“If you took a bunch of dirty socks, put them in a tub of warm water, let it soak for a week, and then drank the water from that tub, this is what Frame Straightener tastes like to me.”
— The Fiance
I regrettably concur.
It kills me to pan a beer from a local brewer (and when I say local I mean rural southwestern Minnesota). I’m all about supporting what is a growing craft beer industry in the region. But this beer makes it real hard for me to get behind what seems to be a continuing trend for Brau Brothers. I’ve had a couple other offerings from them, and have been more than underwhelmed by all of them. This one, however, takes the cake.
Supposed to be a Belgian pale ale, but honestly is one of the most undrinkable beers I’ve had, made worse from the fact that it’s produced by what I’d like to think would be a scrappy, innovative microbrewery. This is part of their Single Batch limited release series (I think they shipped 1400 cases of it), and in some ways I’m thankful. Frame Straightener is more reminiscent to your standard macro than anything that resembles a Belgian. In fact, there’s something a little rancid about it. Terribly disappointing.
Pours nice with a decent ruby reddish coloring, very promising. Then it all falls apart. Offensively sour aroma. Like bad breath. You can just barely tell that it’s trying to be some kind of Belgian, as some yeast gets through, but it’s just incredibly weak. Taste is just as bad. More of the terribly sour characteristic, almost overpowering in how it hits the back of your tongue. When you take a couple sips and realize it’s going to be a chore to get through the entire 12 ounces, you know you’ve got yourself a pretty poor beer. I checked out Beer Advocate to determine if my experience was way off the mark, because maybe I’d gotten a tainted batch. I wanted to give Brau Brothers the benefit of the doubt. But unfortunately, most other reviews seemed to back up the less than desirable nature of this one (average rating C).
When I buy commercial beer at $11 a six pack that’s noticeably below the quality of what I can produce in my own amateur brewing operation, that’s not a good thing.
Rating: D-
The Captain's Chair 
January 8, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I’m consistently stunned when microbrews release such horrid products. Seriously, if you can’t at least produce a B- batch of beer, maybe you should just scrap the recipe and try again. That’s what I’d do.
January 8, 2009 at 3:11 pm
As I winced with each sip (and then dumped the rest of the 6 pack down the drain), I kept wondering what the conversation must have been around the conference room table when they discussed quality control. I mean honestly, I kind of wonder if Brau Brothers is the equivalent of the really terrible kid on American Idol whose family and friends tell them they’re awesome when they really need to take a long look in the mirror and be honest with themselves.
January 8, 2009 at 3:41 pm
And again, I don’t want to be a jerk about it, I really do want to give these guys the benefit of the doubt. I’d love to write about a good solid beer from them. This one just was so far off I wonder how it managed to get out the door.
January 8, 2009 at 3:58 pm
You really opened and dumped the other five bottles? Hilarious. I can’t say I’ve ever done that before. Then again, I rarely buy six-packs. And, you can always find use for crummy beer at 3 in the morning. You never know when you’ll have enemies in your home and need to offer them a brew.
January 8, 2009 at 4:03 pm
You can never have enough empty bottles for homebrew.
January 8, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I did not like this either. A friend of mine gave me one and was saying that he did not like the first one but it got better after the second one. And this guy knows his beer. Unfortunately I was so unimpressed that I never got more.
January 8, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Yeah, I’m going to try some other Brau Brothers stuff and hope for better.
January 9, 2009 at 7:38 am
Yeah don’t send me this one ok? Thanks =)