Fat Yak: dumbed down for the masses?

[Dan Dan]

We had a BBQ tonight, and old mate brought along a sixer of fat yak. Now I used to like the yak, a great deal even, but now I'm not so sure. It started at my sisters wedding a few months ago, when I had a couple of stubbies, and it just didn't taste right. I put it down to bad storage, being a small restaurant that probably turned the fridges off every night. A few weeks after that, I found a bunch of stubbies at my local bws that were half price because they were nearing their best before date. Not bad, but lacking the big hop taste I was assuming had faded away with time. Tonight, fresh yak, bugger all aroma and flavour. Is it just me, or has the taste of this beer changed? A different recipe to appeal more to the masses? Anyone else noticed this, or have I been sampling too many IPA's??

 

[givemeamash]

Too many IPAs!!!

 

[timmi9191]

I leant last weekend that yak, in fact most Matilda bay beers, are pasteurised. I'm not a historian on the yak so don't know if this has always been part of the process or something inherited once their C.U.B. take over.. But.. Maybe that explains the change..

 

[Dan Dan]

The CUB connection explains their disappointing effort with that horrid Minimum Chips lager. I really wanna try fat yak on tap again, to see if it tastes different to what I remember. In the bottle, it's still a good beer, but not worth paying $60 a carton for.

 

[manticle]

Never been that exciting a beer but last pint I had was a large glass of diacetyl. Tasted like a werthers lozenge soaked in orange juice.
Better beers out there (and worse too)

 

[philmud]

Tasted like a werthers lozenge soaked in orange juice

Haha! That's a great similie!!

 

[Dan Dan]

Never been that exciting a beer but last pint I had was a large glass of diacetyl. Tasted like a werthers lozenge soaked in orange juice.
Better beers out there (and worse too)

I agree, not a beer I would go out of my way to buy, but sometimes the best on offer. I just get the feeling it doesn't have as much hop character as it used to, as if it was being marketed to a different crowd now, ie a "gateway" craft beer, if you will. Anyways, old mate brought a six pack, drank two, and ate half a piece of budget rump,from woollies. I think we're square....

 

[lukiep8]

I leant last weekend that yak, in fact most Matilda bay beers, are pasteurised. I'm not a historian on the yak so don't know if this has always been part of the process or something inherited once their C.U.B. take over.. But.. Maybe that explains the change..

I don't see how an acquisition of a brewery in 1990 can be detrimental to a beer that has only been around for the past 10 years.

 

[Aydos]

I have noticed the recipe has changed. It used to have a very obvious aroma and quite a nicely balanced hop flavour with a light crystal taste to back the hops. The beer now tastes like it's been thinned out and the aroma hops have been removed. It's a very underwhelming beer now.

 

[mje1980]

I find beers like 150 lashes and fat yak very variable in the bottle and on tap. It's a bit like coopers. Get a nice one on tap its bloody nice, but get an average one, and It goes down sideways. Not sure if its down to handling or what. Bottles I find hit and miss. The last fat yak I had in the bottle sat in my brew shelf for months, and then got tipped out. Bland thin and a estery type after taste. Was like tooheys spew with a dash of hop.

 

[brente1982]

Fat Yak definitely tastes a lot better and the same as it always has on tap. I drink it quite regularly at the Frank Grey Smith Bar in MCC members reserve at the MCG when i go to the footy.

 

[lukiferj]

I'm not sure. When I was first branching out from my VB drinking days I thought Fat Yak was amazing. Not sure if the beer has changed or my tastes have changed or possibly both. Either way I'm not a big fan of this beer anymore but sometimes it it the best in a bad situation.

 

[philmud]

Fat Yak definitely tastes a lot better and the same as it always has on tap. I drink it quite regularly at the Frank Grey Smith Bar in MCC members reserve at the MCG when i go to the footy.

Come and sit with the common folk in the general admission area and you'll find Fat Yak is available there too - I'm not sure if its changed, or if it's just that since first trying it, I've become accustomed to better APAs, but yup, it's not great. For mine, I'll drink it over draught at the footy and in the Virgin Lounge (what a misnomer!), but there are dozens of beers I'd buy first.

 

[Byran]

Talking about changed beers, I was at the Tassie beer festival a few years back and the James Squire rep was promoting the first release of their IPA.
He gave everyone at the ale house a pint for free. No one drank it, it was about 80 IBU and hoppy as hell. I drank all my mates glasses for them. Pussies.
But now it tastes like a very mild APA in comparison. Not nearly as bitter. I tried a Sierra nevada pale ale on tap the other day and it was way more bitter than the current Squires IPA.
So maybe they dumbed it down to sell more as well?

 

[brente1982]

Anyone been to beer deluxe in Melbourne??

 

[philmud]

Anyone been to beer deluxe in Melbourne??

Yep - only the one at Fed square - it's decent.

 

[mmmyummybeer]

Why does your perception of flavour seem to change the same time as a dramatic price drop.

Now we can get hop hog in our limited selection, much preferable choice for us.

 

[Midnight Brew]

Cant back this info up but recipes do tend to develop over time to adjust for seasonal change in ingredients but I heard that once they started making it down in tassie the recipe changed dramatically to adjust for location and it was just a shadow of its former self. This would have been long before I ever tasted it but just what I've heard. But perhaps too many IPA's and your taste buds do adjust would also have a huge impact on flavour.

I used to like Sierra Nevada PA but now when I taste it I think it has way too much crystal in it and would much rather prefer something home brewed by any of you blokes. Sampling APA's at case swaps puts them to shame.

 

[lukiep8]

Sampling APA's at case swaps puts them to shame.

Fresh beer will always win.

Maybe people don't like Fat Yak any more because they realise it is crap beer.

 

[Byran]

Its pretty good on tap compared to most of the selection currently available at most pubs.