Hey guys and gals, first time/long time here. (New BA app won't work unless you are a member, I guess). Anyways, I've been to a couple breweries in West Michigan recently and have run into problems with tasting obviously infected beers on tap (green apple, butterscotch off-flavors, etc.). While it's disappointing, I generally don't make a big stink about it. Just curious what everyone else's thoughts are. Do you say something to the server/bartender (or brewer if available)? Do you think these places actually know they're serving infected beer and are trying to get away with it? Or is it usually just an honest mistake and they never find out because casual beer drinkers aren't astute enough to notice?
Firstly, Infected Beers and Flawed Beers are not the same. Secondly, the brewery/brewpub/taproom should pull you a pint of something else if you do not like your current pint, but i would be prepared to offer a better reason than "i just don't like it". Third, do a little per-trip research on your destination could save you and your pallet some issues. There can be reasons for the off flavors, brewers can creative folk, they could be trying to use up a surplus of malt from a seasonal that can temporary change the profile, they could be pumping out beer as fast as possible and their quality assurance program might of be a little lacking for that batch. long and short of it: Yes tell them, but do not say it is infected unless you are 99.9% sure it is ( like an unintentionally sour stout) just state the flavor of it you do not like and politely ask for something else, and don't drink 75% of before you pipe up about it.
I'd venture that the biggest reason for off flavors in tap beer is not the beer itself, but poorly/too infrequently cleaned beer lines. Either way, best to mention it so at least they are aware. And if you don't see a change, spend your money elsewhere.
this. also, as the other poster said, just note the flavors and how they don't correspond with what the beer is supposed to be. for example, one time i had captain lawrence porter on tap, and it tasted like green peas. i said so, and the bartender gave me something else. why did it taste like green peas? fucked if i know. maybe it was my palate, but i don't think so. maybe it's just a shitty beer (most capt. lawrence porters are awesome, but who knows, maybe a bad batch). maybe it was a dirty line. it wasn't infected, that's for sure. i mean, be honest. if you order an IPA and it's sour, say "this shouldn't be sour." no need to make stronger claims than that, and if it happens a lot, yeah: shitty bar. buyer beware.
A lot of it is definitely dirty draft lines. Michigan is a third-party state meaning that the bar has to hire an outside company to clean their draft lines, as opposed to Iowa where the local distributor cleans their lines as part of their service to the bar. I would be willing to bet many of the smaller bars in Michigan simply dont pay for their lines to be cleaned.
You are correct. My local has the lines cleaned every other week. Another place in town seldom if ever has the lines cleaned. You can guess who gets my patronage. The flavors you mentioned can come from poor yeast fermentation management. If they are trying to move the beer quickly through the process, the yeast may not be done "cleaning up" before the beer is moved out of the fermenter. Green apple can be acetaldehyde, buttery/butterscotch is diacetyl, and both of those are reduced by the yeast at the end of fermentation. Most small breweries don't have the tank space to let the beer set, so you get those flaws when the beer is rushed. If the green apple flavor is also accompanied by vinegar aroma, it is from an infection. Diacetyl can also come from an infection. If your pint is the first of the day ask for a fresh pour. If the off flavors are less then it is the lines as the beer has not been in the lines exposed to the bacteria as long. If the off flavors are the same level it is the beer.
^^this. I am not sure what the percentage of tap beer infection is the result of poorly cleaned lines, but I would bet my red money it is close to 90%.
recently, during PBW, we had an event featuring a local brewery whose lineup that day consisted mostly of sours/wild ales. now, we've had one particular beer of theirs on draft off and on over the past 2 months, so I was quite familiar with its flavor. that day, we had a keg of it on that was tasting fine and normal, but kicked early on during the event. a backup of it was put on and I sampled it (which I do with every new keg that goes on - I've had to un-tap 3-4 kegs recently for quality issues) and it had a undeniable butterscotch flavor in the finish - like sucking on a Werther's. never tasted a beer with such a textbook flaw like that, like it was spiked. would've been noticeable by anyone who had a glass of it from the prior keg... reps and at least one of their brewers was present for the event, and I know they were drinking their own beer and buying beer for customers, etc. nobody mentioned a thing about (noticing) it. i'd like to add, too, that one of their other beers (and their beer was on at least 5 lines for the event) had a similar finish. pretty apparent a few of the beers were rushed, or not finished/conditioned properly. in this particular, mostly uncommon instance, that was on the brewery. yes, dirty tap lines can and do affect the flavor of beer, often noticeable visually by foaming at the tap and flavor-wise through a dull, flat, dirty, and general "off" flavor in the glass. we get our lines cleaned every two weeks, so that wasn't the issue. personally - and I don't regularly discuss this issue with the other bartenders I work with anymore because, honestly, most of them either aren't as keenly on top of (or aware of) quality control in the first place or they (sadly) just flat out don't care - off flavors in draft beer can come from a variety of sources, in my experience. dirty lines are probably #1. dirty faucets can contribute a touch of evil as well. our line cleaner doesn't disassemble and scrub off the faucets, for instance - I've had to do that myself (don't get paid for it, either). it's time consuming, however, you'd be surprised and disgusted by what builds up on the internal components of a tap faucet. i cleaned the faucets at the previous place I worked at and some of the staff said they'd never seen anyone do that in the 2 years since the place opened. the sediment on the inside of some of these faucets looked like slimy, wet scabs. lo and behold, some of the beers poured better and cleared up. another issue I've noticed as well is if a keg has been taken off for, say, an event and put back on at a later date. the residual beer/foam that spills out of and off the coupler as it's removed and is left behind on top of the ball of the keg can sometimes mold, if not cleaned off, sanitized, and re-capped. most people have been skeptical or disagreed with me, but I've witnessed in my time a few kegs going really south because of it. i've personally cleaned mold off a tap ball with a wet, soapy rag, scrubbed with a soft toothbrush, rinsed thoroughly and sanitized prior to re-tapping a keg and poured off a sample and it's oxidized and olive-y and cloudy - happened more than once, happened recently as well. i'm not definitively saying the mold somehow pushed through the seal of the ball and got into the keg, but how else would you explain the dramatic change in quality? long story short, cleanliness and maintenance are big big issues on the bar's end. I myself always offer something else free to a customer if they taste something off, provided I agree that the flavor is in fact spoiled in some way and it's not simply a question of their taste and preference. I'll also steer customers away from a draft if I know it's particularly off. I have no problem doing that. I feel a great responsibility to do so. But it IS the bar's responsibility to do the proper upkeep and maintenance on their lines and have quality in mind at all times. Sadly, a lot of places don't care. It's just laziness, ignorance, and being cheap.
TIP: If you think there's a chance you might be the first customer of the day to consume a particular beer, step right up and ask the server/bartender if the line was drawn-off yet. The last thing you want is the beer which was sitting overnight in a potentially dirty line.
My friends and I went to a bar a few weeks ago and my friends wife got a Two Hearted on tap. Tasted absolutely awful. Almost like some kind of spoiled cream type smell with taste to match. When we mentioned it to the bartender he just kind of said "ok" and then asked what she wanted instead. He never poured a little to try himself or asked further about it, that was the end of the conversation. Pretty crazy that he didn't seem more concerned, there was absolutely something wrong there whether it was with the beer or the lines.
Beer is a food product that often falls beneath the purview of certain business proprietors. That an establishment would insist that any attention to beer lines and condition of beer is the distributor's responsibility shows an ignorance that is problematic. Serving good fresh beer is no different than serving good reliable sandwiches. Business owners should clean their own lines. There is an opportunity for many in multiple markets across the US to learn the art of draft beer and delivery, and selling it!
Never experienced this, but I've had my fair share of skunky tasting beers from what I presume are poor cleaning habits.
Make sure the issue isn't you, for instance, I was at a beer tasting, had an amazing beer, went back to it later almost spit it out, it clashed in my mouth with the beer I had just previously tasted. Once I cleansed my palate that first beer went back to amazing.
So after thinking about it more, I believe I confused an infected beer with unwanted byproducts of fermentation. Nonetheless, I agree with everyone who says it's dirty tap lines most of the time. Some places just have higher standards than others I guess..
Tasting butterscotch in a beer at a brewery happened to me once at a newly-opened brewery. I said something to the bartender who replied that "the beer apparently was rushed too quickly into the keg and out to the bar" so it sounds like he knows what the reason was (@hopfenunmaltz mentioned it above) and he immediately took it off line. (My glass was the first one out of the newly tapped keg for this new beer.) Breweries need to know when a bad beer is experienced by a patron (it would be nice if they discover the issue before the customer does) so they can learn a lesson from it, especially new breweries that would likely be out of business quickly if the issue is allowed to go on very long. They're taking a huge gamble to open a brewery so that we the customer can enjoy more beer options, so we should try to help them along the way.
Speak up! If you think there is something wrong with a beer, tell the bartender. (ESPECIALLY @ A BREWERY)
