Food poisoning often takes more the 12 hours to develop.
Never again? Hmmmm, never say never. But I’d prefer other options over just about any American wheat beer you can name.
My worst beer was a Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic. I bought a few Holiday Beer packs back when I was getting started and needed bottles. Each 12 pack had 2 Cranberry Lambics in it. I forced 2 down and poured the rest out. I’ve never found a lambic I enjoyed yet.
Sometimes it’s just a lack of knowledge:
When we go out I will often order Boulevard Wheat because it’s a decent wheat and is available pretty consistently in Central Iowa. We go to a little hole in the wall restaurant once in awhile. Normally we will get a bottle of wine but one night I ordered a wheat. The owner is young kid (and I mean young, he bought the place at 18) and he brings my beer and my wife’s iced tea and says he’s interested in my opinion of the beer because they haven’t sold much of it. I took one sip and asked when was the last time he clean his beer lines? He didn’t know. While we ate our meal, some friends happened to show up and sat down with us. They kept my wife entertained while I cleaned the tap lines and faucets on his bar. The next time we were in he comped our meal. He said he’s never sold so much beer and wanted to thank me for teaching him how to care for his taps.
The next week another friend of mine complained that some jerk to went his favorite little joint and wrecked the beer. The owner told him a customer had taught him to clean the beer lines. 8^)
Paul
Nothing has made me sick other than the Cantillon Grand Cru I drank one night 4 years ago. Still think it messed my insides up.
For just plain bad beer Breckinridge Vanilla Porter comes to mind. Or stuff brewed at Independence Brewery in Austin. Their Convict Hill Stout is so horrible I’ve poured out every glass after a few sips.
I’ll second Fat Tire as a never again purchase, but if given to me I’d drink it. I remember it just tasting uniquely strange, maybe its the biscuit malt, but something very distinct, almost plasticky about it. Phenols? I do have a vivid memory of drinking 3 of the the only sixer I ever bought of it, while watching “The General” (Buster Keaton) years ago. Pleasant memory…not a beer I would seek out again though. But it wasn’t foul, just not to my taste.
I tried a Summer Shandy by Leinenkugel for sh**s and giggles since the only beers available were Blue Moon, Summer Shandy or Harpoon IPA. Made a heroic effort to drink it and finally my wife said, “give me that” and proceeded to get it swapped out for a Harpoon IPA (She disliked it more than I did). I have a GREAT wife! I will never let a sip of that past my lips again!
Last winter my wife and I were at the local brewery (Maumee Bay Brewing Co.) and she asked for one of their specialty beers called “Smoke Bomb”. Luckily, the bartender said you should try a sample of this before you buy a pint. We both tasted it and it was flat out awful and we could barely swallow a sip - way too much smokiness. Later I found out that they used 40% cherry smoked malt in the grist ???
Dogfish 120.
I wonder if you got a bad bottle or there wasn’t something else at work. I’ve had that beer on many occasions without suffering any ill effects.
That’s amazing.
You’re nuts!
Pretty much anything that has the word Pumpkin on the label. Vile, nasty creations that make me want to gargle with Drano.
With one strange exception. Diane, the brewer at a nearby brewpub, brewed a special batch of pumpkin beer one year that somehow got infected, but in a good way. The owner wouldn’t let her sell it and she didn’t like sour beers so I got 1.5 cornies of sour pumpkin beer that was delicious.
Not even Jolly Pumpkin?
+1 - I hate DFH 120. The 60 minute is pretty good. The 120 Minute is way over the top and way too sweet.
LOVE me some Jolly Pumpkin. Never had a bad one. Never had enough of what I had, either.
Love Jolly Pumpkin, but now I open it outside since last year the stout they make ended up on my dining room ceiling!
Went to a John Harvards in or around Wayne PA a few years ago and they had a scotch ale that was made with the most repugnant peated malt you could ever imagine - and they used a lot of it. This beer smelled and tasted like a pair of old sweaty gym socks. It was truly vile.
Tried this last week while in Michigan and I am not sure it is even a beer. It was more like a beer syrup used to induce a gagging reflex. The waitress asked us how we liked it and was shocked when the four of us sent it back and called it horrible.
To me shandies and radlers are not necessarily bad, but should be mixed fresh! Premixed beer and lemonade in a bottle sounds more like a malt cooler…not something very appealing.
I’ve never tried it, but their Berry Weiss is described as Fruity Pebbles in a glass.
I made a solid Flanders stew with 2 of those last winter, I suggest that to people who want the SA pack but cannot stand those.
You got me on that one. I do love the JP stuff but I can’t get it anywhere around here. My daughter gave me a split case of La Roja and Bam Wheat a few years ago when she lived in Albuquerque but I haven’t had one in a long time.
The only beer I’ve had that i would describe as truly vile is Brau Brothers Scotch Ale. Had it at a tasting event a few summers ago. It was the only beer I had to spit out that day. They must have used 50% peated malt in the stuff. It tasted like an ashtray!
There are certainly beers I don’t care for, but not many for which I would say “never again.” I generally avoid fruit beers or beers with other flavor additives like herbs and spices, the exception being certain Belgian styles.
Haha!! Sounds like my first attempt at a smoked stout. At the time, I didn’t know anything about peat smoked malt and probably used 40%. Five years later I still have most of it sitting in bottles. I still can’t bring myself to pour it out, but I can’t bring myself to drink it either. If I remember in Gordon’s new book, he mentions something about peat smoked malt and the flavor of “open grave” or something like that. Pretty accurate description, and one beer I won’t ever drink or brew again.
So that brings me to a question. I don’t want to hijack the thread, but everyone is listing commercial brews. What about home brews that you would never brew again for the same reasons?