The rise, fall, and rise (again) of Cycle Brewing’s Rare D.O.S. stout

The first sign of trouble showed up on Cycle Brewing’s Facebook page. Soon, similar messages were appearing on influential online craft beer boards.

Something was seriously wrong with Rare D.O.S., the bourbon-barrel-aged stout that earned brewer Doug Dozark world acclaim in craft beer circles. Ranked as high as 11th best beer in the world by beeradvocate.com reviewers., the latest batch of Rare D.O.S. (Doug’s Original Stout) was released in June during a special event at Peg’s Cantina, where Dozark began his brewing career on a nano system out back.

It sold out in less than a week, all 150 gallons, and $20 a 16-ounce growler. People bought them by the case, many to trade with craft beer friends.

But it wasn’t long before the online beer-trading community was writing things like this on beeradvocate.com:

“So. Either this is infected, or just plain bad. I know this beer is supposed to be good, but I’m not getting it. It smelled a little tart, and it tasted fairly tart. Left like a tinny, chemical feel on my tongue. I’d try this again, hoping that it’s just a 1-time infection issue, but it’s bad. Buyer beware with the recent batch.”

The howls came from Alaska to Massachusetts to the Netherlands. Emails, too, from dissatisfied customers seeking recompense.

It couldn’t have come at a worse time for Dozark, who was working overtime to open his second brewery, in downtown St. Petersburg, He would spend the next weeks losing sleep and trying to make amends and protect his signature brand.

Dozark acknowledges the irony: There would have been no crisis if not for the online traders and reviewers that lifted him up and were now taking him to task. Which begs the question; how did a little brewpub in Gulfport grab such stellar ratings?

As Dozark tells it, he sold a barrel of his second batch of Rare D.O.S. to a beer friend, who shared it with beer friends in Miami, and then sent more to beer friends in Chicago and D.C. and elsewhere who were active beeradvocate.com reviewers. “They flipped for it,” Dozark says.

Enough people wrote reviews that it made the cut for inclusion in the best beers list, quickly rising to the top 20. Future batches got similar ratings but have since fallen off the list (ratebeer.com still ranks it 27th in the world).

It was the right beer with the right crowd. Online ratings are crowd-sourced by a group that likes certain kinds of beers. Barrel-aged beers, stouts, higher-alcohol ales, hoppy beers, sours, wild beers and obscure styles do well. Lagers and session beers, not so much. Change the algorithms, as sometimes happens, and the rankings change, too. These reviewers can make but not break a brewery.

“The rate crowd is not your average customer. I don’t think the ratings can actually hurt your business,” Dozark says. “The crowd’s too small. But if they are behind you, they can be a major asset. They are a small crowd but they’re loud. If they like something they tell people.”

And if they don’t like something, they tell people. Which is why Dozark spent hours a day for a few weeks this summer answering emails and pondering how to make amends.

The batch was solid. If you tried it on draft at Peg’s (as I did) you probably loved it. The problem was in the growlers. Something happened in the transfer from barrel to growler, Dozark says, infecting the beer.
Once again Rare D.O.S wound up with traders and reviewers — only this time they went online to warn other traders.

Soon, Dozark posted this on a beeradvocate.com trader board:

“This is very disturbing news and Peg’s Cantina and Cycle Brewing are going to find a way to make things right with anybody having a bad experience with our Rare DOS. The beer is expensive to make and we appreciate our customers who paid what we feel is a justified premium for the beer.”

He put an Aug. 21 deadline to request a refund or replacement (Batch 300 whiskey barrel aged beer or future Rare D.O.S). He got 187 requests; some got full refunds but most wanted more beer.

Most Cycle Brewing customers were unaware of all this. But Dozark felt an obligation.

“The notoriety I’ve gotten because of that reputation, it was worth doing everything I could to protect that name,” he says. “If I don’t take care of people, then they don’t have as much faith in my product. Anybody who comes and has those beers can trust it’s going to be a great beer, and if it’s not then I’ll take care of it. When you’re asking top dollar, that’s a service you have to provide.”

Despite it all, Rare D.O.S. is still rated world class by beeradvocate.com, partly because the high ratings far outweigh the negatives (and because reviewers decided not to write anything or took down negative reviews).

A new batch is ready and will be one of 12 barrel-aged beers on tap Saturday, November 23, during Share the Barrels Day at the downtown Cycle Brewing (534 Central Ave., St. Petersburg). Along with Rare D.O.S, there will be some new releases, including one aged in chocolate bourbon barrels, single-malt whiskey barrels and rum barrels.

But this time, no growlers.

Share the Barrels Day, Saturday November 23, prices vary. 12 p.m., 534 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, 727-320-7954.

This article appears in Nov 14-20, 2013.