Murrays Brewery beers over carbonated.

[Dan Pratt]

About a month ago I picked up a single of Punch and Judy and it was really hard to drink, super fizzy from the bottle. A week later a mate said he had a gusher from one of the whale ales. This week my bro sent me a mixed case from a beerbud that has whale ale, angry man, punch an Judy along with the dark knight porter...4 of each.

They are all over carbonated, I poured the whale ale into a glass and it tasted fizzy, tried the punch an Judy....same.....damn....then the porter...wtf.....what have they done?

The over carbonation takes away the hop aroma, the flavour of the malt and overall beer....I'm sure they have had some feed back and I plan to contact them tomorrow......has anyone else had this over the past few weeks?

 

[barls]

sold a shit load through work, had no complaints.

 

[mahonya1]

About a month ago I picked up a single of Punch and Judy and it was really hard to drink, super fizzy from the bottle. A week later a mate said he had a gusher from one of the whale ales. This week my bro sent me a mixed case from a beerbud that has whale ale, angry man, punch an Judy along with the dark knight porter...4 of each.

They are all over carbonated, I poured the whale ale into a glass and it tasted fizzy, tried the punch an Judy....same.....damn....then the porter...wtf.....what have they done?

The over carbonation takes away the hop aroma, the flavour of the malt and overall beer....I'm sure they have had some feed back and I plan to contact them tomorrow......has anyone else had this over the past few weeks?

I had same problem with whale ale and angry man pale ale about 4 months ago. I've had both before, but on this occaision they were a struggle to drink. I emailed the brewery but heard nothing back.

 

[GalBrew]

They are probably infected. I've lost count of the times I've had a Murrays bottle with infection issues. Great off draught though.

 

[manticle]

Do an ahb search on murrays gushers and you'll get a few results. You'll also find accolades for their draught beer or beer from the brewery and generally a good response to complaints. Ones I've tried in the bottle haven't been amazing and 'handling' issues is stretching the friendship. Sounds like packaging issues.

 

[chrisso81]

Picked up a Wild Thing ages ago and it was so overcarbed it took about half an hour to pour into a glass as the smallest drop just erupted into foam. It wasn't a cheap beer so went back and complained, the lady just sighed and said they'd all been like that, I used my refund for something else and was then offered the rest of the Wild Things for $3 each. I grabbed them all but every one of them gushed the same. Was worth it though!

 

[manticle]

sold a shit load through work, had no complaints.

People rarely complain. They just don't buy the product again.
More telling would be how many repeat customers are buying it over and over.

 

[bradsbrew]

I don't buy the murrays beers anymore for this reason. Let down too many times. Which is a shame because they do a great beer, they are just crap at bottling.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

It's worse when you buy a couple of murrays stubbies from a boutique beer bar (at $10 ea) they're both gushers, and the bar stall tell you "it's supposed to be like that" and won't accept them back.

 

[Dan Pratt]

Good to know that some others are experiencing the same thing, as you can really tell they are not right. They arent infected, just over carbonated, almost evervenscent like a schweppes soda water.....I was thinking they were doing that to increase shelf life of the beers?

 

[labrooy]

I find they are usually over carbonated - Punch & Judys and Angry Man. I heard from a mate that they use Brew Pack for bottling - not claiming this is gospel, just throwing it out there.

 

[sp0rk]

I find they are usually over carbonated - Punch & Judys and Angry Man. I heard from a mate that they use Brew Pack for bottling - not claiming this is gospel, just throwing it out there.

They bottle on site from what I've seen at the brewery
It may be possible they have some contract brewed to meet demand, but I've never heard of that

 

[Dan Pratt]

I emailed the brewery and heard back from Shawn the head brewer. The offisite bottling is true and something they are no longer doing as you will read from the email. Kindly they offered to replace my beer and I have accepted but will be sure to share these with friends and tell them about Murrays.

Here is my email to them:

Hi,

I’d like to let you know that lately your beers are over carbonated. I had a punch and judy from the bottlo 3 weeks ago and it was overwhelmingly fizzy, to the point where each mouth full it felt like I had just taken a mouth full of soda water. A mate had the whale ale and told me the same story, they weren’t gushers from the opening just really hard to smell the aroma and taste the flavour due to the carbonic levels.

This week my bro sent me an entire mixed case (16) from Beerbud online and I got the whale, p & j, Angry Man and the Porter…..tried one of each and they were so over carbonated it made me wonder what the heck I’m to do with the rest of them, really disappointed.

Now I know that handling of the product is questionable and poor in most cases from the stores but I shared this online with the brewing forum and there was a dozen’s of people sharing story’s about the same problem. I love having craft beer and feel you should be informed of what is hitting the shelves.

I really enjoy the beer you guys make, Shawn is an awesome brewer ( 2013 Champion ) and to see your beers hitting the shelves and talking with people about the over carbonation has lead me to contact you. I hope you can investigate the cause of this and possibly hit the shop and grab a few to see for yourself.

Cheers

Dan


Here is the response I got the same day as the email was sent:

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the feedback on our beers. We have indeed had some reports of some overcarbonated product and had traced it to a couple of specific batches we had bottled offsite. I’m guessing most of these reports have come from those batches – the problem wasn’t present at release and appears to have developed in the bottle which makes things difficult. We have removed and replaced beer as best we can and stand behind our product. We are no longer using that offsite bottling facility for extra capacity.

I would like to replace your beer. Please send through your best postal address and I will send some through to you asap.

Thanks again for contacting us,

Shawn

Shawn Sherlock
Head Brewer
Murray’s Craft Brewing Co Pty Ltd
3443 Nelson Bay Road
Bobs Farm NSW 2316
Ph: (02) 49826411
Fax: (02) 49826766
[email protected]mailto:[email protected]

So if you have had the same issue in the past I say pick up another 4 pack next time your at the bottlo :kooi:

 

[yum beer]

Have had this issue with Murray's for more than just a while, certainly had more overcarbed bottles than not.
Recently have had the same issue with Feral(sly fox) and The Austalian Brewery(pale ale) and at least 2 others...can't think off hand which breweries but its hard to take when you pay good money, and when I only get limited opportunity to buy said beers due to location, then the beer pours foam and tastes like shit.
Have had the opposite with others, no carb at all....Mountain Goat ; 2 out of 3 bottles, Grand Ridge......
Makes it very hard to justify the spend when you can't drink half...

 

[JDW81]

FWIW I recently bought a box of angry man and it was fine. I've had some over-done whale ales in the past, but the angry was brilliant.

JD

 

[chrisso81]

Knew I had a pic somewhere, it was like a magic trick, it looked like there was beer in the bottle, but there wasn't.

 

[Screamadelica]

The one and only time I ever bought bottled Murrays all 4 Whale Ale's were borderline undrinkable from being over-carbonated, shame because on tap their beers are great.

 

[Josh]

Good customer service from Shawn.

He replaced some overcarbed Porter for me about 3 years ago. I haven't had the chance to get to the brewery lately. But I do everytime I'm up that way.

 

[Trevandjo]

I just looked over my BeerBuddy tasting notes for Murray's. The angry man was fine but I'd made a note about Punch and Judy being a let down because of overcarbing. Normally if I give a bad review I'll just avoid buying it again but after reading Pratty's correspondence I think I'll give their beers another go.