theindependentFrom Taft’s Ale House this morning:

To our loyal Founding Fathers Members, Guests, and Fans of our beer:

It has come to our attention that our release of The Independent, in certain instances, has not lived up to our quality standards.  At this point, we have sent this beer out to a third party laboratory for further testing.  When this beer initially went to packaging, it had met our standards and was A+ quality.  With barrel aged beer at a lower alcohol percentage, there are factors out of our control which can affect the overall quality after a period of time being stored at room temperature.  If you have bottles of The Independent that have been kept cold, this beer should be fine.  However, if you have bottles that were bought at room temperature and have been stored at room temperature, we cannot guarantee the quality of the beer.  It is 100% safe to drink, but it will not taste as intended.

We are deeply saddened and sorry for this occurrence, but it can be a risk when using bourbon barrels.  Given the fact that we cannot guarantee the quality of the beer if it has been kept at room temperature, we would like to offer an opportunity to exchange your bottle(s) for 2 growlers filled with the beer of your choice.

We know that this is not what you signed up for, and it kills us to have to pen this letter.  We can only promise that we will continue to do our best day in and day out, and we will continue to offer the highest possible quality of brew.  The issues with The Independent are rare, and we sincerely hope that you will understand that we will always do our best to right mistakes if and when they do in fact happen.

Cheers.  And thank you for your loyalty.

The Taft’s Team

What Does This Mean?

I’m not going to dig into this very much other than it’s a shame to see it happen on only the second barrel aged bottle release from a brewery, and I salute them for dealing with it as soon as it was brought to their attention.

I will add this little bit in there – If you are out at a local bottle shop and still see this on a shelf…at room temperature, tell them.  Make sure they are away about the issues.

If you have any friends that you know have squirreled some of this away in a cellar… let them know too.  If anything have them get it into a refrigerator before they make the decision to open it, or return it.

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