Disappointed?

[terrym]

I've just had a few days in Wales, and whilst I was there tried as many cask beers of different styles as I could mostly produced by small breweries. I found that on average only about 3 out of 10 were to my liking, among them Robinsons Double Hop IPA and Conwy Yakima Grande, and so was a bit disappointed. Nothing to do with where I was, it's just how it worked out.
I went to the Great British Beer Festival a couple of years ago with youngest son expecting much, selected and sampled quite a few but both of us came away feeling let down, so that was a similar experience
So even though there are now many microbreweries out there, mostly run by people presumably with a passion for beer, are they mostly knocking out average or less than average stuff?
I wondered am I being too critical?

 

[Sandimas]

It might be that, as a home brewer, your standards have gone up even higher.

I've found that I don't enjoy beer festivals as much as I used to. I went to one recently that used to be well-respected, and 90% of the beers there were heavily-hopped golden ales. No variety at all. And I've been going to one local beer festival since 1989 and this year I just can't be bothered to get a ticket.

I do think there are now too many breweries.

 

[BeerisGOD]

i found that with my local one too. of course its hard to try every pint, but on the whole the majority i drank were like u mentioned 'golden ales'.
the best part was a seminar with Roger Protz (writer in the camra beer mag) who was giving out samples from different breweries, i think all bar 1 out of eight, they were amazing beers. he sent me the beer names and brewery's but ive no idea how to get a hold of most of them being so far away.

 

[Clint]

I went out to a local pub last week and they had a great range to try ..I had a Stonehouse tropical ipa,Timothy Taylor landlord and a NE pale..all very good. I'd have happily sat there and gone through the lot or until I fell over but was stuffed having eaten there too...they had a wheat beer a dry stout plus others! I will return.

 

[Sadfield]

In my opinion the number of breweries is a good thing, giving more choice. Unfortunately you get what you pay for, or more importantly you get offered what the landlord is willing to pay for.

 

[Clint]

Plus...have some actually tried some of the rubbish they sell!

 

[foxy]

You may be a tab to critical, the thing about homebrewing is you can make to your own taste, some people will open up a microbrewery guided by their heart and make to their own taste. (If we all had the same taste it would be boring) Others will open a microbrewery because they enjoy brewing but open it with their mind and produce mainstream beers.
Though it's good to get out and sample other beers there is nothing like what you make for yourself, as only you know what you like.

 

[terrym]

All good stuff.
The point about many beers now being Golden Ales is well made. Trouble is, of the ones I try, they usually seem to be very anonymous and don't hit with very much at all. Perhaps that's the style. If brewers are trying to tempt British lager drinkers towards cask ales I suppose they can't be too ambitious.
I do notice that the commercial beers I like, whatever the style, tend to have something very distinctive in there that you can actually taste, but isn't that what beer is all about!
Finally one of the beers I tried in Wales was Banks Mild which I hadn't had for years. I was very disappointed, it didn't taste of much at all . I was a mild drinker years ago and made up a brew last year to see how it would turn out. Like others have suggested my homebrew mild, although I say it myself, was much much better.

 

[Clint]

I think if it's crap it's crap end of...true people take some convincing that carling and Boddingtons aren't the holy grail of beers but the least some could do is try what they make. That green king ipa is one....sodding awful!