Surly Eight Ale Label

I opened a couple more bottles, and they had the same strong brettanomyces taste I mentioned above. Infected? Doubtful, as carbonation was normal and the beer wasn't overly sour, and in general didn't have that "infected" flavor. I do much prefer the 7 glasses I had on tap at the Dakota Jazz Club (from 2 different kegs) over this bottle variation I'm tasting. In hindSight, had I known the bottles would have tasted like they are now, I'd still buy several, just not as much.

Cheers

 

I opened one last night and it was delicious! No brett or sour taste that I noticed.

 

Opened a bottle (my first) last night as well. Also thought the beer was outstanding but in contradiction loved it in large part due to what I detected as a (very) slight sour character. Found that character to really compliment the barrel flavor in the beer and also much preferred it to what I often find to be an overly sweet and cloying character in a most Barleywine's. Completely felt like that sour character was an intentional component of the beer and did not interpret it as infection at all.

 

Had a bottle last night. There was a noticeable funk, but if I hadn't seen this thread I wouldn't have necessarily know it was different than the on draft experience of the beer. It was a touch offputting, but not quite. Either way, I still enjoyed the bottle. I liked the underlying barleywine-ish flavor underneath the funk. Good beer, but definite funk that seemed like it might not have been the plan.

But then, maybe my bottle was exactly as planned.

 

Anybody else noticing problems with these bottles? I just picked one up. Friggin expensive! Haven't cracked it yet though. Hope it's good

 

I have had this beer on tap twice in 2 different places and the beer has been great. I just cracked one of my bottles today and it was definitely sour. I sent an email to surly asking them about the issue since I now see so many others have experienced it. I doubt anything will be done but that really sucks, because I enjoyed the tap and what I beleive to be "proper" version of the beer.

 

Seems like per their response you should put a wine cork in it and bring it to them at the brewery so they can test it. According to them no one has done so yet so they haven't confirmed any issue. I think if you did that and they tasted that it was sour and then sent a sample to the lab to confirm the presence of unwanted guests we may see a more official response.

 

Whoops. Guess I should have read further/closer. My bad. Too bad that they are unwilling to confirm the infection. Guess they have other business to tend to like flat Abrasive .

 

I personally contacted surly and was told pretty much the same thing here. My only problem and a problem we're all facing is I was planning on cellaring my bottles for a later time. What if the next bottle I open is ok but a year or two from now I crack a sour bottle? I'm pretty much gambling with these now. I hope they brew this batch again or do something official to reimburse us.

 

Jack of all brews just posted a review of Eight. Says that the beer is souring...

http://jackofallbrews.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-whale-week-surly-eight.html

 

I'm curious if anyone has tried any bottles recently that are not souring? I'm sitting on a bottle, but if this seems to be an across the board thing I might open it sooner rather than later.

 

I didn't realize there was a whole thread for this! Glad to know I'm not the only one who found a sour one. I'm also curious if folks have non-sour versions. I've got those four more in the cellar and want to know what to do with them...

 

In my science experiments over the last couple months... here is my results.

• 3 Bottles have been good, although seem to have a faint hint of sourness possibly
• 1 bottle super sour, like almost pentagram sour
• 1 bottle seemed perfect, detected no sourness whatsoever.
• All times have had on tap have been flawless

I do have to say, I am not 100% convinced it's "getting worse" but not enough time has passed to really make that assumption.

Note: This is an unscientific poll with a small sample size , extrapolating any useful information from this would not be considered good statistical methods.

 

Bummer, I have only had good bottles so far, but I have to say uninfected surly 8 is a great beer....hoping my bottles are some of the lucky ones!

 

one thing to possibly consider is I bought all mine from the same place - and the one that actually was perfect was with a friend that we shared. He got his somewhere else... so that may play into things a bit. And I agree 8 is wonderful when it's as intended.

 

Opened my second and last bottle just now and it has zero signs of infection. Lots of whiskey notes in smell and taste, but nothing off whatsoever.

 

Just curious did you buy both from the same store?

 

If anyone has a bottle they suspect is infected (meaning, bought at same time and same place as another bottle you know is infected), I'd love to get my hands on one. Really just want to see if I can isolate any souring microbes out of it.

 

No, I believe one was Blue Max and the other Apple Valley Liquors. Both were bought the week it was released though. The first one drank right away and the second one was cellared around 50 degrees. Both tasted the same with zero signs of infection.