Bar etiquette question

@MighHighBrewer & @beertunes, I was under the assumption that diacetyl was strictly a product of fermentation and didn't realize it could happen outside a poorly run fermenter. I stand corrected.

I suppose a dirty line is a poorly run fermenter...

 

I get that. I would never write a negative review when I didn't specifically ask for resolution.

I'm just saying that a $6 beer isn't anything to get worked up over. If the server wants to take care of it fine. If not, fine too.

It's more for me personally, I doubt that 9/10 I'd be able to tell if a beer was truly infected. It'd be more likely that I just didn't care for the taste. In that case, I would never EXPECT the bar to take it off my bill.

This senerio happened to me at Black Acre in Indy...My buddy ordered a beer, don't recall which one, and he didn't like it (he's kind of a noob drinker likes BMC and sticks to wheat beers), I told him I'd drink it, but I didn't like it either. So we ordered another round and let that one set. The waitress asked about it and we told her neither one of us cared for the style. She took it off our bill. Big points in my book. (I think I even added the price of the beer to her tip), but since it was a case of us just not liking it, I wasn't going to send it back or ask for a refund.

 

Like AstronautMikeDexters way of handling this. Different situation, sitting at a WF and guy walks over and orders a smoked beer off the menu, takes one sip and then demands his money back because the beer sucks. Don't be that guy

 

What others have said. It's not an issue of "I don't like this." It's actually a bad pour and that reflects both on the brewery who made it and towards the bar serving it. A good bar should sample what they are serving before they serve it and also to know better than to serve infected beer, and a good bar would apologize profusely and take care of the issue.
If it's off, and you know it to be so. Do not hesitate to say just that.

 

For me it depends very much on the description in the menu and the server. If I know what I am being served that is on me, if not, it is on them.

A recent experience at a higher end Chicago place really pissed me off - they had an in house beer that a local brewery had made, and described it as a bourbon barrel aged porter - menu description was all about vanilla notes malt and roasty flavors, sounded good so I ordered it. It came and was tart and definitely had barrel infection issues. I mentioned to the waitress and I sent it back - it was clearly an infected barrel.

I get very annoyed when beers are mislabeled - if they had listed it as "refermented in the barrel with wild yeast" I can at least infer that it will be tart - this very much felt like a bar passing off a bad barrel as intent...

 

Several years ago at a bar in New Orleans, I ordered a Heineken draft. I have no idea what was wrong with it, but it was WRONG. I simply told the bartender very politely that something was off. He tasted it, gagged a bit, and not only did he not charge me for it, he took that keg out of service immediately. Just be polite. It's not like the bartender/waitress brewed the beer.

 

Bottom line is..you are a paying customer..if you paid $1 or $100 it doesn't matter..it's not like your saying I just don't like the taste of this..if it's infected,say something..you paid for a product and if it's defective then they should either refund you or give you another in its place..and I think most places would do that.

 

If it where me in the same situation, I would have looked up the brew on BeerAdvocate to see if anyone else had the same experience. If the beer was not listed, then it would have been a new beer to add to the BeerAdvocate database. So, I guess my question to you is, this beer you encountered, whats the name, whats the style, and is it in the BeerAdvocate database?

 

I've always politely said something if the beer doesn't taste right. If the bartender says that is what the beer is supposed to taste like, I pay for it and move on. If they realize something is wrong then I helped them and they usually gratefully offer a free pint.

Occasionally I know something is very wrong, but the bartender disagrees. I had a raspberry sour a couple months ago in a flight, all the other beers were solid, but my friend and I both agreed after one sip of this one that it tasted like cough syrup and the brewery might have tossed in some brett in an attempt to salvage a bad batch. When we spoke with the bartender she said it was "too tart" for a lot of people. We were a bit dumbfounded because it didn't taste tart at all (unless you consider Nyquil tart), but we didn't argue with her.

 

sounding like a broken record.... but you can bring it to the staffs attention politely but of course a good place will handle it appropriately.

The other thing you have to realize that some people are more susceptible to diaectyl and other off flavors than others. Somebody else in the bar may drink that beer and may not even perceive it, including the bar staff and will be perfectly fine.

 

Here's what you do....Spit it out all over the bar, and exclaim in a loud voice "Holy christ, this tastes like shit"

Sorry had a SC redneck bar moment

 

Hey Airman, we're not talking about drinking Bacardi breeze in your favorite Affliction shirt...we're talking about beer....p.s. GO NAVY!!!!!

 

^^^^Zima

 

Ha....Zima....with jolly ranchers inside!!!!!

 

I mean...

Why ask questions like this on here?

I mean...

Shit...

(Shaking my head)

 

A quiet word should be enough if you regard the beer as faulty. Many good bars will replace free of charge a beer you simply don't like (unless you had a taster first )

 

I would say this is the most common off flavor from dirty draft lines. Pediococcus growing in lines can throw off Diacetyl and lactic acid giving beer wonderful buttery popcorn and/or sourn flavor. I wouldn't blame this on the brewery but more likely that place needs some line cleaning.

 

I've only had one infected beer to my knowledge, could be more who knows might account for liking or hating certain beers. Had a tart sour cherry taste to it, to be honest it wasn't bad at all, not as the brewer intended to be sure, but it wasn't much different than a cherry stout might taste like.

 

The last time I had the opportunity to do so, I spoke to the bartender who served me about an "off" pour of a popular brand of milk stout. They were cool with it and thanked me for letting them know -- they also took the tap handle out off.

Of course it's best to be very polite about it, but you should let 'em know if and whenever you can.

 

I know what line cleaner tastes and smells like, I would immediately bring it to the servers attention - quietly, but firmly identifying what I tasted. Off flavors? Bad lines? I would just order another beer and say I didn't like it and pay for it anyway. I only go good places so this doesn't come up off often, not in over a year. But at the shorty-shorts places with too many damm tvs that my co-workers sometimes drag me too? Yeah, all these things happen to beer in those places, in my experience, so I order bottled.