Thoughts on Infections

I expect this:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/central-waters-recalls-peruvian-morning.19151/

I have had a funked infected beer from a couple of different breweries, and frankly their response and willingness to recall (or not even release the beer) is paramount. One of the worst I have had was a Finch's Stache in the wood (http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/25370/114465/), and I will never buy a Finch's beer ever again. Many of reviews over a decent period of time were saying it was infected, but I still saw it on shelves for $10 a bomber. There are tests that can detect infections at bottling so the brewery knows that the sour is going to develop - if brewers want my business they need to get it right, and when a batch does get out (like Central Waters) they need to own it and recall.

 

Sorry, I should also answer your question!

My expectations don't change regardless of the size of the brewery - your story above makes it even worse as they know the beer is infected and want customers to buy it anyway! If they choose to tell people it is potentially infected and sell at a heavy discount, then maybe, but frankly they need to dump the beer and take the loss, and own the fact the beer is infected!

 

The Bruery also has this issue from time to time. I would expect an up and coming Brewer(y) would notify their potential customers of their product being infected. It's up to them if they pull bottles or just sell them at discounted prices. Or you can stop buying their product.

 

I do expect less from newer breweries because QC is hard to get a handle on when they're so small, and as such I'm willing to cut them a little slack. That said, a brewery should own up to the issues and offer refunds/compensation regardless of how large they are. I buy with confidence from bigger brewers knowing that, from a lot of them, if something does happen I can contact them and get something out of it whether it is a refund, credit towards another beer, swag, etc. You should be warned up front if a beer is possibly infected, and really a brewery should probably cut their losses and dump the infected beer rather than trying to sell it at all. Little guys should follow this standard and adhere as much as possible if not more than the big guys because first impressions are everything. Were I you, I would not patronize this brewery anymore until they get their QC in order and rectify their mistakes.

 

Part of it is also about the people who run the brewery and what their attitude says about their perspective on beer - I can't think of why any brewer would want people to drink a beer of theirs that was infected - that these guys are willing to sell infected beer tells me they are in it more as a business; they are in it to make money and aren't about making great beer.

 

How does the beer taste? I don't think its too big of a deal. They noted that it was a little off. If not your cup of tea then don't purchase it.

I do think it's odd that they say don't judge us until we have our facility. If it has your name on it then it is your product. If you don't think the contractor is doing their job then the original brewery needs to step up or you need to make sure your product is what you want.

 

I recently had an experience with a local brewery that served a beer that was widely known to be infected. A friend of mine figured that if they were serving it, perhaps they had a keg or two that avoided the infection. When he turned out to be wrong, he brought it up to an employee who dismissed it saying, "It's just a little tart." It was a barrel-aged porter and therefore was obviously not supposed to be tart at all, further the mouthfeel, watery viscosity, and lack of head showed the infection as well. The brewery did nothing to rectify their purposeful mistake to my friend and anyone else who ordered that beer that night. They have a history of poor QC, and I have since resigned myself to purchasing only items from their sour program, which has always been stellar thankfully.

Some breweries just have a very blasé approach to this sort of thing, and it's pretty shitty customer service if you ask me. I don't think infections are that common because many brewers will cut their losses and dump a beer rather than serve it. I cannot account for other people rating it highly (maybe they enjoyed what the infection did to the beer a la Green Monster), but it is likely that the average non-BA drinker isn't as in tune with off-flavors as many of us are.

 

This is a definite case of don't try to walk until you can crawl. I wouldn't trust a BA beer unless the brewery had a good track record. And, judging by what seems to have been going on at Weyerbacher the past two years, I'm starting to think that these styles should be pasteurized in any event just to give customers peace of mind.

 

Hopefully now that they have separate facilities for sours the Bruery can avoid future infections. They better since I think many people are on their last straw with them.

 

I think it's a fine line between intended souring and unintended infection. I slug down clearly infected homebrews, but then again I'm not selling them.

Maybe the truth lies in the marketing? If they marketed the beer as sour or tart and described the flavors in detail, would that help? You said you tell it was infected without drinking it. How is that?

 

OP said it was a bourbon barrel Schwarzbier. There should be no tart flavors at all in it by that description.

Infected brews sometimes look distinct: watery, too much or not enough head, etc. They almost always smell distinctly tart or off in some other way (rubbery, sulfuric, green apple, etc., though it's worth noting that sometimes these aromas/flavors are purposeful and not a sign of detrimental infection).

 

This is what happens when breweries mess around with useless disgusting sours. Brew that crap in another room far far away from the real beer for christs sake.

 

I cracked open a stache in the wood last night that I forgot I still had lurking in the cellar and which is from the batch mentioned, and yup. It gushed for a good 10 minutes and tastes like cherry cough syrup. It's an inoffensive infection at best, but there's also nothing about the secret stache, nor the Willet reserve barrels it went into anywhere near its flavor profile. it's a story of laziness on that breweries part as to why it's an infected gusher and that beer is actually still around in some of their markets. That's really a story about money over pride though. That's why I'll never buy another beer from Finch's, nor support anything that they do. They'd rather make money than take pride.

 

Cigar City, I received a case of gusher porters way back.

But it was known and I got refunded the same day so no foul.

AND..

What you should do is make it known, put the brewery and the beer in question on blast. I have been thinking about doing this to Weyerbacher because Insanity was so botched and obviously infected this year..

 

I was not aware of a problem with Weyerbacher. I have had quite a few bottles of Blasphemy and Insanity without issue. Has there been a thread on the topic?

 

I am not debating your claim, but it does not seem to have been the entire run. I have had over half a case of this year's and not a single bottle has any sign of infection. Was it a particular bottling date?