[eitland]

I think what happens is

- sometimes a brewery changes the taster/mixer master

- other times I suspect they start cheaping on ingredients

- in one particular case I almost expect the brewery did it on purpose: A particular brewery here in Norway produced a very tasty low-alcoholic beer that was sold durt cheap in one particular chain 8f grocery stores. Then at some point around 2008-2009 that particular beer changed to taste like the smell of a fox farm (I grew up next to one so I know that smell). I checked back a number of times but the quality didn't recover until years later. One possible explanation would be that they had an extremely bad deal and was actively sabotaging this product to sell less of it at loss.