A couple months ago, my wife and I took a trip to a craft brewery in Southern York County, PA. This brewery had two positive distinctions in our patronage of their beers. First, they had released a couple beers that we found locally and they were excellent. I credit them with giving us an appreciation for the style, ‘English Special Bitters’, or ESB for short, but there were others as well. We made several visits to their tap room and found them to be a sound brewery, an example of how to do it right at their scale and size. We did notice a couple anomalies though: ordering their stuff on draft in a local restaurant, it was less than remarkable, even unrecognizable, and also, a couple other tries from a packaged place were also far from inspired; in fact, they could only be considered tainted, possibly from mishandling. After discussing this with someone in their taproom as well as a couple people in the local industry, we chalked it up to mishandling by the respective outlets. At least trips to their tap room still rendered great beer, until the day it didn’t.
I don’t usually do this but I decided to speak up about it after receiving a common prompt to write a review on Facebook. Here is the text of that brief review:
“Did small pours of most on tap at the time which excluding a porter and cider, was all pale ales, IPAs, and or DIPA. First problem is the selection. Why in the whole world of beer are they serving so many similar styles? More problematic is that while the DIPA was pretty good, The IPAs and Pale Ales [4 beers of those styles that we tried]were more or less the same beer and mediocre. Disappointing. I’ve recommended SCB to others for a good while now as a great example of a small local craft brewery but they didn’t earn it this time around. It’s good that they’re getting new equipment and have great marketing but I worry that they’re losing what it takes to make great beer.”
This, in my opinion, is a review that recognized their accomplishments (and my endorsements) in the past. I didn’t post a good review prior to this but I stated thatfact as part of my critical review. I honestly pointed out a deficiency in my experience for the visit in question, and closed with a statement, that while expressing concern, also implied leaving the door open for future correction. So over two months later, what should appear, but an ‘angry face’ emoticon in response to my review. While a random disagreement might always be expected from a loyal clientele, what surprised me is that the surname matches the people related to the business. It seems reasonable to suggest that the angry review reader is close to management at this place. I’ll call her Ms. Angry Face.
In my recent article, Craft Beer, ca. 2018, I pointed out that “Craft brewers are definitely egotistical and some are not receptive to much [criticism].” I think Ms. Angry Face just proved my point.
While I don’t know the operation well enough to know for sure if Ms. Angry Face is a direct participant in the company, she reacted to a review over two month old. Perhaps she even represents the attitude of the brewers. In fact, knowing that her reaction would bump the review back to the top of their FB page , it’s there for the brewer and all of the public to see all over again!
So how should a brewer take this kind of review? I can see three scenarios. The typical response for a company seeing a critical review, (albeit, in the case, a constructive one), is to put out a conciliatory response, even if it isn’t sincere. Second; silence is not a positive response. The third response option is where Mr. Beer Brewer has so many fans that he immediately dismisses the review as an anomaly and quite likely, an annoyance. He/she pouts. Unfortunately, I suspect that is the case. Sheesh, I was one of those fans! But to dismiss a review like this this would be a mistake.
My review was actually a consensus between my spouse and I, so this is actually two negative votes for our experience that day. Furthermore, I’m a brewer, (and vintner and fermentationist). I have quite a few successfully batches under my belt and am validated by other experienced beer drinkers. I also know a mistake when I taste one because I’ve been there and done that too. But if there is any doubt about my credentials, it is simply to reiterate that I am the same beer taster that had previously validated them, even in spite of multiple QC exceptions at multiple local outlets. Based on that qualification alone and on my observation of the rather mindless little angry face, I’m inclined to think that their response is simply arrogance.
Business is booming for this small brewery and with a loyal following, maybe it will stay that way. As I pointed out in Craft Beer, ca. 2018, there are a lot people with new beer palettes still discovering craft brew for the foreseeable future. It should work out fine for them for a long time, until it doesn’t.
When I or anyone takes the time to point out a flawed lineup of beer or any craft consumable for that matter, you have an issue to address. Not everyone gets to the next league and sooner or later, once breweries are saturated in this area and the business becomes a game of musical chairs, not everyone will make it out the other end.
“They came to pursue the art of beer, but stayed for the money.” And that will be the undoing of some breweries.
These heretical thoughts brought to you by,
Lee Jones