The beer tastes fine but if I take a deep whiff I swear I smell a slight sweet baby vomit. Anyone who’s had a kid knows what I mean.
What would cause this?
On second thought…maybe it doesn’t taste fine. Friggin Total Wine crap-shoot for beer. I try to only buy something that was bottled recently but this didn’t have a date I could see. 
Sounds infected to me. It’s usually a nice beer.
I remember one of the Basic Brewing Radio episodes where they tried out one of those kits that simulated various off-flavors, and one of them was described as baby vomit. I don’t remember which but this was definitely like that. And as it warmed up the flavor just got awful.
Butyric acid?
Easy to reproduce. Leave spent grain in your mash tun.
ding that’s it. :o gross
I emailed the company to let them know. It’s not like it was just an old bottle sitting on Total Wine’s shelf for ages, like so many others I’ve had.
Mmmmm, sweet baby vomit! 
The company already responded to my email. There was no date on the bottle and this corresponds to a time last month when the date coder was down. They said they would pull some bottles from that period and have a panel test them.
-Sent from the future.
That is too bad. Hop Devil is usually a fine beer.
Date coder was down? Vomit tasting beer? And this is from a brewery that eliminated tours because it was a disruption to their brewing schedule. 
Noooo! Don’t do it!
Just ask Tony. 
I’ve had it and not had a problem, but haven’t had it lately. I’ve always gotten it in trades or when visiting family. I’d be interested to know if there is an issue with this beer, because it’s been good to me so far
This was my favorite beer in the world about 15 years ago or whenever they started brewing it. But, they may be having quality issues as they try to expand.
I’ll post something if they reply with more info. I’m sure it wasn’t widespread, otherwise we might hear more about it.
I bought a case of this a couple of months ago and it was tasty as usual.
Sounds like it’s an infected bottle to me. Was this only one bottle or a six-pack? I’ll be curious to hear their response.
I was just buying misc singles to try out.
ahaha he speaks the truth!!
Why does leaving grain in the mash tun make a vomit smell?
One of the products of the decomposition of the grain is the aforementioned butyric acid (= vomit smell)