Really Bad Beer

[micmacmoc]

This is a familiar tale! I have a small shop down here in Cornwall, we sell local beers as well as the usual cornish gins, wines and what have you. I have come across so many bad beers its unbelieveable they have the brass neck to try and sell them. I must also say that the majority of small breweries here are good.
Its the blandness that astounds me, mind you that dreadful Doom Bar is popular so I guess it takes all sorts!

[nallum]

It’s not difficult, with some enthusiasm, to make a great home brew, but scaling up to commercial level is a bit more challenging. Quality assurance a must. The worst thing home brewers turning pro can do (after a couple lucky batches and watching YouTube videos) is sell crap beer in an overcrowded shrinking market, to actively promote losing customers. It would have made much more business sense to dump these crap beers instead of selling them. They all should have known better. So crap at business as well as crap at brewing. They won’t become ‘the next big thing’ and should probably go do something more interesting with their time. An honest YouTube video about where they went wrong for starters.

[MarkA]

This is a familiar tale! I have a small shop down here in Cornwall, we sell local beers as well as the usual cornish gins, wines and what have you. I have come across so many bad beers its unbelieveable they have the brass neck to try and sell them. I must also say that the majority of small breweries here are good.

Has any brewer questioned why you won't stock their beers?

Its the blandness that astounds me, mind you that dreadful Doom Bar is popular so I guess it takes all sorts!

When I was doing a tour of the National Brewing Centre in Burton a few years back, an American lad was telling us that he had just moved over here to start a brewing course at Heriot-Watt. He also said that everyone had told him he MUST try Doombar, as it's a great British beer. I laughed and pointed him in the direction of a few decent beers to try (though, I must say, I have only tried the bottle version of Doom Bar which has about as much flavour a Tennants, not sure if the cask version is an improvement)

[MarkA]

It’s not difficult, with some enthusiasm, to make a great home brew, but scaling up to commercial level is a bit more challenging.

Definitely, though this particular brewery are only using a 100 litre system.

Quality assurance a must. The worst thing home brewers turning pro can do (after a couple lucky batches and watching YouTube videos) is sell crap beer in an overcrowded shrinking market, to actively promote losing customers. It would have made much more business sense to dump these crap beers instead of selling them. They all should have known better. So crap at business as well as crap at brewing. They won’t become ‘the next big thing’ and should probably go do something more interesting with their time. An honest YouTube video about where they went wrong for starters.

It's almost like they haven't tasted their beers before selling it. Maybe they've never actually tasted any type of beer before? Baffling.

[IPA]

"Definitely, though this particular brewery are only using a 100 litre system."

How can they expect to make money brewing that amount of beer even if it was good ?
They must have a lot of 120 litre fermentation vessels !
I brew 60 litre batches and that is for personal consumption

[Nitro Jim]

I have only tried the bottle version of Doom Bar which has about as much flavour a Tennants, not sure if the cask version is an improvement)

Don't go there... It's not!

[MarkA]

"Definitely, though this particular brewery are only using a 100 litre system."

How can they expect to make money brewing that amount of beer even if it was good ?
They must have a lot of 120 litre fermentation vessels !
I brew 60 litre batches and that is for personal consumption

There was a brewer (dloper?) that used to post on here that was starting a 200 litre commercial brewery up in Rothes a few years back, that's probably as small as anyone would want to start. He was supplying a couple of local pubs and selling bottles, but soon found he needed to upgrade to a bigger kit to meet demand. Not sure if he did upgrade as he seems to have disappeared now, but anyhow, with 100 litres they must be brewing everyday of the week.

[MarkA]

I have only tried the bottle version of Doom Bar which has about as much flavour a Tennants, not sure if the cask version is an improvement)

Don't go there... It's not!

Thanks, I'll steer clear of it!

[PeeBee]

My next-door neighbour is actually next-door at times! Okay, he's German and is usually residing at home in Germany. He's had two new breweries in his hometown after years of none at-all. He brings bottles of them over here, so I get to try them. They are aw...

... pretty damn excellent actually! And some are bottle-conditioned! Not what you'd expect for a "Pilsner"/Lager over here.

Just a balancing post! Not all new breweries are bad! Some put more dedication into their beer than their business (grab them quick before "economics" takes over!).

[MarkA]

My next-door neighbour is actually next-door at times! Okay, he's German and is usually residing at home in Germany. He's had two new breweries in his hometown after years of none at-all. He brings bottles of them over here, so I get to try them. They are aw...

... pretty damn excellent actually! And some are bottle-conditioned! Not what you'd expect for a "Pilsner"/Lager over here.

Just a balancing post! Not all new breweries are bad! Some put more dedication into their beer than their business (grab them quick before "economics" takes over!).

Definitely, nearly all small brewery beers I have tried have been good to excellent, that's maybe why I'm so surprised at how dreadful these are?

That does remind me though, I did buy some bottles from a small brewery in East Sussex a number of years back that were pretty bad. They had a chilli beer which basically had a whole red chilli stuck in the bottle. It was difficult to drink and tasted of chilli and nothing else, unsurprisingly. That was another beer that got ditched.

[Cobnut]

And breweries can get better - or conversely, get worse!

A case in point being a local brewpub near to me (not being more specific for diplomatic reasons). On visiting several years ago, I was not overly impressed with the beers, but they have persisted and the head brewer has lifted the quality significantly since then. They now produce some excellent beers. The head brewer is also a top bloke who is hugely supportive of the local homebrew community, so it is pleasing to see him producing good to excellent beers!

[MarkA]

And breweries can get better - or conversely, get worse!

A case in point being a local brewpub near to me (not being more specific for diplomatic reasons). On visiting several years ago, I was not overly impressed with the beers, but they have persisted and the head brewer has lifted the quality significantly since then. They now produce some excellent beers. The head brewer is also a top bloke who is hugely supportive of the local homebrew community, so it is pleasing to see him producing good to excellent beers!

That's good news, I wonder if they listened to feedback and changed things, or just had more practice at getting it right?

[richard080561]

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.

[An Ankoù]

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.

[bitter_dave]

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.

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!