Just a question... I got back from NYC and had a weird encounter in a bar. And, because of how late at night this was, I can't be sure if it actually happened, so consider that. Anyways, I ordered a "Methusalem" http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33121/103443/ and I swear the guy hit it with some soda water out of a beverage gun right after he poured it. I didn't know if, like a Berliner weisse, he was adding syrup or something else that was "supposed" to go in there... but anyways I just drank it anyway and didn't notice any off flavors. It was a bit flat. The only thing I could figure is that maybe the keg had gone flat and he was sprucing it up a bit or something, if that is even possible. And, I'm super forgiving about these things... I would rather just drink it than argue in some busy bar far away from home, so I'm not looking for any "you should have sent it back" or "you should have asked". I just couldn't be bothered to at the time. Just wondering if this is something that places might do to a flat keg of if anybody else has seen this in practice.
I can't say ive ever seen this happen, but I also can't say I see the reason why. I would rather drink a kinda flat good beer, before I drink a kinda flat good beer thats been watered down. Only thing I think of is the same as you, maybe the keg went early, or maybe its just the bartenders flair. Only things I can think.
I have no clue what they would have been doing but, the idea of them putting carbonated water in flat beer to give it some carbonation make sense, but Don't get me wrong I don't think it should be done but it makes sense. If its flat they should just get rid of it.
Stretching the number of pints out of a keg? Most likely flat and he was sprucing it up, but you didn't get what you paid for.
I've had this beer served to me by the brewer of the beer (and in NYC on top of it), and this is not how it is "supposed" to be served. I would think that any bar serving it would be a serious beer bar, and this treatment is surprising. On a scale of 1 to 10, how sure are you?
I would not have taken the pint!! I once saw the bar tender at my favorite bar "Blue Palms" take a semi-full pint out of a fridge, top it off with a couple of ounces of fresh beer from the tap then send it out to some poor schmuk. That made me lose a good deal of respect for the place.
Are you sure he didn't over-pour a bit and then used the beverage gun to rinse the outside of the glass? From the right angle, it could look like it was going into the beer.
Sorry to hear that you were the victim of a crime against beer by having the bartender diss you, and the beer. Were you offered a discount for the flat beer? Did the bartender even mention the issue? Think about contacting the brewery about this event, the brewery might not like what was done to their product. Kudos for being passive, one never knows what other bad practices the bartender might have up their sleeve...
Unfortunately there are a lot of incompetent bars out there. Co2 levels being too low will lead to flat beer. The common fix is simply raising the Co2 level and the beer will recarbonate. That being said, you may have a situation here of an inexperienced bartender trying to take matters into their own hands. Never seen this done nor heard of anyone who has seen it
If you aren't sure if it even happened (which I can totally understand), I don't guess there is anything you can do about it now. But I have never seen that and feel like if someone were going to do that, they should at least mention it to you before they did it. Doesn't sound appealing to me at all!
