Brewery Feedback?

[MrC]

Over the past couple of weeks I've had a couple of bad beers from a couple of NZs best craft brewers. On both occasions I decided to be proactive and flick the brewery an email letting them know of my experiences.
- The first brewery responded immediately and more than compensated me for the bad beer.
- The second brewery hasn't responded yet or has chosen not to respond.

I can't help but feel like a whinging beer geek even though I paid $6-8 for a drain pour.

So my questions to all you beer lovers out there are:
- Do you provide feedback to breweries when you get a bad beer (or a particularly great one for that matter)?
- Also, If you had a brewery, would you want to hear about every bad experience from crazy, over-excitable beer geeks & lovers?

[Stu McKinlay]

I'm not sure I'd trust anyone to "guarantee" a beer. Is it just that one batch? And if so, how is it done? Lab analysis cross referenced with my tastes?

We, as craft beer drinkers, are risk takers. If you get burned a few times you will stop trying them. Some people may stop at one burn.

[nzbrewer]

But if a lab tested it to say it was free of infection, and other major technical faults would that not inspire confidence?

There are craft beer brands I am reluctant to buy ever again because I have been burned too many times.

There is only so much the general public are willing to take risks on with their hard earned dollar. The people here are much more willing to be forgiving towards off flavours.

[Greig McGill]

I really like the quality mark idea. It may be "admitting there's a problem", as Mr C says, but what's wrong with that? You don't get better by denying your faults. I'd certainly respect the honesty involved in participating in such a scheme.

I could see it adding a fair bit of cost to an already pricey item though - but that's a practical issue. Not for these here the-o-retical type debateses.

[James P]

Not sure even buying directly from the brewery makes much difference Mr C. Brew Moon in Amberley normally has a great APA (Amberly Pale Ale) however on Sunday the beer was sub their normal standards... a little hint of astringent bite rather than what I perceive to be their normal hoppy bitterness.

[studio1]

I had an Emersons IPA the other night that was massively overcarbonated. I popped the top and it only poured foam. Tried to drink from the bottle but the carbonation hurt my tongue. Emailed Emersons last week but no reply.

[nzbrewer]

Posting a breweries name, beer and complaint on this forum generally gets a response. Especially if a group of people have the same problem and start majorly bagging on them.