The Bruery Issues Statement and Course of Action Regarding Quality Issues

Our neighbors in Orange County, The Bruery has issued a very concise, heart felt blog post regarding some brewhouse issues that have effected some of their barrel aged beer releases this year.  We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again, it’s a very classy way to do business, as not every other production brewery with focus on barrel aged beers take this route. Below is the meat of the issues, followed by a link to all the details you need to now on how to right any wrongs as well as what The Bruery is doing to correct these issues. Cheers!

As you may recall, earlier in the year we stopped shipments of Ebony & Oak and issued refunds. This beer began souring and building excess carbonation a few weeks after it was released. While bourbon barrels are usually quite stable due to once having bourbon in them, they aren’t immune from causing beer spoilage. However, usually that spoilage happens during the time in the barrel and we catch it before packaging.
High alcohol content generally discourages microbiological growth, so unwanted microorganisms can be present in some of our barrels and they might not present an issue for us as the beer is strong enough to keep the microorganisms at bay. With Ebony & Oak, we found that its alcohol content was too low.

White Chocolate you may also recall this year did not taste as it did in the previous year when it was first released. Our initial testing showed the beer was a lower pH than the 2012 version, and continued testing showed it had remained at the same pH since being packaged, so we determined it was stable. Unfortunately, we have recently found that the pH has continued to drop, indicating further souring of this beer. We offered store credit for those who purchased the beer and did not enjoy it, and we extend that offer to anyone who has purchased White Chocolate.

Earlier this year, we had an idea to come up with a beer blend that mimicked the taste of a macaroon. It was made of a special blend of some of our favorite beers with the addition of hand-toasted coconut. We expected to get a delicious, coconutty beer with great barrel notes, and a background of pineapple upside down cake from the addition of Barrel Aged 5 Golden Rings. We were very excited at the result, but as time went on, our lab tests have shown that some bottles of this beer, Cacaonut, have unfortunately turned sour due to the presence of unwanted lactobacillus. We believe that when making Cacaonut, unwanted microorganisms (likely lactobacillus) were present in the coconut we added to the beer. Normally when we add special ingredients to non-sour beer, it’s either done at a point in the brewing process where very hot temperatures eliminate the chance for bacteria to thrive; or the ingredients themselves are sanitary and come straight out of sanitary packaging — they aren’t being lovingly hand-toasted like the coconut in this case. The addition of this toasted coconut, followed by time in a cozy barrel meant those unwanted microbes had a chance to survive.

Similar to White Chocolate, some people love their bottle of Cacaonut. There have been bottles that haven’t gone sour, and some have had experiences and reported this beer going sour. We are offering store credit to those who purchased Cacaonut and weren’t satisfied with their experience. More details are explained by following the link at the bottom of this post.

Praecocia, our barrel-aged apricot ale that was also released earlier this year to some reports of very strong carbonation (make sure you don’t open it over your tiger skin rug). Praecocia has shown no signs of souring (the pH is the same as when we packaged it), but our lab tests have shown a presence of a highly attenuative yeast in this beer. We surmise that this yeast came from the fruit additions of “aseptic” apricot puree to this beer, as the beer did not test positive for this yeast prior to the addition of apricot. Bottles of Praecocia have had their residual sugar gobbled up by this yeast, making the living beer’s carbonation level increase. The beer itself is still delicious and safe, but bottles could be a bit overcarbonated.

We’re offering store credit to customers unsatisfied with their bottles of Praecocia. While we don’t feel this is a beer gone bad, it’s very important to us that we’re meeting our customers expectations of our beers. More details on our refund policy for this beer are explained at the bottom of this post.

Lastly, we’ve recently discovered souring microorganisms in Barrel Aged Autumn Maple. At this point, the beer tastes as is intended, but we want to get the word out that it may develop into a problematic beer over time. Please drink your bottles soon, and keep them refrigerated until you do. If you come across any soured bottles, our policy is we’ll give you store credit. See the link below for more details on this beer as well.

Read on… http://bruery.blogspot.com/2013/12/beer-issues-cacaonut-barrel-aged-autumn-maple-praecocia.html