Night Shift Sours Infected?

I've noticed this with quite a few of their beers as well. The most egregious were the recent batches of Grove and Mainer Weiss. Both were borderline undrinkable. I ended up drain pouring all of the Grove bottles, although it seems like the Mainer Weiss has cleared up a bit now that I've given them time in the cellar. They both had soap flavored characteristics, and it could be a pedio issue.

 

It's possible that OP is very sensitive to diacetyl. Some people are more sensitive to it than others.

 

Haven't popped my bottles yet but I had the same experience with the berliners on tap at the brewery. The diacetyl was very present. Hope if I set my bottles away they might turn around...sounds like they have started already accoring to @codasnap52

 

A month or so ago I tasted diacetyl on Mainer Weisse I had on draft. It was faint, but present. The other ones have been fine, IMO.

 

My wife and I were at Nightshift a few weeks ago and got 8 different samples to try. We both agreed 3 were infected, including the Mainer Weiss. It tasted like butter and blueberries. We've both had bottles of Mainer Weiss before and enjoyed the beer. I wonder if they're serving it from the conditioning tank before it's ready to be bottled?

The other two beers were sours and had notes of cardboard and band-aid. Definitely flavors you don't want in a beer.

 

First off, sorry to hear you did not enjoy our Sour Weisse series. We work extremely hard to make sure every batch of beer is top-quality and enjoyed by the people who bought them. We never release something infected. We have dumped entire tanks and recalled bottles of beer in the past as part of our mission to only sell the best product possible. We now have a full time lab tech testing every batch of beer for possible infection (as well as other tests on each batch).

That being said, it seems diacetyl is often misinterpreted and has lately become a general catch-all for flavors people don't like. The Weisse beers are fermented with Sach yeast and Lacto. Neither strains typically produces diacetyl (unless we used everyone's favorite ringwood yeast, which we don't). The fresh fruit that gets added to the beers could have contained pedio (and other wild yeast), but none was intentionally added. For me personally, lacto beers often have a creamy mouthfeel. I could see people thinking that this creaminess equals diacetyl, but it does not. Someone else noted that some of the beers taste like yogurt - this makes sense to me, as lacto is the same culture found in yogurt, so will produce certain similar qualities in beer.

Generally, our Weisse beers have tended towards the more extreme end of sour, which some people love and others find too unbalanced. This year, we are tweaking our process even more to better control the PH of the beer so that they are more balanced. If you had trouble drinking a whole glass before, I'd suggest you give them a shot again this year. Our first two more balanced berliners are coming out tomorrow as part of our Year 3 party. They are really delicious and way more crushable.

Yes, at the old brewery we had been using open fermenters for the berliners and a few different batches of Somer and Mainer pretty much turned to vinegar. We dumped a lot of that beer, but some bottles tasted fine at packaging and later turned more vinegary (we recalled these bottles). We no longer ferment in open fermenters for the berliners. They are all closed stainless fermented now.

Our sour weisse beers are consistently rated very high and we drink them regularly to see how they are doing. We just poured Mainer Weisse at Hunahpu day and at Extreme Beer Fest and got very positive feedback from attendees and fellow brewers.

Appreciate everyone's comments here, both positive and negative - always great to hear how we're doing from the customer's perspective. Cheers all.

 

What beers were infected? We do not serve beers from a conditioning tank. All beers are kegged and bottled at the same time from the same tank.

 

Just for general edification, here are Will Meyer's comments on mis-identified diacetyl. Since there are questions about bottled beer, people could conceivably try the heating experiment he mentions.

 

I honestly can't remember. They were two my wife ordered. She typically likes sours so it was probably a couple of those. I got the IPAs and they were all great.

 

I had all 4 of the beers you brought to Huna day and was very impressed with all. Mainer Weisse was a thing of beauty.

 

I too had read the horrific Mystery Weisse reviews, and even spoke with a few people who had heard other horror stories through the grapevine - BUT I've now had 3 of the 4 bottles I purchased, and thought it was EXCELLENT. Seriously, thought it was absolutely delicious. Would 100% buy it again based on my personal experience.

 

I am clearly biased but I drank a Mystery Weisse on Saturday night with my wife and we both loved it. Thought it was tasting great. Good to hear you have been enjoying your bottles @WesFoxlove !

 

So very upset I missed out on the Mystery Weisse release. The description sounds like it would be the best of the Weisse series.

 

Recently opened a couple bottles of the 2013 Cape Codder Weisse from the cellar. Once they finished gushing like mad, the taste and mouthfeel were out of this world. Much more balanced than I had remembered from trying some younger Weisse varieties. Not sure if it was the batch, the time on the shelf, or changes in my palate, but great stuff regardless.

Looking forward to the newest batches!

 

I have had most everything NS has put out in the last year and I have yet to find an infected type beer. Now mystery wasn't my fav out of the batch of Future sours it was a good beer. I am not a huge mango fan so that is where the fault likely fell. They are doing a great job and sometimes you are not going to like what a brewery puts out. Doesn't mean you need to go on an open forum and bash them. Cheers NS and thanks for making some solid beers.

 

I think Ever Weisse will ever be my favorite....

...but I will probably give Mystery another shot. I'm actually pretty excited (I love continuous improvement), and look forward to trying all of them again (except Somer. Just not a fan of ginger).

 

Yeh, the 2013 batches have re-fermented in the bottle. If you have any more give them 24hrs or more to chill before opening and preferably open over a sink and with a glass. We opened a bottle last week to test them and it was very carbed but tasting great.

Somer is going to be essentially retired (although a small batch might be brewed). It's the least popular of the 4 Berliners we do so we are instead going to make more Ever Weisse this year. Which sounds like you will love. Actually brewing Ever as I type this.

 

I should also mention that as part of our lab program we are doing force ferment testing and monitoring the stability of beers in bottles. Our newsletter is about to go out and one of the berliner's Guinevere (an apricot berliner) that was going to be for sale tomorrow has failed our lab testing as it has been proven that re-fermentation is possible. While we are pretty bummed to have discovered that the beer could continue to re-ferment we are very happy that our lab caught the problem before it gushers occurred in people's home.

The beer tastes absolutely delicious so we have it stored chilled at the brewery and will be pouring it for on-site consumption. This way we can control its storage conditions and make sure no one gets hurt. I highly recommend trying some upon a visit to our taproom.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Brewers and breweries that are very open about their product and processes get more and more of my dollars. Thanks @masterob8!

 

When I visited taproom early on (both old spot and new spot), 90% of the time I would find myself tasting a soapy quality to the beers on tap. I always wondered if it was with respect to how the glasses were cleaned or something in the brewing process. My wife and friends always had the same reaction. Specifically for bottles, Grove and Farmers Duel were undrinkable and drainpours. It'll be interesting to see how Farmers Duel tastes now for some of you, since it's going back on sale at their anniversary party. I've also had amazing beers from NS, specifically Art 18. In fact, that's easily one of the best sours ive come across. I've noticed steady improvement when visiting the taproom as of late (last 4 months or so) and I really appreciate NS having the beers on tap that they're bottling. That gives me a chance to make a conclusion whether it's worth purchasing. Basically, if it's not on tap for me to taste, I won't buy it. With that said, their beers have steadily gotten better and I'll continue to make a visit. Cheers.