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Because can happen things like this. Almost a month ago Beernews issued a press release from the Goose Island brewery, with which the company announced the voluntary withdrawal of some bottles of their Matilda, a 7% ABV Belgian Ale. The curious about that is that the decision, unusual for our habits, was not taken for reasons of utmost gravity – such as health risk to consumers – but only for a quality standard matter. In practice, some lots are resulted less than optimal, hence the decision to withdraw the bottles.

The problem is explained in detail in the brewery press release:

We brew Matilda with brettanomyces (brett) yeast, which is critical to the complex flavor development of the beer. Brett naturally adds acidity to Matilda, giving our beer a slightly sour finish. The affected batches, in addition to brett, have active lactobacillus, which will add a level of sourness outside our standard. Lactobacillus, like brett, is common in many Belgian Ales. [...]

The Goose Island standards for Matilda do not include the sourness produced by lactobacillus. We have instituted additional quality measures to ensure that future batches of Matilda will not be affected.

We apologize for letting this get into the market before we caught it and we are working with our distributors to remove the beer from retailers. [...] We deeply appreciate the trust you put into Goose Island and we thank you for your support.

Well, my hat off to Goose Island for the decision, involving six different lots, bottled from April 1 to May 21, 2010. Not a novelty for American breweries by the way: only some time before Bell’s Brewery had opted for such a measure. Even then there was no health risks for consumers: having ascertained the poor quality of some batches of Two Hearted Ale which were “acidic and unpleasant” they decided to recall them. Similarly, they were full of apologies and announced closer controls in the future.

As mentioned, these policies are almost incomprehensible when compared to the Italian reality. A great respect for the consumer in the background, which ultimately is the one that allows a business to survive or thrive. A brewery decides to recall several bottles from the market in order to maintain the confidence of customers, knowing that the propaganda value of such decisions is a thousand times the economic loss of some unsold lots.

Too easy to make irony wondering what would happen if an Italian brewery were in Goose Island’s shoes.A clue can be found in the first comment posted at Beernews, where a reader writes (with a touch of irony, I hope):

Well looks like I’ll have to buy some of the affected batches. These could be more like a special addition rather than defects… at least to me

Someone will think that Goose Island have missed an opportunity to release a very limited edition of Matilda Sour Edition. Ok, I’m sarcastic, but not that much .