Really Bad Beer
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2025 12:15 pm
Just before Christmas 2023, I heard about a new local brewery that had started up so, wanting to support them and see what they were producing, I tracked down a couple of their beers at a local bottle shop. The guy who owns it reckoned the beers were brilliant, I was less impressed and remember being very disappointed.
Fast forward to December 2024 and I saw they had a stall at a local xmas market so bought 2 of each of their 4 beers. I had a decent chat with them about brewing and hoped they'd have improved over the last year or so. They haven't, and I was again disappointed. In fact, two of the beers were that bad they went down the sink (I love beer and would never waste it unless necessary, I'm also tight-fisted so that's two reasons to never waste anything!).
I tried one each of the beers on two seperate occasions and came to the same conclusion both times. The first two beers, despite supposedly being different styles, were pretty much identical in that they had no real flavour, certainly no hop or malt character, and both had a nasty acidic flavour to them, which I thought could possibly be an infection (it did taste a bit like vomit). I've tried a few sour beers but it was nothing like that, just really unpleasant.
The other 2 beers were at least finishable (I won't go as far as to say drinkable) but still lacked any character or real flavour. It's baffling as I have made bland beers in the past but they are still drinkable and resemble what most people would class as beer. These don't, they don't really taste like beer at all.
All 8 bottles had a really thick layer of sediment at the bottom, which swirled up with the slightest movement. Again, how many homebrewers really have this? It's pretty easy to avoid if you're careful (or try another yeast strain).
When I was speaking to them, I noticed that the %ABV box on the labels was filled in with pen rather than printed, so asked if they were managing to get consistent results and they said "we're getting there".
I've emailed them to let them know that they potentially have a problem, but doubt they'll reply. Personally, if it was my beer (even as a homebrewer let alone brewing commercially), I would definitely want to know. Their website talks of their 'passion for beer', use of 'best ingredients', 'exceptional, high quality beer', 'expertise' blah blah but from what I've tasted, they're lacking in all those departments. I also noted that their APA (which they didn't have available so I haven't tasted) is bottle-aged for 24 months which seems a bit weird to me seeing as an APA should have a lovely, fresh hop character surely?
Anyone else ever come across anything similar?
Fast forward to December 2024 and I saw they had a stall at a local xmas market so bought 2 of each of their 4 beers. I had a decent chat with them about brewing and hoped they'd have improved over the last year or so. They haven't, and I was again disappointed. In fact, two of the beers were that bad they went down the sink (I love beer and would never waste it unless necessary, I'm also tight-fisted so that's two reasons to never waste anything!).
I tried one each of the beers on two seperate occasions and came to the same conclusion both times. The first two beers, despite supposedly being different styles, were pretty much identical in that they had no real flavour, certainly no hop or malt character, and both had a nasty acidic flavour to them, which I thought could possibly be an infection (it did taste a bit like vomit). I've tried a few sour beers but it was nothing like that, just really unpleasant.
The other 2 beers were at least finishable (I won't go as far as to say drinkable) but still lacked any character or real flavour. It's baffling as I have made bland beers in the past but they are still drinkable and resemble what most people would class as beer. These don't, they don't really taste like beer at all.
All 8 bottles had a really thick layer of sediment at the bottom, which swirled up with the slightest movement. Again, how many homebrewers really have this? It's pretty easy to avoid if you're careful (or try another yeast strain).
When I was speaking to them, I noticed that the %ABV box on the labels was filled in with pen rather than printed, so asked if they were managing to get consistent results and they said "we're getting there".
I've emailed them to let them know that they potentially have a problem, but doubt they'll reply. Personally, if it was my beer (even as a homebrewer let alone brewing commercially), I would definitely want to know. Their website talks of their 'passion for beer', use of 'best ingredients', 'exceptional, high quality beer', 'expertise' blah blah but from what I've tasted, they're lacking in all those departments. I also noted that their APA (which they didn't have available so I haven't tasted) is bottle-aged for 24 months which seems a bit weird to me seeing as an APA should have a lovely, fresh hop character surely?
Anyone else ever come across anything similar?
