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Post by Ken on Aug 26, 2022 9:43:13 GMT -6
Along my bike route there is a brewery called Buffalo Creek. It's in a small, quasi-country village that's nice to bike though and also walk around in. It's nice to bike, stop in here for a beer and then keep pedaling. On the weekends the place is pretty crowded and there is a really nice inside and then a big deck and picnic-table outside sometimes with a live band, food trucks, etc. The space is really cool and it's already in a cool town. But the beer is questionable at best and I just wonder how it stays open. There is no food except for the trucks which arrive randomly, I believe. I assume the place uses the same water that I do. As I sit and have a beer here, I know that the water leans towards sulfate (about 27ppm) and has less chloride... about 18ppm. Every beer is dry, overly crisp and kind of "chalky" almost as if the brewer uses gypsum in every batch no matter what and the water already leans towards sulfate. Any malt-driven style like a Dunkel, Vienna, Helles or Festbier is terribly chalky and dry. No malt depth of any kind. I can't even imagine what the IIPA is like. The dunkel also tasted like an ashtray as if he used a high percentage of black malt. The other issue is that EVERY beer is cloudy and has no head on it. I know we all have our preferences and if I were to stand on one of those picnic tables and scream THIS BEER IS TERRIBLE!! the other patrons might throw rocks at me... not sure. But I SMH thinking about what a better brewer could do in a place like this. Each time I stop I get about halfway through the beer and think, "Why do I come here?".  I assume you guys have seen similar. I hate to see beer like this served to unsuspecting patrons. |
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Post by Megary on Aug 26, 2022 10:50:56 GMT -6
Rhetorically, is beer like pizza, where even the bad ones are still ok?  There is a "Micro-micro brewery" like that near me. It is set back off a winding country road, nestled among the trees, with a nice lake on the premises. The occasional food truck is there, but mostly everyone stops and picks up food first...cheese, crackers, Italian meats, pizza, big soft pretzels etc. The place has a certain backwoods charm to it, and it has become a gathering place on Friday nights for many locals to relax. Edison lights hanging from the tents, cornhole if you are interested, fire-pits. Yeah, it's a great place to hang out. Their beer is not good. So much so that half the offerings on tap are theirs and the other half is national standard craft beers. They also push local wines. Their beer suffers from many of the same faults you mention. Lacks any kind of depth and clarity. Head, if there is one, is gone instantly. The "brewery" itself is a sight to behold, a glorious patchwork of repurposed farm equipment and assorted miscellany. Occasionally, they'll surprise me and I'll stumble onto something pretty decent, but usually it's one and done and then I'll move on to a Lagunitas. Still, the experience is what sells it for me, and the wife and I will get there once a month or so. It's beer and a good time. |
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Post by tommymorris on Aug 26, 2022 11:32:35 GMT -6
On of my favorite spots in town is also one of the worst breweries. I am kind of in the same situation as Ken. Every time I go there I ask myself why I did it again.
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Post by Ken on Aug 26, 2022 12:40:41 GMT -6
It's almost like I can't drink the beer and be done with it fast enough. I roll up on my bike, walk inside and get a beer, go outside and drink it and the entire visit might be like 12-15 minutes. Every sip is worse than the one before. I hear the pizza analogy but I'm sorry... this beer is just not good. I also realize that everyday beer drinkers might just think that this is what craft beer is all about. But that makes it even worse because those people might think that ALL "craft" beer tastes this way. People who brew beer at places like this need to be doing it BETTER than big commercial breweries, not worse. Do I just think this way because I have been making beer for 23 years and I think I know something that others don't? If a BJCP judge came into this place he would not be impressed but I assume there are NO judges here. The helles was so dry and chalky that it drank more like a pilsner. The screen behind the bar said it was 22 IBUs but a ton of sulfate in the water could make that seem like 35 IBus. Last night I stopped in and saw a Vienna Lager on tap which is one of my favorites. It should be a dark amber with some red in it, clear with a big fluffy head on it. It should smell deep and malty and taste the same way with a balanced feel and a malty aftertaste. No. Cloudy, no head, harsh and dry and chalky. Any flavor was completely blotted out with this overly dry and chalky character. The helles was VERY similar... cloudy, no head, chalky. It's like someone told the brewer to dump a metric ass-ton of gypsum into every batch. Appalling.
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Post by brewbama on Aug 26, 2022 16:45:31 GMT -6
On of my favorite spots in town is also one of the worst breweries. I am kind of in the same situation as Ken. Every time I go there I ask myself why I did it again. Spill it. Which one? |
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Post by denny on Aug 27, 2022 12:33:47 GMT -6
I don't go to a brewpub specifically for the beer, but if the beer isn't good I avoid the place. We have too many great places around here to frequent one that's dicey.
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Post by Ken on Aug 28, 2022 6:40:01 GMT -6
I had a 21.5-mile bike yesterday and stopped in here around 2:30pm. I had one helles and it's funny what happens when you're hot and prepare yourself for less-than-stellar beer... it tasted marginally better than it usually does. It looks like they were setting up for a wedding. The tent is usually not there and I saw a guy wheeling boxes of cake into the brewpub. In this town there are actually 6 or 7 other places I could stop for a beer including a little pop-up tent place that is new this year and only open on the weekends. That place and the brewpub are they only 2 that I would go to if I were all sweaty from riding. Even walking into the brewpub all sweaty... some people give me the fisheye.  |
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I assume you guys have seen similar. I hate to see beer like this served to unsuspecting patrons. 
