The Brew Site10 Barrel issues Swill recall
10 Barrel Brewing is issuing a recall on this year’s batch of Swill, their American Radler. They just posted the full explanation on Facebook a few minutes ago:
We Are Voluntarily Recalling Swill
To our retailers and consumer friends,
10 Barrel Brewing Company is conducting a voluntary recall of Swill in all 12 and 22 ounce bottles. It has come to our attention that some of this product may be experiencing secondary fermentation in the bottle, causing over carbonation. This consistency issue does not meet 10 Barrel Brewing’s quality standards and, as a precaution, we are removing all inventory of Swill from our wholesalers and retail shelves and we are asking that consumers immediately dispose of any Swill already purchased. Swill is brewed with a completely different process than any of our other beers, isolating this issue to only Swill. This recall does not affect any of 10 Barrel Brewing’s other products.
Consumers: if you have any Swill in your home, please do not open it, attempt to transport it, or return it to your retail store. Dispose of the product by following these steps: (i) Before disposing of any bottles of Swill, please put on protective gloves and eye wear; (ii) Place all remaining Swill bottles in a closed box and place immediately in a secured dumpster or trash container outside.
We take the utmost pride in producing an extremely high quality product and continuously striving for new and innovative beers to send to the consumer. Unfortunately in this instance, despite a rigorous testing and brewing quality-check process, we didn’t hit the mark. We have an amazing new beer coming out in a few weeks to replace it so keep an eye out for something new in stores.
If you have any questions regarding this voluntary recall, please call 10 Barrel Brewing at (541) 678-5427 or send an email to swill@10barrel.com. If you have any of the potentially affected product and would like a refund, you can use the same phone number or email address.
My guess is, the lactobacillus used in the Berliner Weisse base is eating through the sugars added by the soda component of the radler. Which could definitely lead to bottle bombs if the added pressure gets high enough. I once had a homebrewed brown ale with the same type of issue, and actually saw a bottle explode—the bottom of the bottle broke and the top part rocketed up into the air a couple of feet. So don’t mess around, these bottles could potentially be damaging.
Holy moly! So I just throw out the cases I have that I’ve already purchased? That’s a lot of money down the drain, literally.
and of course once I posted below, I see ktvz’s story with the following.
“If you have any questions regarding this voluntary recall, please call 10 Barrel Brewing at (541) 678-5427 or send an email to info@10barrel.com. If you have any of the potentially affected product and would like a refund, you can use the same phone number or email address”
Apparently. Or you could open them carefully (following the guidelines in their recall notice) and if it’s not a gusher—not overcarbonated—you could drink it. But the longer the bottles are sitting unopened, the more likely they will have problems.
Actually, the longer the bottle remains unrefrigerated, the greater the chance of it becoming a bottle bomb. Until the yeast goes dormant, it will continue to produce CO2 as it comsumes the fermentable sugars in the beer. This is why home brewers are extremely carefull when they bottle condition their beer.
I just saw a reply to someone who had just stocked up to email swill@10barrel.com and “get it sorted out”. I’d take a picture before you dump it!
I just opened up three Swill’s that had been sitting in the beer fridge with no issues, so that’s a bummer….on the plus side I have more room in the beer fridge. Cheers!