My closest friends, Facebook and Twitter followers know I love and use the popular beer app called Untappd. It's a great app as it allows breweries to see what people are saying about their beer. It also allows establishments to track who is drinking what in their location provided the consumer is syncing their post to Facebook, Twitter and/or Foursquare. I use the app to keep up with what I've had and where as well as to make notes on the beer I've had.
Recently I was in an establishment and Anchor Steam was on the tap rotation. I've been a fan of Anchor Steam for years but never had one on draft. I ordered one and was not happy with the flavor. It tasted very yeasty and bread like and I asked the bar tender if the keg had just been put in. At times when a keg is changed out it gets jostled around and any sediment can mix with the beer. I was told that it had been up for a day or two. Needless to say I just wasn't impressed with this beer and was slightly disappointed because I have enjoyed it for years in bottles. I posted on Untappd with the comment "Either a bad keg or I prefer it in a bottle." I finished the beer and ordered a different one next. I spent a little more time in the establishment chatting with other patrons and had forgot all about my post. As I was leaving one of the owners of the establishment approached me and said if I ever posted about bad beer in their establishment then I would be banned from coming back in. This shocked me for a few reasons. One, I am pretty regular in visiting this place and the owners know me as a beer snob. Two, I would never publicly insinuate that any establishment was selling bad beer on purpose. Three, it happened in front of other customers that may or may not have heard the exchange.
I have had bad beer in the past at various locations and I would usually mention to the bar tender, manager or owner that they may have an issue with a keg. Usually the problem is researched and if proven to be a bad keg it is removed from the line. I've never said a beer was bad based on the fact I didn't like the taste. If that were the case then every bar or restaurant I ever entered would be getting complaints on the Budweiser and Miller/Coors products. I know the difference between a beer I don't like and a beer that has some quality control issues.
Getting a bad beer isn't necessarily the fault of the establishment. I think it's the responsibility of the establishment to remove a bad beer from the line though. I have been in an establishment that knew it had a bad keg and had the keg replaced by the distributor but they still left the bad keg on their line.
Also this week I was in a grocery store mulling over the beer selection and picked up a 6 pack that was a full month out of date. In this case it is the fault of the establishment and the distributor.
As consumers we should be obligated to alert the establishment regarding a potential problem with a product. Any good establishment will have a Cicerone, BJCP Judge or a few trust worthy customers that can all verify if there is a problem with a specific beer. Simply ignoring the problem won't make it go away and could lead customers to believe that the establishment does not care about the quality of their product.
I'd be interested to hear comments on this subject.
Cheers!
