Thoughts on Infections

Well obviously, if you want customers to enjoy the beer the way it's intended and return for more, then you should pull it. Many aren't willing to do that though. So at the very least you should apologize first.. then refund (ie cut a check to) customers who are unhappy with their purchase and contact you about it. What you shouldn't do is tell the customer that, not only is there nothing wrong with the beer, but "we thought it tasted quite good. Everybody tastes things differently." That's a bit insulting, man.

 

Have you had one recently the Insanity is noticibly sour where there should be a bourbon vanilla note. Give me 2 mins I'll be back with bottle dates and all.

 

I don't know about a thread, but there was a lot of talk about Heresy when it came out.

I did put away a four-pack of Insanity without trying it, but some time over the summer there started to be talk about issues with that one as well. At the urging of another BA (@jzeilinger - thanks again, man!) on the WBAYDN thread I opened one up and could tell it just wasn't the same. The other three have been kept cool, but who knows where it is today.

 

I drank more than half a case of this date and it was good the first month or two(when I drank it)
Decided to grab another case, same date to age because Insanity holds up like a champ in past years.

Didn't even hold up until December 2014.
@jzeilinger was the first to point it and he was right.

 

What's there to discuss? Infected lagers are the hip, new thing?

Thanks for the warning OP, but I'm pretty sure that infected lagers are just plain unappealing to most lager-lovers.

P.S. For full disclosure, I'm a lager-lover, and the more "BORING", the better! I've had one intentionally soured / BAL-aged lager and hated it -- YMMV.

 

I got the "well sometimes you don't know what you're getting with barrels" crap from Swamp Head when I mentioned it. They knew it was sour (Knights of the Barleywine) and basically said tough sh*t.

 

same experience, except for the quantities. Its the exact same dates, stamped the same way too. I tried it last January and loved it, put a 4-pack away and had one this summer, I thought I was crazy for liking it in the first place, it never occured to me that it was contaminated. I still have a couple bottles, I'm glad I saw this thread because I had not heard any reports of contamination and was seriously questioning my tastes and the (starting) quality of this beer.

 

So, what the hell, I just opened an Insanity dated 12/17/13-

I got a familiar waft of aroma from arms length, but it wasn't the aroma of a BBA Barleywine. After a second it hit me...Rodenbach. Not a good sign. Going in closer, there is definitely a sour cherry thing going on, and then a lot of wood, but more like an over-oaked wine. There's some leather in there, a touch of toffee, and I'll be damned if there isn't some barnyard going on?!!

First sip- Twang!!! Nothing rich, and very little bourbon, finishing with a sour note. The flavors are still in the oaky wine territory, but now it's starting to become a little more specific- like a Pinot Noir that has been overheated. After the sourness dissipates on the finish I get the toffee and slight barnyard again.

Obviously, something has gone wrong. At this point, though, I feel I have nothing to lose and will wait and see where the other two wind up. It could actually be an interesting ride, even though it's not what I paid for.

 

I had to re-consider my curmudgeonly worldview in light of a couple of points:

1) I'm pushing age 50, and am probably dead-wrong on most things ("You kids and your hip barrel-aging programs and your 'Snapchat' and your food trucks and sushi bars on campus, Oy Veh~! ")

2. When it comes to Craft Beer, there seems to be at least two schools of thought:
A. "Little Guys" need to be cut more slack and supported no matter how many "off" batches they release to the public.

B. Little Guys starting out should be held to some modicum of quality control. Variation is one thing, but cleverly dodging the question of QC issues (or worse: the former coupled with a bad attitude to the customer) is something else.

C. This is much newer school of thought: "Batch Variation is an integral part of Craft Beers So no matter how 'off' the batch is, it will be a mark of differentiation within beer style and therefore indicative of a high-quality brew, no matter if it wasn't intended in the first place."

At any rate, the market (as always) will dictate whether a brewery will sink or swim.

 

Thanks @TongoRad I have had one in the fridge for a while now and I didn't want to have to pop one to prove it.(I actually dread it) You made me laugh with the twang adjective. I guess this would be a good word to use in future infection issues.

 

I'm 50, too, and solidly in the B camp these days.

Here's the funny thing- I have a friend who was brewing in Seattle in the mid-90s who was doing bourbon barrel stouts at his brewpub. But the thing is, he had total control the whole time to keep an eye out for this kind of thing. And that's how I saw these beers- as a cool brewery-only draught item. I was originally pretty surprised when I first started seeing them in bottles, figuring that infections would be rampant.

And then after many years I became pleasantly surprised that the brewers had figured it all out and could make a stable product. These past few years, though, I'm starting to think that maybe only the top guys have it figured out, and the others need a lot of schooling. This truly is playing with fire, and maybe most of these newcomers shouldn't be doing it.

 

What it boils down to is a brewery needs to have enough integrity to take a loss and dump it when their product isn't up par with what they wanted from it in the first place. Quality Quality Quality.
This is a barrel-aged lager, first images of this beer is a nice fresh Kellerbier unfiltered lager with a light hint of oak.
Was this beer supposed to be intentionally "twangy"?What barrels are they using? How long did it sit in said barrel? Why is it infected and not just oxidized?
If this beer was supposed to be "twangy" (god have mercy on their soul),then variations between the barrels should come into play but i would also think about blending to make a cohesive beer.

The whole "we were just starting out when we put these beers in barrels!" doesn't sit well with me at all. Just seems like a lazy response. If you are just starting out, don't invest in a barrel program before you have your own space.Then saying "don't judge us until we get our own facility"; then don't release a beer you don't want judged.

 

Had one last night. I bought a case total, a half case on two separate occasions. One dated 12/30/2013 and the other dated 01/09/2014. Have been drinking them all along and not noticed anything. That said, they have been refrigerated the entire time.

 

what is your bottled on and best by date? mine have also not been refrigerated, just chillen in my 60~ degrees light prof basement.

 

I really don't drink Heresy. At least I have not noticed any issues with the Blasphemy I have.

 

It isn't just the barrel aging. Too many are making sours iand ending up with infections in their equipment.

 

Edited the response to include dates. 12/30/2013 and 01/09/2014 are the bottled dates.

 

That would be real f*ed up if they chose to "dump" the infected batch locally and make headway nationally. I would actually make an effort to end Weyerbacher is that was so..