Garrison City Recipe Changes

Discussion in 'New England' started by AshlandNacho, Aug 16, 2016.

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  1. AshlandNacho

    AshlandNacho Initiate (0) Apr 14, 2013 Massachusetts

    Question for the GC afficiandos in the group.

    I stopped by there mid July for the first time in maybe a year and had some samples and picked up some cans. While all there beers were good-to-very-good I picked up this odd slick/oily mouthfeel and some sickly sweet aftertaste. Especially in their single hope Citra IPA.

    The last I had GC's beers I didn't recall this - Both Citra and Khaos I had and noticed this.

    My questions are:
    - Am I crazy? Has anyone else tasted this with their beer
    - secondly, anyone who brews know what causes this? I honesty can't pin this taste to any other IPA I've ever had.

    Prost!!!
     
  2. Jbrews

    Jbrews Pooh-Bah (1,800) Aug 6, 2013 New Hampshire
    Pooh-Bah Society

    I've picked up the smoky flavor with Citra and some other off flavors with GC. I am never one to say the whiny (consistency is an issue) but I had two crowlers I did not enjoy and didn't buy more. They do make some great stuff but I agree there are some off flavors here and there. I addressed this with them and they were super cool about it.
     
  3. Sweatshirt

    Sweatshirt Initiate (0) Jan 27, 2014 New Hampshire
    Deactivated

    There had been off flavors and a scotch tape taste in all thier beers after they brewed that garbage brett beer. I stopped buying anything from them. Far too pricey to invest in a place that doesn't know how to clean thier equipment.
     
  4. Auror

    Auror Pooh-Bah (1,641) Jan 1, 2010 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    Previously they had identified water filter issues and chlorinated water (I think) issues, but Brett contamination was never an issue (chlorine/water treatment chemicals evident in beer gives a similar flavor to the phenols from Brett).

    Slick mouthfeel and sweet sound like diacetyl, but I've never experienced that from them, but that can be batch dependent.

    I do often find their "NE-style" pales/IPAs to be on the fruity/sweeter side, even for the style. Not sure if malt choice, less hop saturation, etc., especially if I try something like Trillium right before whose pales have a resinous hop quality (without any bitterness).
     
    SunDevilBeer and AshlandNacho like this.
  5. EnronCFO

    EnronCFO Pooh-Bah (1,969) Mar 29, 2007 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Months late to this and the post on BA was deleted, but apparently half the founding team departed in the spring of 2016 due to mental health issues. Not sure who was doing the brewing, but based on recent Facebook posts, it seems like it was a tumultuous time. And aligns with these posts of off-flavors emerging.
     
    Drinksonme616 likes this.
  6. Drinksonme616

    Drinksonme616 Initiate (0) Nov 30, 2016 New Hampshire

    Kate Rogers
    Sunday at 1:27am
    I can not truly express how much the post I'm sharing disgusts me. A brewery, exploiting a cause for their own personal benefit. The benefit being promoting their own female brewer and denying the existence of their true cofounder, 50% owner and brewer Gabe Rogers.

    You see it's told to me often, by former customers and industry friends that Kate Rogers, and Gabe, "moved on". I'll keep this as professional as I can without slinging mud or going into anyone's personal business but my family's. We did not move on.

    Just 12 days after opening Garrison City Beerworks Gabe's brother died from an overdose of Heroin on Christmas morning. As incredibly tragic and traumatizing as this event was my husband was brewing three days later. This event along with other incidents triggered Gabe to "change". In the 20 years I had been with him I had never seen anything like the mood swings, self hatred, inflated ego, or depression episodes that I was witnessing. He was talking so much and so rapidly that I developed severe anxiety. I was terrified. Not of him, but of what the hell was wrong with him.

    I called doctors, I reached out for support from family, I confided open hearted and honestly with his business partner who I trusted with every fiber of my being. I felt like I was screaming from the rooftops on deaf ears for help. There were no answers, no help.

    Three psyche evaluations, an arrest, and a filed missing persons report led me to the most difficult thing I've ever had to do. I hospitalized my own husband involuntarily.

    I worked during this time, I took care of my three kids all while feeling like I was dying and emotionally struggling with the most severe anxiety that I had ever felt. The kind of anxiety that stole my sleep, my appetite, curled me in the fetal position daily while crying and hyperventilating. I was on the brink of breaking myself, but with the support of family, close friends and Gabe's business partner I was able to hold my head just above water.

    My ridiculously smart husband got himself released against medical advice in acute condition not taking meds. This was April of 2016.

    Gabe's business partner contacted Gabe, went to his mothers house where Gabe was staying and had him sign a document to redeem liability in the LLC. Not dated, not witnessed, not notarized. Game over!

    It was explained to me by doctors that Gabe had been triggered into a manic high. My husband was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 with psychosis and delusions. I was told his recovery would be the equivalent of healing from a major car accident in a full body cast.

    The light at the end of the tunnel. Yea, there is one. I saw a lawyer. Gabe was coerced, manic and suffering with psychosis and delusions. He did start taking the medication and he's able to be a dad, husband and my best friend. Every day is a new day to learn, move forward and attempt healing. My family deserves it. We've been through hell.

    A true cause for Garrison City Beerworks to support is one that actually afflicts them. Fighting the Stigma against Mental Illness. I recently poured beer at an event specifically for this cause. No sign of GCB there. Gabe's former business partner knows what Bipolar is, knows the havoc it can cause in a family, he experiences it with a close family member himself and yet this is the route they choose. Not to support their Cofounder, his wife or three children, but to steal his business and dreams and fire his wife a mere month later. I'll sue for that too. Malicious intent in firing an employee is illegal as well.

    Thank you to those who've reached out with kind words, support and well wishes. They mean the world to us. Feel free to share our story. There is hope and treatment for life altering mental illnesses. We will be an example of that.
     
  7. Drinksonme616

    Drinksonme616 Initiate (0) Nov 30, 2016 New Hampshire

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  8. SunDevilBeer

    SunDevilBeer Pooh-Bah (1,945) May 9, 2003 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    Odd, I asked about GC beers at a NH bar this weekend & got a strange brushback, perhaps they knew the sad backstory. I had some GC a while ago & really liked it.

    A "slick" mouthfeel is a hallmark trait of diacetyl - & most likely sloppy brewing techniques, which seem to coincide with the unfortunate illness of the brewer & his departure.
     
  9. Drinksonme616

    Drinksonme616 Initiate (0) Nov 30, 2016 New Hampshire

     
  10. Drinksonme616

    Drinksonme616 Initiate (0) Nov 30, 2016 New Hampshire

    The brewer hadn't touched the beer since March. He was hospitalized at the end of March. The diacetyl reviews came in around July through September according to Untappd reviews.
     
  11. Sweatshirt

    Sweatshirt Initiate (0) Jan 27, 2014 New Hampshire
    Deactivated

    I was getting plastic and scotch tape flavors in thier beers according to my untappd starting october 2015 and hearinf similar stories around that time as well. This is not a new issue.

    That said the whole situation seems tough and it is a crappy thing to be going through for everyone. I hope everyone comes out the other side of this okay.
     
  12. Auror

    Auror Pooh-Bah (1,641) Jan 1, 2010 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    The plastic flavor was apparently a result of the ozone machine they had. Ironically it was an investment in quality and sanitation normally that only large breweries use, but either from improper use or poor fit to their system (not sure the reason), the cans/crowlers they were sanitizing with the device ended up getting nuked with ozone (possibly broken down into O2) and developing those nasty ashy, plasticy, medicinal phenols.

    This has been fixed for a while and I haven't had any off flavors from any of their beers for months now. They make some of the best stuff in NH.
     
  13. papposilenus

    papposilenus Grand Pooh-Bah (3,208) Jun 21, 2014 New Hampshire
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    I was describing it as 'smoldering wires' but scotch tape is good, too.

    My LBS is always pushing Garrison City at me and telling me that it's better this time, honest, for sure. I usually resist but, a couple weeks ago, I tried again. The smoldering wires taste was gone but, according to my notes, it tasted like 'public lavatory hand soap.'
     
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