Really Bad Beer

[MarkA]

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?

[vacant]

All 8 bottles had a really thick layer of sediment at the bottom, which swirled up with the slightest movement.

{snipped}

their APA (which they didn't have available so I haven't tasted) is bottle-aged for 24 months which seems a bit weird

They were just hoping the sediment will stick to the bottom.

[Jim]

It wasn't in Norfolk was it? I had a similar experience with some bottles from a tiny microbrewery many years ago.

[MarkA]

They were just hoping the sediment will stick to the bottom.

Possibly, there was way too much of it though, approx 6mm!

[MarkA]

It wasn't in Norfolk was it? I had a similar experience with some bottles from a tiny microbrewery many years ago.

No Jim, I'm in Scotland. It makes you wonder what happened to quality control, surely you'd have to taste each batch before it's put out on sale? Worse still, maybe they do taste everything and think it's fine?

[Jim]

It is weird that there are people out there who couldn't even make a decent homebrew imagining they're good enough make beer commercially.

[Cobnut]

I’ve had a similar experience with a small brewer here in Suffolk. Once bitten…

[themadhippy]

I'm in Scotland.

cant be any worse than tennents,only good thing about that was the cans back in the days when i was a teenager.

[drjim]

I was given a beer52 voucher thing for christmas a year or two back, the voucher gets you month 1 and after that it's a membership that you pay 27 quid to and get sent 8 beers, some sample size snacks and a magazine. I decided to persist as some variety might expose me to interesting new ideas.

Sadly some of the craft brewers that supply them aren't as good as me, in fact I think I had half a dozen cans over the last year or so that I would have had again. Either bland and uninteresting or actually vile - a marshmallow vanilla stout that tasted sickly, and a smoked chipotle porter were my least favourites.

Cancelled today which required a 10 minute phone call, I only thought to do it because of this thread, so thank you very much for saving me from more bad beer!

[IPA]

A young guy set up a micro in a village near to us a couple of years ago. How it is still in business amazes me.
He produces four or five beers which if you were blindfolded you could not tell which was which. The only difference is the colour and the label. He is not alone. Over the years I have tasted a lot beers from local start ups which range from mediocre to undrinkable. They are not cheap either with an equivalent price of £2.50 for half a pint (25cl)
Could be that the locals don't know what good beer tastes like. I will add that generally they drink red wine apart from the summer months when they drink rosé. It appears why they shun white wine is because it gives you a headache

[MarkA]

It is weird that there are people out there who couldn't even make a decent homebrew imagining they're good enough make beer commercially.

I Know! When I drink my homebrew, I often drink it alongside commercial beers I like (Proper Job etc) just to see how it compares. Often it's good, sometimes not as good, but always a decent drink. It gives me something to work towards. Why wouldn't a commercial brewer (or wannabee commercial brewer) do this? Surely it's about producing the best you can?

I did suggest in my email to them that they send some of their beers off to the National Homebrew competition to get opinions from those that know better than me, they could do it anonymously and I think it would help them immensely.

[MarkA]

I’ve had a similar experience with a small brewer here in Suffolk. Once bitten…

I'm always enthusiastic to see a new small brewery open up, especially locally. But yeah, hard to justify spending good money on something that could well be awful.

[MarkA]

I'm in Scotland.

cant be any worse than tennents,only good thing about that was the cans back in the days when i was a teenager.

I was actually forced to drink a pint of Tennants at a gig last weekend, as there was nothing else. It was fizzy, thin and tasteless, but infinitely more drinkable than what this brewery is producing which tells you all you need to know really!

[MarkA]

Cancelled today which required a 10 minute phone call, I only thought to do it because of this thread, so thank you very much for saving me from more bad beer!

Glad it helped you!

I had a Beer52 sub a few years back and found that most of the beers were very similar. There was one box that had a German theme but all the beers were quite bland lagers or Kolsch, I was hoping for a bit more variety.

[MarkA]

A young guy set up a micro in a village near to us a couple of years ago. How it is still in business amazes me.
He produces four or five beers which if you were blindfolded you could not tell which was which. The only difference is the colour and the label. He is not alone. Over the years I have tasted a lot beers from local start ups which range from mediocre to undrinkable. They are not cheap either with an equivalent price of £2.50 for half a pint (25cl)
Could be that the locals don't know what good beer tastes like. I will add that generally they drink red wine apart from the summer months when they drink rosé. It appears why they shun white wine is because it gives you a headache

Possibly, it boggles the mind to be honest! There are some pretty good local beers available round here (Brew Toon, Cromarty, Spey Valley, Speyside, Fierce, Burnside) so not hard to try out some different beers and styles. Some of them aren't for me, especially sours and fruit beers, but I still try them just to see what they're all about. I guess it's about being open-minded as I might stumble across something I like.

These beers were £3 for 330ml, seems way too much to me (especially when nearly 4 of them went down the sink!)