What beer are you drinking now? #4547

Good morning,
this is the beer I drank quickly with colleagues yesterday before going home from work.
We didn't go to a local beer bar, but since I had to drive I preferred to have two beers rather than two glasses of wine.

Beavertown Brewery (London, ENG), brewery owned by Heineken Company (Amsterdam, NED) - GAMMA RAY - American Pale Ale (5,4%).

This is perhaps the most iconic reference of a brewery that in 2022 became completely controlled by the multinational Heineken, which had already begun to intrude on the project in 2018 by purchasing shares.
Too bad... because this brewery (the toy that Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin had bought for his little son) has given great satisfaction in the past with well-hopped, tasty, easy-drinking but at the same time not banal beers.
33 cl can (€5 from the pub fridge).
On the bottom of the can: "Packaged on: 29/10/2024 - Best before: 29/07/2025".
In this industrial version of GAMMA RAY, everything has faded (at least that's what it seems to me): on the nose, less fragrant aromas of tropical fruit (mango, passion fruit) and ripe citrus (ripe orange, grapefruit, citron), in the mouth the same bouquet is found but the taste is less decisive and invasive, as well as the citrus finish that leaves a very barely noticeable bitter trace, not like the one that comes to mind of GAMMA RAY from the past.
The only thing that is the same as before is the label (in order to - I don't want to say deceive - not to make things easier for the customer who has no interest/useful time to dedicate to the "gossip" of craft beer, especially foreign beer), everything else sails on much more watery notes that, in my opinion, make this beer the (new) bad copy of the previous GAMMA RAY.
It seems more like an English Pale Ale (and also rather not well made: bland, watery...) than an American Pale Ale, as it has always been.
I would like to point out that I would have written these words even if I hadn't known about the acquisition, because the beer is recognizably different (and qualitatively worse - always in my opinion) compared to the pre-2018 version.
It reminds me, even if they remain different beers, of the path that overwhelmed the PUNK IPA and the historical references of Brew Dog, where corporate and corporate events have had an impact (and how) on the products.
Probably all this is rewarded in terms of economic balance, but by doing so - as far as I'm concerned - you have stopped addressing customers who are aware drinkers, to focus on those who still wander in the limbo between industrial beer (always drunk) and craft beers (new cultural trend), seeking a compromise between the two poles and ending up proposing a "Crafty" product, in fact I doubt that those who buy this beer in that place know that they are not choosing a craft reference, quite the opposite, they will be convinced that they are drinking a craft beer when in reality they are absolutely not doing so.
I'm left with fond memories of a beer that no longer exists.





Sláinte !
Cheers !