Latest craft beer recall notices: Revolution Brewing, Real Ale Brewing

As always, recalls are unfortunate (and seem to be happening more) but in the quest for craft beer quality, the acknowledgement of bad batches and taking precautionary measures when problems are perceived is encouraging.

Revolution recall

Revolution Brewing issued a product withdrawal of batches of beers produced with its house ale yeast that do not meet its brand specifications for taste and flavor. Affected brands include Anti Hero IPA, Fist City Pale Ale, Cross of Gold Ale, Mosaic Hero IPA, Eugene Porter and Unsessionable Imperial IPA.

The company explained it like this:

The affected beers exhibit ester or phenolic flavors, which are more characteristic of Belgian-style ales, and which should not be present in our standard American ales. We believe these off-flavors were produced by a wild yeast that has gotten worse over time and was not identified in time by our quality control methods. Our brewing team has re-propagated our house ale yeast, and all beer now being packaged at the brewery meets our standards for taste and flavor.

Revolution is in the process of removing all questionable beer from its system, including the destruction of identified beers at its brewery, removal of these brews from our distributors’ warehouses and return of the beer from retail locations.

Real Ale recall

Real Ale Brewing Co., based in Blanco, Texas, announced a voluntary recall of select 12-ounce glass bottles of two of its brands due to a potential glass defect. Although the likelihood of a defective bottle being in the market is very low (significantly less than 1 percent), Real Ale is issuing this precautionary recall to ensure the safety of consumers.

Of approximately 11,000 cases of beer produced using the affected glass, fewer than 500 cases were delivered to Texas retail accounts. The majority of the affected cases were quarantined at the brewery or at the distributor’s warehouses once the issue was identified and did not reach retail stores. There have been no reports of injury or defective bottles from consumers at this time.

During inspection of packaged beer at the brewery, Quality personnel identified a defect in the bottles that could result in small pieces of glass breaking off and falling into the bottle. The affected bottles, from a third party supplier, are limited to a single glass production date.