Really Bad Beer

[An Ankoù]

Easter year before last I was in Brittany and I was given some kind of American style bottled craft beer. Not terrible, but a long way from good and I wouldn't buy it. Not sure if it was a local producer. Such a shame the world seems to be contaminated by this stuff!

American Palle Ale seems to have caught the popular fancy, but a lot of it is nothing like. There are more than a few who offer an "Entirely French" and even "Bio (organic)" APA using French malt (OK) and French hop varieties (probably not OK). I think the French are still coming to terms with beer (apart from the North East,of course and possibly Alsace). It's the "cool" drink, but it's still not really understood. Meanwhile, the marketing guys are fleecing everyone. Plus ça change!

[richard080561]

Here in the rainsoaked wetlands if sunny Brittany, and possibly all of France for all I know, there seems to be something of a move towards "craft" beers. They sit on supermarket shelves at around €3 for 33cl, which the genuine Trappistes are around €2 and the Mort Subite kriek is €1.45. They are invariably disappointing. Not as bad as you are describing, above, but more like: if I'd brewed this beer, I wouldn't brew it again. There are one or two exceptions, but they are few and far between.

Last summer we spent 3 weeks in France, starting in Caen, going down to Avignon and then back.
Everywhere we stopped the supermarkets had beers from local craft breweries. That impressed me, the beers didn't. None of them were anything special, they were OK, but as you said, I wouldn't bother with them again.

[An Ankoù]

So it's not just my experience and it's not just Brittany.
I registered with a French forum some while ago, mainly because I can get 5% off with a supplier I rarely use. I'll have to tackle the threads and see if I can figure out what's going on. The informal French used in these forums and in Newspaper "comments" threads is execrable. It's like trying to understand Geordie spoken by an elderly Japanese gentleman with a lisp. (No axe to grind with the good folk of Newcastle, those from the land of the rising sun nor with those blessed with softened sibilants).

[Eric]

Last week while brewing, the manager of the pub I frequented, until The Pandemic, stopped by. He raised the subject of beer quality, saying that he has been struggling to sell some of the recent beers he has received. That pub prides itself on supplying a good range of cask beers, but it would seem this is spreading into the commercial market by a degree that didn't previously didn't exist.

I've had a similar experience with a brewery in Pontardawe that is based in an outbuilding of the owner's private house, so presumably a homebrewer who thinks he is better than he is.

In the back of my mind from long ago in a pub in Pontardawe having a pint the locals called "Esso Blue". I think it was a Bass Charrington house.

[MarkA]

It certainly seems like the marketplace is saturated with brewers that have no passion for making a good beer. They probably taste a couple of mass-produced, generic APAs or whatever and try to replicate them.

I've had a similar experience with a brewery in Pontardawe that is based in an outbuilding of the owner's private house, so presumably a homebrewer who thinks he is better than he is.

With no time constraints to rush beer through, all these small breweries could be making fantastic beer. They've got the time to experiment with different flavours and can let their beers sit for a few weeks, so having loads of sediment in the bottle is pretty unforgiveable.

I can only assume that their friends and loved ones tell them how great the beer is, and they believe it. As I said, I did suggest in my email that they don't take my word for it, and should send some of their beers off to a HB competition to see how they get on, the feedback would be invaluable.

It's been a couple of weeks now since my email was sent, so I can only assume that they don't actually welcome feedback on their beers as much as they say they do, unless of course it's good feedback. They'll get weeded out in the long run, I can't imagine them getting much repeat custom.