Why do beers from the same brewery taste so similar?

Very interesting, when you say that you perceive high levels of isoamyl acetate, is banana the predominant flavor you’re noticing? Also was that flavor in Steam or one of their ales? I’ve never noticed much yeast flavor in any of their beers, but I’ll pay closer attention next time I have one.

 

The biggest factor as to why the beers from a given brewery all have similar, distinct tastes is due to the brewer’s sweat getting into the beer and imparting a unique flavor. This is a large reason why after a brewer leaves a brewery it takes a few batches for the brewery to dial in the beer despite it having the same recipe.

 

Yes, banana... and I found it in Steam, their porter, and their ales. It don't get it every single time though - which is either an indication of different batches having different levels or of my shifting sensitivity to it. I never saw anybody mention this character before, so I was really wondering if I was the only one... until I saw a former brewmaster from Anchor state that it was one of the most prevalent esters in Steam due to the relatively warm open fermentation. Guess I wasn't completely crazy.

Um, you heard the news right?

 

Yeah, I know Anchor closed, but it’s not because I didn’t buy enough of their beers! I’ve been a fan for 30 years and have a small refrigerated collection of both Steam and their Christmas beer. The Steam in a section of the fridge that is right at 30° F. According to beer guru Charlie Bamforth, I should be able to enjoy that into 2024 without it staling, hopefully that is the case.

 

It might be easier to pick up if you had Steam alongside a cleaner lager… as long as you don’t use Coors Banquet (which has a similar character).

 

I agree with those that have pointed to the fact that any given brewery is going to have standard infrastructure and processes for most (maybe all) of their beers as well as having a standard baseline input (water, yeast, base malt, bittering hops, etc).

I'll also add that being surprised at finding uniformity amongst one brewery's IPA mixed pack is a little odd. Obviously there is nuance within the hoppy pale ale style, but you're really looking at fairly minor tweaks on the brewery end. To the extent they change up their base inputs or standard processes, that's likely to happen between more disparate styles than a couple IPA variants.

 

Your suggestion is also a good strategy to make a drinkable "new" product that won't have to be disposed of in bulk at the brewery, or, later, bottle by bottle by the purchasers.

 

I would only add (and this seems like a good place as I haven't seen it mentioned in the thread and yours was an otherwise pretty complete answer) that another thing might be the mash schedule/temp. Brewery might often favor a similar or even the exact same mash temperatures and schedules for everything they make.

I remember reading that Lagunitas mashes everything they make at 158°, which might explain the "cloying" impression some people have mentioned upthread. (the posters attributed it to an under-attenuating yeast strain whereas I have always felt that Lagunitas' house flavor derived from pairing a less fermentable wort--from the higher mash temperature-- with a highly attentuative yeast, resulting in a malt-forward beer that finishes dry, at least relatively dry for how malty it is.

For a long time as a home brewer I mashed in at 130-132° (the higher end of a protein rest, purportedly reducing chill haze while not harming foam proteins), and held for about 10 minutes, and then ramped up by significant hot water additions to a 142-145° beta amylase rest (for the bulk of the conversion, maybe 40 minutes) followed by a 10 minute alpha amylase rest at around 155°. Lager, IPA, saison, stout, I did this across the board, and while these styles didn't taste the same at all (nor should they have!) there was certainly a consistency in clarity and body and maltiness and mouth-feel that pleased, well, me at least.