Flat 12 beer has too much head

It's been a couple of years ago, but I had a six pack of gushers of Pogue's Run and then followed that up with a bunch of gushers of Walkabout. I contacted the brewery and Bob got back to me pretty quickly. He hit me up with a free growler fill, stickers and personal tour. I went down to get my growler filled and dealt with one of their insufferable employees. I had apparently ruined her afternoon of sluffing off and she went out of her way to tell me that no one would give me a tour today. I hadn't asked for one and had just asked for the fill, but she wanted me to make sure to tell methat there wasn't anyone available and if I wanted one, then I would have to sign up like everyone else does.

 

Mind sharing the other Indy breweries you reference so I can avoid their beers too?

 

Most of them?

 

Hi Everyone. Apologies for the delay in response, but this thread was just brought to our attention. I currently work for Flat12, and wanted to pass on this statement from our current Director of Brewery Operations, Sean Manahan. Sean took over the position as of April 2015, and would like the chance to provide a complete explanation to you all. We certainly value every one of our customers, and owe an explanation for the problem.

As a growing brewery, in the past, we did have some stability issues due to the fact that we expanded very quickly, and perhaps were not ready for that kind of growth. Because of this, the beer was being bottled too quickly. This caused the beer to continue to ferment in the bottle, especially if kept warm on a shelf, resulting in foaming bottles. I do want to stress that there was absolutely no harm in drinking the beer, it just had not completed fermentation and therefore contained too much Co2. Not all batches were affected, but once we started to receive notifications, we were not able to recall all of the product as we have over 500 distribution points in the state, and had expanded regionally to 4 new markets in the past 2 years. We were able to recall certain shipments through Monarch, but unfortunately it was too late for some. We've completely revamped our process and implemented strict quality control procedures, and are completely confident that our beer is of the utmost quality if brewed in 2015.

Please see Sean Manahan's in-depth explanation below:

"As a representative of Flat12 Bierwerks, I would like to take this opportunity to respond to this thread and our past shelf stability issues. Yes, a majority of Flat12 bottle products had significant over carbonation issues. As “Theniz” correctly pointed out, the previous way we were handling fermentation was simply incorrect. We were trying to force the yeast to perform in a strict manner and by doing so the resulting beer was incompletely fermented leading to over carbonated bottles and diacetyl laden beer. However, earlier this year, we relieved those who were dictating these flawed processes and completely revamped our brewing procedures. Everything from the grain mill through to our bottling line was revisited and we developed a more sound process that has thus yielded a more sound product. Specifically, in regards to over carbonated bottles and diacetyl in the beer, our new process allows the yeast to dictate its own performance which has effectively eliminated these issues. By allowing the yeast to properly complete fermentation, there is much less residual sugar for yeast to continue to ferment in packaging. Also, by allowing the yeast to more thoroughly work and go through a secondary/conditioning period, alpha acetolactate is now properly being converted into diacetyl and then consumed by the yeast.

In addition to changing our processes, we have also implemented monitoring and testing of the products from grain to glass. Prior to these changes, we had no significant QA/QC program nor any objective methods of analyzing the product. With all of our changes, we are all very confident in the quality of the product we are shipping out into the market. However, despite these changes, our last hurdle is locating and removing old product that may still have issues. On behalf of Flat12 Bierwerks, I apologize for the any subpar experience you have had and we invite you to give us another try. Any product produced and packaged in 2015 is free from defect, and we are diligently working with our wholesalers and retailers to ensure that new and fresh product is replacing old stock on the shelves. If you would like to visit us at the brewery to try our fresh brews on tap or grab fresh filled bottles and cans, we’d love to show you our new and improved products and discuss the situation more if you have any further questions. - Sean Manahan, DOBO, Flat12 Bierwerks"

 

This is great to hear/see. My wife and I's engagement party was held at Flat 12 almost 3 years ago and everyone loved the spot and the beer. Over time, I had heard of issues with bottles and was disappointed, as when I lived close to the brewery and frequently visited it, it was always on point. Barrel-aged Pinko remains one of my favorite BA stouts out there, and I'm glad to see this issue has been resolved so Flat 12 can get back to where they were!