Has James Squire Ruined The Golden Ale?

[Osangar]

I have noticed a few of the micro breweries seem to start with fantastic beers, then over time fall back on the name and seem to go toward cutting costs or some other reason for beginning to taste more and more like commercial beer I guess thats because they do become more and more like big commercial breweries.

He in WA there is a brewer in freo that for ages had terrific beer now its kinda so so.

For a while I thought it was my home brewing as I like to use heaps of hops but a lot of my friends seem to say the same, they are changing.

 

[matti]

JSGA changed the hops a while ago but I cannot find the source. (it was were on AHB)
It was something about the Amarillo getting too expensive and I guess it went well with "main-streaming" the drop.

JS Amber Ale is still fuller then you average mega swill and has a nice sweet end of the palate but lack a little in hops for the hop heads.

Some Ambers on sale have no finish to the taste and end up really dry like the Reds and really out of character.

I've must have been lucky with my last case of Amber ale... but then again....maybe i've been off that hoppy home brew too long

matti
ps i am bone dry tonight

 

[manticle]

Why does anybody think JS is a microbrewed beer? Being part of a major company doesn't necessarily mean it's bad but it's owned by Lion Nathan. It's not a microbrewery.

 

[Adamt]

People think Crown Lager is special, too...

 

[manticle]

People on here should know better. I've had shampoo that tasted more premium than crown.

Came in the same shaped bottle too.

 

[GMK]

OK - i have Toured JS and talked with the brewery...

They have a limited capacity - therefore, JS started brewing Hahn Premium until the demand got too great and it moved off premises - to hahn big major brewery.

i have been told that JS Amber Ale has moved off premises as well.

Maybe- this has also happened with JS Golden Ale.

 

[///]

Well, knowing both plants, irrespective of ownership both plants are small and on a Micro size. They are lucky to have some options, such as acess to keg floats and labs, but the brewers I have met from both are passionate brewers who work hard to make the best beer to suit their target markets.

JS Golden Ale, I believe, had to review the flavour hop as we all did. It was not only price, but also availability that buggared us all. Prides ran out last November as an example, so imagine what happened to a smaller grown variety!

But, like all brewers, when volume increases past what you can supply, some times you need to consider alternative options. We do that at 5ibc, and we are at a standard 40 keg run. A few smaller customers who come to us are struggling with supply due to thier size of plant or other logistical issues. As you can tell, i dont think much of bashing any brewer. Sure, bash a sales and marketing guy, not a brewer. Regardless of the ownership or size of plant, they are a passionate lot and you never know, one day you may be one of them.

Scotty

 

[Screwtop]

I just bought a 6 pack of JS Golden Ale from 1st Choice, because it was on special as part of a win a holiday competition.

Sorry but in the world of marketing, this is how it goes. If the only good thing about the product you have to sell is the give away, then that's is what you should buy :lol:

Screwy

PS: Good thing we can all brew the original.

 

[benny_bjc]

Fat yak is some hops. Unremarkable. I'd go the Coopers PA with gusto (presuming the relevent establishment kept their lines clean).

As for the Coopers Pale Ale on Tap I haven't found any places where it tastes that great. Same goes for the Sparkling.

On tap it dosen't have that lovely coopers taste and is often very weak, over fizzed and has the dirty POR taste lots of people describe.
One time I order it on tap and it looked even lighter in colour than usual and tasted watered down and had very little cloudy appearance.

Coopers Pale in the bottle is a totally different beer to what is served on tap!!!

I'm really over getting bad JS and average tasting coopers beer on tap - at least I can rely on Coopers in a bottle though!!!

 

[bum]

As you can tell, i dont think much of bashing any brewer. Sure, bash a sales and marketing guy, not a brewer. Regardless of the ownership or size of plant, they are a passionate lot and you never know, one day you may be one of them.

No one is making this a personal issue. Some are saying the beer is bad - not your mates.

 

[benny_bjc]

... I don't think the poor taste is only due to a change of hops or lack of hops...
I'm pretty sure the whole structure or manafacturing of the beer has gone down hill. It just tastes awful all round!!!

 

[MCT]

Well I think that the Pilsner has taken over as my favourite JS beer.
To me, it seems like it's the only JS beer that has actually improved over the last 2 years. :chug:

PS (Only had it on tap at a few pubs, not sure what it's like in the bottle.)

 

[///]

No one is making this a personal issue. Some are saying the beer is bad - not your mates.

Well you could open the can of worms of 'what is bad beer' ... but lets not ey!

Scotty

 

[bum]

We could also ruminate upon the effect of passion on the finished product but we shan't.

 

[manticle]

As for the Coopers Pale Ale on Tap I haven't found any places where it tastes that great. Same goes for the Sparkling.

On tap it dosen't have that lovely coopers taste and is often very weak, over fizzed and has the dirty POR taste lots of people describe.
One time I order it on tap and it looked even lighter in colour than usual and tasted watered down and had very little cloudy appearance.

Coopers Pale in the bottle is a totally different beer to what is served on tap!!!

I'm really over getting bad JS and average tasting coopers beer on tap - at least I can rely on Coopers in a bottle though!!!

Fair call. I have better experiences of most beers I like in the bottle at home rather than on tap. A lot of that may be temperature and another part may be bottle conditioning. Funnily enough, I find something like Cralton Draught is one of the few beers to taste better on tap than in a bottle.

@ /// - size of the premises is irrelevant to whether or not they are a microbrewery. Having a small office doesn't make you an independent record label if you're owned by Sony.

Secondly brewery bashing and expressing dissatisfaction with a product that's changed from the one you used to enjoy are completely separate. No-one denied anyone's passion and no-one's been bashed. Should everyone and anyone who's ever made beer get constant pats on the head because they tried really, really hard?

 

[MarkBastard]

Fat yak is some hops. Unremarkable. I'd go the Coopers PA with gusto (presuming the relevent establishment kept their lines clean).

Couldn't disagree more. Coopers PA is the definition of unremarkable in my opinion. Fat Yak is awesome.

 

[bum]

I think for what it is (and what its real competition is) CPA is a decent beer.

I also think the same for the Fay Yak.

How about that!

 

[manticle]

Couldn't disagree more. Coopers PA is the definition of unremarkable in my opinion. Fat Yak is awesome.

Coopers is not my definition of remarkable beer. Neither is Fat Yak. Coopers is, however, consistent, good value for money and independent, unlike anything MB produces. I know where I'd rather spend my money.

That said, we could both go to the same pub and choose to order two different pints.

 

[Osangar]

fat yak is a nice beer, but I was a big fan of the alpha pale ale and it seems that has been ended according to the chap at the local boozer in favour of the fat yak

 

[caleb]

I sent an email to James Squire via their website letting them know just what I thought of the new Golden Ale recipe.

I got back a stock reply:

Hi Caleb

Thank you for advising us the experience you recently had. At Lion Nathan, we are commited to world class standards. The information you provide will assist us to achieve higher levels of quality in our products and services. We try to adress all our consumers concerns and feedback regarding our products. The information you can provide us below will allow us to provide our quality team with the details they will need to investigate further and contact you to address your concerns.

At the brewey we have procedures and protocols in place to ensure the integrity of our products. We routinely perform quality control and quality assurance checks and make every effort to ensure our product is in world class condition when it reaches you. However we do also know that certain occurances such as transit, storage and climate can contribute to the product not being in the condition you are used to when you buy it which is why we do investigate the matter.

Please note that all James squire and Craft beer continues to be brewed at the Malt Shovel Brewery.

Basically what it boils down to is that "we're a big company with lots of people, so we can't make mistakes, and if the beer IS no good, blame the freight company or the bottle shop - THEY did it!"

OK... mystery of the golden ale solved... Truck drivers and dock-hands from the freight company have been secretly drinking the shipments of golden ale, leaving about 1/4 in the bottom and topping the rest up with Carlton draught or whatever they could buy the cheapest, re-capping bottles with a bench capper and hoping no-one would notice.