How often do you get a bad batch?

Pretty much. The tasters are trained to pick up off flavors, as well as know the profile of what they are supposed to be tasting. I'd figure a brewery the size of Anchor has such a procedure.

 

I had a peruvian morning that was infected. But it was still really good.

 

35 years of drinking and thousands of pours later, never had a bad batch. I've never poured anything down the drain but the finished "processed" beer in a biological manner.

 

I've had a few: the infamous Central Waters Peruvian Morning, Peg's/Cycle Rare(R?) Dos, O'so Bourbon Barrel Night Train, and I swear I had an off-batch of Wytchmaker from Jester King last night (it was almost totally flat, perfectly clear, which opposes almost every review of it, and tasted of rotted apple skins).

 

I just opened up a 400 pound monkey that has no hop flavor to speak of. The reviews I've read state some hop spiciness and bite but this one is a bottled biscuit. Supposed to be fresh till nov 4. So I guess a bad one.

 

Had some pretty foul tasting bottles, although without dates, hard to tell what is bad vs. way past its prime.

 

I got a bomber of Avery Kaiser a couple years ago that tasted Belgian- it had banana/clove flavors going on, and sure as hell wasn't what I expected. I haven't tried it since, but there had to be something wrong with that bottle. This year, I got a sixer of prost marzen that was a diacetyl bomb. It was nasty. I also got an old bottle of Gale's Prize Old Ale that was flat and tasted like a Flanders Red. Maybe that's what it was supposed to be like. I don't know, but it was gross and down the drain it went.

 

I have only had one bad batch. It was last year I believe and it was a sixer of Marshall McNellies Pub ale, and it was super carbonated. I would pour an ounce in a pint glass and the glass would be full of foam. I ended up just opening a bottle like an hour before I wanted to drink it, and I just left it open in the fridge to lose some of the carbonation. It worked ok, but I haven't bought any Marshall since.

 

Occasionally, but that's all just part of the beer game.

 

Had a few for sure, plus whatever got deemed shitty beer while ticking. Most recently had a gose that tasted like creamed corn vinagrette. Sad since with the hype behind this beer I somehow expected something better than sour dms.

 

Problems were widespread at a few breweries I love a few years back, and problems since rectifiied, but the beer I had with problems ranged from absolutely delicious, in the case of infected Abyss, to a gushing horror of diarrhea and vomit aroma, in the case of Short's Cup a Joe.

I still pull out an infected Duck Rabbit Rabid Duck every now and again to educate myself on what infection can do. Impressive destruction of a great beer, gotta say.

 

I'm curious what you found "off" about Finestkind, especially on a frequent basis. It's always been one of my "go to" beers and I've never had a bad bottle. I'm not trying to be confrontational, I'm just curious given that your experience is so far removed from my own.

 

I have to say, I find it amusing that all that remains from this awful sixpack is one EMPTY bottle.

 

Too often. I've had true off batches (confirmed by the breweries), no carbonation, over carbonation, had a bottle of a supposed uncarbonated beer explode, infections (most bad, a couple good) huge swings in quality batch to batch, had beers by White Birch...The full spectrum. It's sadly just part of the craft beer world today. If you haven't had bad batches, you have either been absurdly lucky, or can't discern differences in quality from past experience.

 

Dont know that ive ever gotten bad bottles, but dfinitely bad pints. Its happened twice this year. Both times they were local beers, one from a large large nationwide chain beer place with many many taps, and once from a local brew pub just last week. The first was phenolic and chemically, as if the beer had an infection or the lines had not been cleaned. The second was unfortunaly either a diacetyl problem or some oxidation.

 

I've had two. One was a Gritty McDuffs bomber that had an infection that imparted a Band-Aid flavor to the beer (drain pour). Surprisingly, the other was an Orval. It might have been really old or something, but it had a strange bitterness and earthy/leather/dirt taste that I just couldn't get past. I drain poured about half of that. I couldn't believe that at $5.99 for a 375 ml bottle that it could be that bad, especially given the BA reviews. I later bought another Orval just because I continued to see nothing but rave reviews for it, and alas, that bottle was wonderful.

 

'Course, he could have opened one after the other, tasted it, and drain-poured!

 

Yeah, I thought of that, but it kind of ruined the joke, so I chose to ignore the possibility.

 

Not necessarily, it just makes the joke more complex -- like not wanting to stop hitting yourself on the head with a hammer because it feels so good when you stop.