Ale Product Withdrawal FAQ

For any questions regarding our Ale Product Withdrawal on 10/17/16, please read below:

“I live out-of-state and can’t exchange my beer at the brewery. What can you do for me?”
Unfortunately liquor control regulations do not allow Revolution Brewing to directly mail beer or offer coupons for beer directly to consumers. Please send an e‑mail to info@revbrew.com with details on your purchase (beer purchased, date of purchase, retail location, etc.) so we can gather your information. This will also give us a chance to also do something nice for you in return. 

“How does the beer exchange work?”

If you bring in the affected beer or proof-of-purchase into our Kedzie Brewery Tap Room (located at 3340 N. Kedzie Ave), we’ll be happy to exchange your beer with fresh replacement beer that is of equal or greater value to your purchase.

The following beers will be used for the exchange program (based on availability):
Fist City
Anti-Hero
Jukebox Hero
Eugene Porter
Oktoberfest
Rev Pils
Bottom Up Wit
Cross of Gold

We will compensate exchanges of Unsessionable six packs with 2 six packs of any of the above beers. 

Tap Room hours:
Wed-Thurs: 2–10pm
Fri: 2–11pm
Sat: noon-11pm
Sun: noon-8pm

​“Why is Revolution not doing cash refunds for exchanged product?”
Based on our discussions with government regulators for the industry, we determined that our best approach to this situation was to offer our consumers an exchange for fresh beer through our brewery tap room. 

“Can I exchange my beer at the store where I bought it?”
As with any consumable good, you can try returning it to the point-of-purchase. However, many retailers are not set up to take on a product return program of this type, so we have opted instead for exchanges to be taken at the Rev Tap Room. 

“I have an affected 6‑pack/bottle that is unopened. What should I do?”
If your beer is on our list of affected batches, we encourage you to stop by our brewery for fresh replacement beer. If you live out-of-state and can’t make it to the brewery, send us a note to info@revbrew.com with a note about what beer you bought and where it was purchased. We will do our best to make the situation right. 

“When will fresh, unaffected beer be available to purchase?”
We’re packaging fresh beer to be sent out this week. Beer should hit retail shelves beginning later this week — just take a look at the packaged date (located on the bottom of the canor bottle label) to ensure it’s newly packaged fresh beer. 

Beers with the following dates or later dates have passed our quality control checks and meet our standards: 

Anti Hero IPA Packaged on 10−18−16 and afterward
Fist City Pale Ale Packaged on 10−6−16 and afterward
Cross of Gold Ale Packaged on 10−13−16 and afterward
Eugene Porter Packaged on 10−21−16 or afterward
·
All batches of Unsessionable Imperial IPA and Mosaic Hero IPA currently in the market are part of our product withdrawal. These beers will not be available again until 2017. 

“I have drank affected 6‑packs. Is this a health or safety risk?”

The affected beer is in no way a health or safety risk. This withdrawal was completely due to the beer not living up our quality of standards and not tasting the way we expect it to.

​“Why wasn’t this quality issue caught sooner?”

We believe these off-flavors were produced by a wild or non-standard yeast that has evolved over time. This yeast was not detected by our previous quality control methods, and we are still studying how this situation happened. At low levels, the off-flavor was not detectable by our tasting panel and was likely masked by hop flavors. As the beer aged and oxidized, the hop flavor decreased, and the esters and phenols became more pronounced.

​“How will we make sure this won’t happen again in future Rev Brew batches?”

We are continually striving to improve our quality controls. We’re sending samples of the affected beer to an independent laboratory to have our contaminant DNA sequenced. Certain contaminants are screened with different methods and this will help to ensure our quality methods are best suited to detect any possible problems going forward. The lab medias we have been using are focused on finding beer spoiling bacteria and did not detect the unexpected yeast contaminant, so we need to change up our methods and add additional tests to cast a wider net. Not only will we increase our lab screening, but also sensory testing by our brew team throughout the entire process.

“Were all your beers affected?”

Our Oktoberfest, Rev Pils, Rosa Hibiscus Ale, and Bottom Up Wit beers were not affected. Also, our upcoming releases of Batch 1000, Jukebox Hero, and Fistmas have not been affected.