Sick of buying skunked beer

While I love seeing DFH and Stone in my local grocery store, I hate buying a six pack of Stone IPA and finding it completely skunked when I pop the first bottle.

I just opened a Southern Tier Pale Ale that's skunked and has no hop presence. That was from a reputable liquor store too. I guess we need more people drinking good beer around here so we can keep fresh beer on the shelves.

It sucks. I've been seeing some southern tier unearthly and some other big beers @ kroger and giant eagle here lately. It's cool they are carrying it, but their product mgmt sucks and a lot of them sit on the shelf a LONG time. bought a 6 of cascazilla @ giant eagle to get home and notice it was past drink by date - needless to say not good for a hoppy beer. Also bought a weyerbacher double simcoe bomber two weeks ago from Kenny road ghat tasted like it was sitting around for a year. Unfortunately in Ohio, I don't think there are any refunds or returns on beer and liquor. Pisses you off when you buy a $10 bomber for sure.

I will say that I have found some awesome 10% abv + beers that are great for aging that were on the shelf for over a year. I usually play dumb and get a discount.

True that if its style appropriate to age. P.s. Do not buy southern tier hop sun
off season or you will just be upset. It was nice last year southern tier changes their packaging so you could tell if it was old or new.

Yeah, we have a beer and wine store that has holiday ales year round. I like to watch what's in stock and only buy what's new/different. Why don't more places put seasonals on sale when slightly out of season instead of having full priced Aprihop in September.

on a different note Beesy, I wish my kroger had unearthly. I'd buy it all up.

Always reach for beer in the very back of the store's refrigerated case. It's probably been more shielded from fluorescent lighting, and, depending on how the store stocks, it may be the freshest.

I pretty much stopped buying Saison Dupont because it's always skunked. Recently I found a store that stocks it on a middle shelf... usually stores put it on the top shelf which of course ruins it. Sad, really.

maxam said:

Yeah, we have a beer and wine store that has holiday ales year round. I like to watch what's in stock and only buy what's new/different. Why don't more places put seasonals on sale when slightly out of season instead of having full priced Aprihop in September.

on a different note Beesy, I wish my kroger had unearthly. I'd buy it all up.

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Giant eagle, not kroger has the unearthly if i remember correctly I did notice lately, kroger has some southern tier 2x iipa and founders dirty bastard.

I went to a beer distributor I hadn't been to in quite a while after hearing they've got a new owner. The expensive beers are, as it's done, on the top shelf... directly in front of the heating vent. Between that and the prices being both high and not labeled I think it'll be another few years before I go back there. Sucks too, he's got a great selection of ruined beer.

Have you talked with the manager yet? If they were truly respectable I'm sure they could work something out with you. At the very least it would let them know that they are doing something wrong or getting bad beer from their distributor.

Teromous said:

Have you talked with the manager yet? If they were truly respectable I'm sure they could work something out with you. At the very least it would let them know that they are doing something wrong or getting bad beer from their distributor.

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Well, the one store was about an hour north of me in Dayton. So, I won't really get the chance to run up there. The other was a kroger... not sure if they'll care but I might get a refund. They sell **** tons of bmc crap to the college students here and the craft brews are just a drop in the bucket.

There is a kroger in West Chester that has an awesome selection. I snagged some Bigfoot, monks blood, chatoe rogues, sierra nevada rarities and such. from them.

Saison DuPont and Pilsner Urquell are two that I can rarely stand to buy due to the high skunk rate. Having had both many times at/close to the source, I can say that shipping / handling are often not kind to these beers!

Funny, just about anything I have bought in the past, in green bottles tastes skunked. Except for Yeungling.

Pick said:

Funny, just about anything I have bought in the past, in green bottles tastes skunked. Except for Yeungling.

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Same here. Heineken, grolsch are usually skunked. Though it's not so bad in Canada, where you can buy a 6 pack in a full cardboard case, so even stuff like sleeman's, which comes in clear bottles, travels pretty well.

I got a chance recently to talk to a sleeman's plant manager, and he said they dont ship to the states because you can't sell a covered 6 pack, and their beers don't hold up in open carrier-style cases

If you're going to buy Saison Dupont look to see if they have it in the small bottles. For some reason the small bottles are brown glass and the bombers are green. Same beer without the skunk.

Check a Whole Foods if you have one near you. We have one here that does a GREAT job of protecting their beers. They keep them in a separate room that is always about 45F, with dim lighting. Everything comes out just like it went in.

Their selection is very nice and they beer doesn't sit out and get exposed to fluorescent lighting and warm temps. Plus they always have several taps up and running so you can sample a few. They usually have stuff that is normally only available at the pub where it's brewed. I've seen beers from Manayunk Brewery and Earth/Bread/Beer on tap.

I've been to two Whole foods in Cincinnati. They do have a great beer selection, but store their beers just like my Kroger. Never had a skunked beer from them however. Supposedly one of them fills growlers.

One of my favorite things to do is grab a pint in the Lincoln Park Whole foods in Chicago and walk around snacking on samples.

Yeah, the Whole Foods I'm referring to (in Plymouth Meeting, for the Philly locals) will fill growlers - in fact, they will sell you one.

It's pretty new, so that might be why they have this awesome beer facility - or it might be an artifact of those Pennsylvania beer laws that we grouse about. If so, maybe we should not complain about them quite so much.

picked up sa boston lager last week and it was nasty skunked. tastes like they left that particular 12 pack on the loading dock in the sun for a few hours then re-chilled. friends told me it's just my taste buds but i tried another over the weekend and could barely get through it. should have returned it to the store but i can be a lazy procrastinator.

It really pisses me off when breweries don't label bottles stating the bottling date or batch number. Over the last year, I've been moving away from buying beer that doesn't keep the consumer's enjoyment in mind. Unless I know it came in recently (which doesn't mean it wasn't sitting somewhere else), I rarely buy PAs, IPAs, IIPAs, etc...

I had a conversation with the GM at Three Floyds Brewpub (Dan Tompkins) about this very problem about a week ago. He said there was no reason for them to do so when their bottles fly off the shelves so fast. While this is true for the most part, it is not a universal truth. I've had more than one aged Dreadnaught. If breweries are going to charge the prices they do for their great beer (which I'm willing to do when it is fresh), I think they owe it to us to inform us of our potential folly. This may in fact cause distributors and retailers to do a better job on their inventory, which I believe we can all say that there could be some improvement across the board.

Sorry for the rant. It's just inconsiderate of the breweries, and it "gets my goat", so to speak.

Two years ago on way to Indy 500, stopped at a liqour store a few miles east of Indy to stock up for the weekend and grabbed a 6 of gum ball head and alpha king that tasted like they'd been sitting around about a year. I was hugely disappointed.

A 6 pack of Blue Point Hoptical Illusion I bought at a store about 20min from the brewery was at least a year old. That beer really sucks when it's not fresh.

Pisses me off.