any place, except for once or twice where dirty lines were the problem. I did mention it and have not had a problem at those places since.

 

For real, its more about the food for me if the food is bad ill go back at a later time. i can always find a beer i like.

 

If I try all of their main lineup and do not like their product I will not return no matter what.

 

I won't hold some sort of undying hatred of the brewery, but with so many options I'm unlikely to be heading back baring hearing they've cleared up their issues or if there is something else to draw me back (such as their beer being horrible but their pizza is fantastic so I might go back for pizza).

 

Ken Grossman said the first batch, stout, was fine. The next 12 batches were dumped until they got the yeast aeration requirements figured out.

 

Based on the success/non-success of places in PA - you need professional experience for success of a new brewery.

 

I will always give them another try. They are new and still learning and it takes time to progress with quality and tastes

 

Fair point, and I've seen this mentioned quite a few times, but I think that's oversimplifying things a bit. In my opinion, there are pretty obvious and relevant differences between cooking a plate of food and brewing a batch of beer. (And to answer your question, yes, actually, I do give restaurants a pass at first. I was at a new beer restaurant recently and still didn't have my food or a single beer literally an hour after ordering both (and it took about 25 minutes after we sat down before we even had a server come over)--that was true of half the table (yea, half the table did get food and beer.. the fact that the server didn't notice only half the table had glasses and plates in front of them was mind boggling). It was the worst service I've ever experienced. In fact, the worst restaurant experience I've ever had, bar none. But we'll be back at some point to give them another chance once they've figured things out.)

But, anyways, I've said what I have to say. Don't have much more to add. Reasonable points all around, I think. Enlightening discussion, all!

 

New restaurant start ups are notorious for having issues for the first few weeks, especially if they are doing anything even semi-ambitious, and I generally won't patronize them until they've had some time to work out the kinks. Post those first few weeks if I try the place and the food and/or service is bad I'll say so and at that point it depends on how they handle it. If they are honest and say, "we're sorry, we are working really hard to correct these problems and we'll comp you this meal", I'll probably try them again. However, if they are at all weaselly about acknowledging their problems and not making a significant effort to make the customer happy, I'm done. The only way I would revisit the place is if I hear they have fired the former head chef and they are now getting very positive reviews/word-of-mouth. The same standard applies to new breweries.

 

For my own situation, there's too many breweries / beers now adays to continuously support local breweries that don't provide you with either a pleasant experience at their establishment or don't provide you a good beer drinking experience, regardless of the issues.

I tend to cycle around to all my locals periodically (revisit each one every 3 months on average), but there is 1-2 that just don't seem to be improving after a few years in business, so I'll probably nix them from my rotation of brewery visits / sampling their beer. A few new breweries are opening that will require some visits by me. I only have so much time to commit so have to pick and choose. I'll choose the new/unknown everytime over the tried many times and not that impressed.

 

I can drink almost any beer so it would take extremely vinegar like diacetyl off flavors to keep me from going back. I would also come right out and them it's bad.

 

A lot can happen to get open, and when you are a tiny team of people wearing a lot of hats that have probably never been worn before. Little things can become big details in that journey, and making beer is just one tiny part of the picture. It's nice to be able to hit all guns blazing, but every thing has its learning curve and a lot of mistakes that become a part of bad beer are a direct result of that, and those little details.

 

We're under no obligation to pay for someone else's learning curve. Charge a premium price and we customers should receive a premium product. If the beer is noticeably off from the get go I question the brewer's judgement. If flawed stuff continues to be served I question the owner's motives.

Either way I've learned to stay out of a kicking mule's range.