"Does American craft brewing have a quality problem?"

I think there are some brewries that are mediocre and have quality control issues for sure. But still, there is a lot of good craft breweries out their. There is no issue when it comes to finding good beer. You just have to be a bit educated by doing research, asking questions to other fellow beer fans, and sometimes that means trying things you don't like or trying things from breweries you are not sure about.

 

It's kind of hit and miss too, often, even with the established group. I would go so far to say that no two beers are ever really alike, both for QC and other reasons, not all of which are attributable to the brewery. To some degree one expects this, it is the nature of the artisan experience. Also, the average palate of most people, even the craft drinkers, tends to be fairly forgiving. I know someone who regularly orders a beer that IMO is, more often than not, oxidized (papery smell and taste). I sometimes ask him, how is it today, and he always says, "oh fine" He can't recognize the fault, which means it isn't a fault for that group out there. I've noticed this with other faults discussed in the thread, people often can't recognize them.

 

You bring up some good points I will say. This is why I enjoy having these conversations. I never get offended. And your comment it's apart of the artisan experience is spot on. Sometimes when you get something hand made with passion, it woont be the same. i get that. You know, I fee like my palate is pretty sensitive but you are right in the sense that some craft drinkers might not detect these things and their palate is not yet evolved. At the end of the day though, I feel like everyone is going to have a different opinion on this subject and it's still a grey area. Maybe in a few years it wont be.

 

[QUOTE Maybe in a few years it wont be.[/QUOTE]

Could be. But I think it is the nature of it when dealing with constantly emerging small enterprises. Of the biggest crafts, SN is fairly reliable and clearly this played a role in its success. Rarely have I had a bad beer from them, even a cask version of SNPA which was available at a local festival was in perfect condition (and it was a killer beer, very English in style in fact, a 10 out of 10).

 

I think breweries are pumping out beers regardless of quality and just banking on the "drink local" movement. They expect people to drink their mediocre beers because they are brewed near them and forego a better beer because it's from another state/country.

I also think there are many brewers that don't really care about the whole sanitation process and this is bringing on massive amounts of infected beers.

 

I believe they have a "cheapness" problem which has led to a "quality" problem. They all seem to use quality ingredients but refuse to skim or blow off the kraeusen during the early stages of fermentation. If it's not cheapness, it's ignorance of biology, both of brewing and human senses. During early fermentation the yeast population grows very rapidly and produces a froth on the top of the beer which contains fusel oils which contribute to "beer headaches", excessively bitter hop resins, excess yeast, spent yeast and other things which contribute to hangovers and headaches. This frothy foam is called kraeusen. If it is skimmed off during brewing, the resulting beer will be much smoother tasting (bitter but without the harshness) and easier to drink and appreciate the subtleties of the concoction. Every micro-brewmaster that I've ever talked to about skimming the kraeusen seems to know what I'm suggesting but rejects the idea because he will lose some of the beer (usually about 5%) in the process. I suspect they may find they need to use more hops when brewing this way because they are counting on the harshness of the hop resins to provide some of the bitterness. Charlie Papazian does a great job explaining the process of removing the kraeusen and the reasons for doing so in his book "The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing."

Finally, people have different DNA which gives them different taste perceptions. Some folks are way more sensitive to bitter than others. It's quite possible that people reading my comments can't perceive the harshness in American Craft Brew IPA's vs. British IPA's. There is an elegant and quick demo done in most high school biology classes using PTC (Phenylthiocarbamide) paper to determine if a person is genetically classified as a "Taster" or "Non-taster". The paper comes in a set of test strips that look like pH paper. A taster puts the paper on his tongue and is instantly repulsed by the bitter taste that affronts him. Usually the taster must rinse out his mouth or eat something to rid him of the wretched taste. A non-taster can place the paper on his tongue and leave it there indefinitely. The difference is amazing. It might be interesting to try this test with beer drinkers and then have them taste different brews, some where the kraeusen has been allowed to fall back in to the brew and some where it was skimmed off. If there is a strong correlation perhaps the industry could begin to calculate the beer drinkers they are alienating by being cheap and then realize just how much being cheap is costing them.

Incidentally from wikipedia:
About 70% of people can taste PTC, varying from a low of 58% for indigenous peoples of Australia and New Guinea to 98% for indigenous peoples of the Americas.[4] One study has found that non-smokers and those not habituated to coffee or tea have a statistically higher percentage of tasting PTC than the general population.[5][6] PTC does not occur in food, but related chemicals do, and food choice is related to a person's ability to taste PTC.[5][7]

 

Go ahead. Climb up on top of a commercial breweries regardless of size fermentation vessel and try to do what you suggest.
Good luck with that.

 

NoDa Hop Drop'n Roll is a great example.

 

Most brewers need to stop using the term "Saison" ... I usually run into messes that are simply fermented with a Belgian style yeast. With that said, most brewers should not attempt to brew Belgian style beers until they have a firm grasp of what Belgian beer is all about.

 

For the most part there is a lot of good beer out there. I think breweries often go through growth phases where quality issues come up - expanding too fast, adding new equipment, introducing new brands, etc. Any change introduces the possibility for quality issues. Small operations that are stable can avoid these issues and larger, regionally and nationally distributed brands either reach a point where they have worked most of the bugs out or they go out of business.

I think the industry has to address the issue of stale, out of date, mishandled, skunky beer. AB got where they are today - OK where they were 5 years ago - by being fanatical about quality from the top down, insisting that their beer be refrigerated from the factory to the store, culling old and out of date beer off the retail shelves and taste testing beer from each brewery to make sure it was up to standards and exactly thee same as the beer from every other brewery. The craft beer industry needs to reach the point where any one of us can go into a store and be assured that we are buying a fresh, well made, and well handled beer.

 

@pat61, I think you stated a salient point of: “I think the industry has to address the issue of stale, out of date, mishandled, skunky beer.”

This is the ‘crazy aunt in the attic’ aspect of the brewing industry.

We occasionally have folks from the industry chime into BA threads discussing the importance of beer freshness to beer drinking enjoyment.

Cheers to @sierranevadabill, @Peter_Wolfe, and others on this topic.

The problem with the multi-tier beer distribution system is that each party sometimes points fingers at the other party(s):

· The brewery will state that the Wholesale Distributors are ordering too much beer at a time

· The Wholesale Distributors will state that the Retailers are not making sufficient and proper orders for beer

· The retailers will state that the customers are ‘fickle’ and are always looking for the ‘next new thing’ vs. purchasing old standbys

· Etc.

The fact that there are so many old and stale beers on retailers shelves is a systemic problem and consequently a tough nut to crack. This might be a good topic for the Brewers Association to address?

Cheers!

 

You are absolutely right - too many are fermented with the wrong yeast or with the right yeast fermented at the wrong temperature. There is a lot more to it than throwing a bunch of crap into a bucket and praying for the best.

 

yepper, but they always had 1 IMHO...

of all my so called locals, all of them make beer about half the time that is worth paying for.
of course the defenders will say I am too negative, but since beer taste is subjective, its my 2 cents.