Sun 24 Jun 2007
This week, instead of beer ratings, y’all get a warning and a question. When it happened once, I asked the liquor store (and stumped them). When it happened again, I turn to you for answers.
Twice we’ve bought organic beer that was possessed. Two separate occasions, two different breweries. We’d open the bottle, but as soon as the beer reached our mouths, it turned to complete fizz. All air, no liquid. Same if we poured it in a glass - it turned completely to foam. Let it sit for half an hour, and there’d be half an inch of totally flat beer in a glass that had been brimming full of foam.
Both times, the blight affected the entire six-pack. Both times, we’ve had the beer several times before and it was fine. The first occasion was several months ago, and it was Bison Chocolate Stout. The second time was last weekend, with Butte Creek Organic Porter. It wasn’t as bad as the Bison, but still difficult to drink. Beer is much less enjoyable when you have to concentrate on each sip or end up with fizz up your nose and a shirt covered in beer fluff.
So… if you but these organic beers, beware… and does anyone know what the freakin’ heck is going on? Unless you have ideas, I’m going on the presumption that these beers are possessed.
June 26th, 2007 at 6:14
Megasaaurus! Do not dispair, the Tony-unit emailed one of our friends who is a brewer and huge sciency-chemistry type nerd, he’ll know what’s up with that fizzy stuff. Hell, he drank a sip of our water and could tell us what would be good and bad to brew with it! Not that we’ve made any beer yet, but its on The List of Things To Do.
June 26th, 2007 at 6:32
Indeed I have a sort of answer right now, it is as follows:
Huh. That’s a stumper. All the CO2 coming out of solution at once…
Knee-jerk reactions would be bad bottles, some nucleating particle falling in (e.g., Mentos in Diet Coke), over-carbonation at the brewery, warm weather, rough handling, or maybe a bacterial contamination. But none of those seems likely for 2 whole six-packs from 2 different breweries at 2 different times. Hmmm, I’ll ask around…
That from my friend Steve who has mad beer skillz.
We’re on the case.
June 27th, 2007 at 5:45
Kay-bot, thanks for the info! I will gladly be a guinea pig for your beers once you start to brew. Like, if you need to test how it ships or something.
Tony-bot, thanks for sleuthing! I didn’t drop anything in the beers that I’m aware of. The Bison Stout was sitting on the store shelf and the Butte Creek was in the fridge case. Both went right in the fridge once they got home.
I’m so glad you are snooping around for me. Here, have a Squidlock Holmes!
Sleuth
June 29th, 2007 at 12:56
YEEE!!! He’s the cutest! Who knew something so Cthuluesqe (if that is indeed a real word, hah!) could be so adorable? Or maybe I’ve just failed one too many sanity checks.
We haven’t heard any more from our brewing buddy, but he’s a busy guy so it may take a bit. I thought the preferred way to ship beer was to show up at a con with some, but I am actually curious about how it goes through the mail. Especially since the post office and the ups guys seem to have very specific rules about it! Hmmm, how to thwart Official-Types… noooo, I didn’t just say that on the internet did I?
June 29th, 2007 at 10:11
Who says Cthulhu can’t be cute? :D
No rush on the beer info - any info you find is better than what I know now! And I agree with you about the preferred shipping method. In fact, if y’all showed up at Con on the Cob with your homemade beer, I would love you forever! (oh wait I already do)
June 30th, 2007 at 10:51
[...] The bottle also says “Adds holiday warmth and cheer to any beer lover’s winter.” Ha. It is as refreshing as a dark beer can be, and isn’t too bad in the Georgia summer heat. And one last note - I do know how to pour beer, but this one dumped it head over the side of the glass and I had to wait quite a while for it to go down. This may or may not be related to my technique, but I assure you that my clumsy pouring did not contribute to the problems I mentioned in last week’s post. [...]
September 16th, 2007 at 2:13
[...] Brewery Entire Stout is another beer that went bad in our fridge. I am wondering if we’re doing something wrong. I drive straight home from the liquor store, [...]
September 17th, 2007 at 11:26
Maybe it didn’t go bad. Maybe it’s just awful beer. Otherwise, get a thermometer & check the temp of your fridge- from a couple of different shelves.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:33
We were thinking it started as a bad batch, because we’ve had that beer before and it’s been fine. I’ll try the thermometer idea, though!