Is all Macro Beer Really that bad?

[Eoin]

Just to add to this, the boss in Jack Smyths had already read the beernuts review and he was more annoyed at his serving staff than he was at the beer review...he knows they're relative beginners at the beer thing and took it on the chin.

[imark]

[delzep]

I'll sue you for insulting my asshole

[Hop Bomb]

If anyone has any issues with any GBB bottled beer please contact me directly -  tom@galwaybaybrewery.com

If you have an issue with any of our beers on draught (or some other breweries beer) at a GBB bar, ask to speak to the manager & alert them to any issue & they'll take care of you. All our staff have done the siebel off flavour training (conducted at the brewery a few months ago), but things do get past them. Kegs kick mid pour & they have to leg it to the cellar to tap another. They wont be tasting the new keg, they'll go straight into serving again. All it takes is a leaky seal or spear coupled with poor stock rotation & you may have old or oxidised beer being served.

More often than not, issues with beer can be out of the breweries control once it goes out into the wild. I will make an argument for that below. However this does not cover piss poor brewhouse management with tragic flaws from poor sanitation, PH, yeast management, fermentation, phenols etc.

From our experience at our bars the issue we see time & again is oxidation. You can have leaky kegs going leaving the brewery that arent flagged (unless a seal is totally bollixed you probably wouldnt notice co2 escaping at the time of kegging). When c02 escapes, air replaces it. You all know the end result here. That leaky keg may sit for a week at the brewery before being delivered to the bar where it may spend another two weeks in the cellar before being tapped. You now have oxidised beer being poured. In an ideal world every bar tender would be on the ball & taste every keg but that isnt always the case. The same oxidised results from bars with leaky draught setups - faucets drawing in air, leaking lines/tapping heads etc. Some beer styles can take a few weeks to kick a keg, with leaks in the faucet or line you have air getting in. Leaky stuff doesnt impact volume selling beers as much as the bar will kick several kegs in a night, but the kegs that sit for longer will suffer from those leaks.

For beer to oxidise in the bottle all it takes is the cap to get a knock from another bottle while being put in the box, taken out of the box, put on the shelf in the offie etc. Bottled beer can take an age to sell in some stores (Ive seen two week old bottles of our beer beside 4 month old bottles on the same shelf!).

At GBB we do sensory before beer goes to the BBT for package. More sensory at packaging. We save bottles of every batch with some kept cold & some at room temp to see how our shelf stability is. We are lucky to have a great spec bottling line but most irish micros do not, & yet we still have occasional issues with beer in the wild. Hopefully as the scene progresses & matures all these issues will tighten up. Breweries will sell enough beer to afford a lab install & really focus on QA, shelf stability etc (we will do this in Feb 17), hire talent, buy hops direct from the farmer instead of through really poor quality wholesalers who sell the shit the big players wouldnt touch, bar staff & wholesalers on top of their game, Temperature-controlled supply chain etc.

Ireland has come a long way in a very short time, but we still have a very long way to go. Censoring members here from discussing poor beer is not the way for the scene to progress. Beer is science & its only through continued learning that we'll get the indigenous beer scene that we deserve.

[Dr Horrible]

Just had a batch of my own ruined by oxidation from a leaky keg, disgusted I forgot to do a leak test after sealing it up. Although I couldnt justify buying one for myself, at your scale you should consider getting a handheld ultrasonic leak detector. Ive used them at work for leak tests and theyre brilliant at picking up tiny leaks youd never hear yourself. Ill just have to stick to spraying Starsan soln and looking for the bubbles!

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[Will_D]

This sounds like the next must have GB - links please!

[Dr Horrible]

This is the link for the ones I've used in the past ( http://www.alpine-components.co.uk/products/ultrasonic-detectors/ ).  You might be able to get cheap Chinese knockoffs on Ebay, I haven't looked.  They're very simple to use, and very effective.

[Will_D]

I assume work owns these as they look fook'in (Dempseys favorite new word (used to be HUGH)) expensive!!

[Dr Horrible]

Yep, work purchase they aint cheap but I needed an ATEX version for work as well. Now I google them though I can see way cheaper options on Amazon and the like so I might do a bit of research, maybe even a Christmas purchase!

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[Leann ull]

Cheaper than a few squirts from a spray bottle filled with SS?

[cruiscinlan]

Yep, work purchase they aint cheap but I needed an ATEX version for work as well. 

How much is not cheap?