New Brewery - Bad Beer

I voted for tolerance. But new breweries have to understand that with an average of 2 new breweries opening everyday, QUALITY is the only way to make it past their seed money.

 

I voted for option B, but within reason. If I were to say, get a flight from a new brewery and every beer had flaws as far as off flavors, then I probably wouldn't come back until (maybe) they had resolved those issues. But if only one or two of the beers had quality control issues like that and the rest were promising, I'd give them some time to iron out the kinks and try them again in a few months.

 

Can't you just pay your micro workers a bit more to help with performance issues?

In all seriousness, I appreciate reading your thoughtful responses. Thx!

 

It's understandable that there will be a learning curve for the reasons that have been mentioned. The bottom line though is whether or not I like the product they sold me. If the answer is no for whatever reason, I'll probably spend my money somewhere else.

 

B.5 Tolerance for the learning curve. I may or may not come back.

 

If I don't like their beer I'll give them a few months and try it again. If they don't improve in that amount of time I'll give up on them and they probably won't be there after that. Its a tough business and there are so many places that make great beer!

 

Voted C. But I have been within the realm of all 4 responses.

Overcharging on inferior beer is becoming a norm around here. One place wouldn't even offer flights.

Let all this play out ( I just won't be a part of it). I used to love going to every brewery in every new city. Now I just don't care too too much. Burnt out of paying top dollar for crap, meanwhile the mainstays in my town aren't getting my business.

 

All comes down to a simple concept to me... If the beer is good enough to represent the name on your brewery, serve it. If it isn't up to your standards, no matter what the reason, don't. Whatever you serve to the public will be rightfully judged, no excuses

 

These days I rarely get to new brew pub openings. However, I usually give most most breweries that are new to me about three beers to make an impression. A lot of times, the brewer is making perfectly good beer, but it just does not match my tastes. If some of the beer produced is bad, my feeling is that they should not sell it. I understand that there is a learning curve and capital invested, but on the flip side I have limited capital as well. There is no guarantee as a consumer that the learning curve will be fixed in three months, six months, or longer. Rarely will I come back to a brewery that I dislike. There are just too many good beers available.

 

I recently went to an opening of a brewery - and wasn't convinced. I'd say out of 8 beers, I'd have rated at least 6 of them under a 2.5 out of a 5. But, about 3 months later decided to visit them and realized that 2 out of those 6 had improved it seems. I might go again at some point, but there's plenty of other places to choose from. They're not in my top 10.

Now if I go to a new place and they all seem skunked, infected, etc, etc, etc... you get my business once and only once.

But I've learned my lesson so far - I try to visit new breweries only if it's not completely ruining any plans for that day.

 

"Tolerance for the learning curve"? Seriously? How about you learn while homebrewing? Then when you get good at it, open up a brewery.

 

My tolerance level is slightly short of the distance to my wallet.

 

I will give folks the benefit of the doubt. There is a world of difference scaling up from small batches typical of a homebrewer that a brewer would use to work his or her recipes out and actual production and the kinds of consistency that requires. Scaling up to production levels increases the variables that the brewer needs to contend with. There is also a big difference between how much money and financing one thinks they will need and how much they actually need and there is a tendency to not anticipate every problem that might arise. And, unfortunately prayers, wishes and best intentions do not solve every problem. There are many places where the beer is OK or maybe good but the patio is beautiful on a warm spring day or its a decent bike ride away or the crowd is always friendly so I will stop by and see if they improved. Once in a while I am favorably surprised.

 

My first thought on this was the restaurant analogy, granted to redo your meal is probably 30 min max, it should be done. I have a hard time returning to a restaurant where my food was not cooked or served properly. This means
1. They thought it was good enough and they sent it out
2. They didn't have time to redo it and knew it was wrong
3. They didn't want to redo it and waste the effort
In my mind all 3 of these are wrong and not what I expect from a restaurant. So based on this, should I hold a brewery up to be accountable for the same issues, knowing that they may have a month plus invested in the batch? Yes I think I should. You chose to open and invite me to your establishment to pay money for your efforts, so I am going to treat this like everything else I pay money for, an expectation of value. The thought that with my immature palate can detect flaws that you as a professional should be picking up would leave me very concerned. So yes I know you have some time/money investment in that batch of beer, but if you don't like it, dump it. If you can't stand to waste it, throw it on a tap and charge a buck for it and call it what it is, experimental test batch failure, drink at your own risk, but even then you are allowing someone to judge you on what you know is an inferior product. That said, this is all about who is opening it up and what method they prescribe to, best effort or close to perfection (dialed into what I the brewer/owner was trying to achieve with this beer). And this isn't just about a pale ale not being as hoppy as I would like, or over bitter, not going to judge you on personal preference. This is about what the OP listed as what I would consider pretty major flaws

 

If you're going to open an establishment where you brew your own beer, you better know what you're doing. The first impression is always the most lasting. It's a HUGE pet peeve of mine when someone makes a few decent batches of beer in their kitchen and then decides to start brewing 'professionally' but winds up making bad beer.

Last summer I went to a little brewery in Charlotte and got a flight, and alll the beers but one had some sort of flaw so I actually talked to the head brewer. He agreed wit me they were flawed and gave me some sort of excuse why they still chose to serve them. I then said they need to maintain quality and only serve their best beer and that serving bad beer effects their image, and again he agreed wit me, but still continued to serve bad beer. Needless to say I wasn't very happy when I left.

 

You did exactly what I would have done. Since he admitted he knew, and kept selling the batch, I felt it would have warranted a drop in the price, to show his commitment to customer satisfaction. My decision on whether to return in weeks, or month's (if at all), would be based on his demeanor. If sincere, then I'm back shortly to see if things have improved. If he's condescending or a bit narcissistic.. I'm probably not going back for at least a few month's.

 

I went with choice C - irritation and might or might not come back - but I have to qualify that a bit. My "leash" has gotten shorter over time, I am finding. I am less tolerant than I used to be and I think that is because of a number of smallish breweries that consistently put out an inferior (ie, obviously flawed) product or in some cases products that make no sense (weird flavored combinations and such). My expectation of a new brewery/brewpub is that the beer should be free from obvious flaws and at a stage where a tweak or two corrects any minor flaws - so that would allow the "grace period" for adjusting to new equipment and the like. By observation (and therefore subjective) I believe that here are more breweries that just don't have a clue, lack a solid business plan, lack even halfway decent used equipment (there's plenty of it out there), and are jumping on the bandwagon. Even my farm brewer friend with a 6 bbl brewhouse has a cell counter... So my feelings of graciousness towards new brewers have dwindled somewhat. The worst are the ones who won't listen to qualified constructive criticism. I don't expect to fall in love with every beer I try, but a beer I don't like is completely different than a beer with flaws. For example, I don't "like" BCBS <gasp - you heathen you> but I can score it highly because I understand it is a well-crafted beer. If you are selling product to consumers, there's some implied responsibilities there, at least in my mind. So everyone gets a try, some get a couple of tries, but the rope has gotten shorter.

And I do judge a lot by how the brewhouse is constructed and how it is kept. Can't help it - I'm an engineer in the food industry. I see a lot of things in breweries that would shut one of my plants down in a heartbeat.

 

I always tell people drinking your own homebrew is like smelling your own farts.

I think too many homebrewers are enchanted by the smell of their own farts. But being someone who enjoys good beer and beer people, who are almost by definition good people, I will return eventually.

After a few bad experiences though, so long. I make perfectly fine homebrew but don't expect anyone to pay just for the privilege of smelling my farts.

Cheers.

 

In retrospect, although what I originally voted and wrote above, I've changed my vote to wait until I've read consistently good reviews here on BA before I'd go back when in the area again.

 

Actually, the problem with some new breweries is that they've done exactly that.

Just brewing 5 gallons at a time is not a pre-qualification to brew on a commercial scale. Experience at a brewery or brewing school is the answer.