Budweiser and day fresh

[seven77]

I've been thinking about this since I started brewing beer. If beer gets better with age (at least the beers I brewed have), why is Budweiser pitching this "day fresh" campaign? Wouldn't they be be better off saying "Aged one year" or something like that, as opposed to their current strategy of letting people drink beer that is only 1 day old?

Just curious.

 

[Janx]

No. Because beer does not get better with age. Confusing, isn't it?

Beer gets better with a few weeks of age. That's why when y'all are wondering why your beer tastes bad a week after you made it, my advice is to let it sit. I can give this advice because I know that no one will actually let their beer sit around too long The tendency to be impatient is such that you can say "The longer you let it sit the better" knowing that no one is gonna let it sit once it starts tasting good.

Beer is a fresh product, though, and it's better fresh. So after the initial few weeks, the beer is best drunk immediately. It is not an aged product like wine.

Exceptions abound, like really big beers (barleywines) and strange things like Belgians, but in general, beer is best enjoyed fresh after having allowed it to finish and mellow (usually 3 to 6 weeks).

 

[seven77]

So you're basically saying there's a "hump" in the quality of a beer. Meaning, it gets better with age till a certain point, then the quality decreases? Is there any way of determining this "hump" point? I mean if it's your own recipe, there would be no way of determining the peak flavor period (without drinking it of course). It's interesting....

It's too bad I like to drink beer so much. I never have a beer in my fridge for over a week it seems. I should start brewing 2 batches a week instead of one, so I can actually let these things age a bit and drink them at various points in their aging process.

 

[NUCC98]

I've been thinking about this since I started brewing beer. If beer gets better with age (at least the beers I brewed have), why is Budweiser pitching this "day fresh" campaign? Wouldn't they be be better off saying "Aged one year" or something like that, as opposed to their current strategy of letting people drink beer that is only 1 day old?

Just curious.

I think a lot of it has to do with America's love afair with freshness and instant reward. Like the whole "Have It Your Way" at Burger King. They make all your food "fresh"....which takes like 3 times longer than back in the day when they just used heat lamps. Seriously, if I want fresh, healthy food...I ain't going to BK.....anyway, that's beside the point. It could've also come from the fact that if a Bud sits out for more than an hour, it's flatter than...well, anyway...plus if it sits around, it'll get skunky and nasty. So, I guess they figure if they try to convince the public this stuff was brewed like an hour ago, everyone will go for it. Miller Light said it best..."All beer brewed in America is 'fresh'".....don't believe the hype!

 

[Janx]

So you're basically saying there's a "hump" in the quality of a beer. Meaning, it gets better with age till a certain point, then the quality decreases?

I'd say it's more like a plateau...with a flat top. There's quite a large window where your beer is very good...usually a couple of months at least. But eventually, the hoppy character will start to go, the conditioning gets worse, and you start getting the qualities of skunked beer. It happens more quickly with light beers, but bigger beers last longer. That's why they made IPA for the trip from Britain to India by ship.

And the initial rise to the top of the plateau isn't so much the beer aging as it is the beer finishing But since we're all impatient, it sure feels like it's aging.

 

[masondelux]

I'd say it's more like a plateau...with a flat top. There's quite a large window where your beer is very good...usually a couple of months at least. But eventually, the hoppy character will start to go, the conditioning gets worse, and you start getting the qualities of skunked beer. It happens more quickly with light beers, but bigger beers last longer. That's why they made IPA for the trip from Britain to India by ship.

And the initial rise to the top of the plateau isn't so much the beer aging as it is the beer finishing But since we're all impatient, it sure feels like it's aging.

Some beer get better with age it just depends on style and alcohol content. I sure wouldnt want a 2 week old barley wine in my glass. Ive had beer that was 7 to 10 years old. Thomas Hardys old ale is a excellent beer thats aged a few years. Beers with 7% alcohol and up take on some really nice flavors with time. Imperial stouts,Imperial ipa, strong scottish ales,Barley wines,Belgain ales and Old ales. they all pick up those nice sherry,raisen kinda wine flavors with time. Thats what makes them the beer they are. American ales and lager and other beers are best fresh. I know several small brewerys that from boil to glass is 10 days and some times 7. Nothing beats a fresh northwest Ipa right out of a serving tank. With 26 + beer styles all have their diffrent taste ,smells, and look. They have guidelines for theses at the AHA web site.

 

[D-brewmeister]

And isn't most macrobrew pasturized and filtered like mad, to the point that there are very few of the interesting organic and living elements left in it? (a distinct difference from homebrewed beer, which almost always has some living yeast in it). So a beer like a buttwiper or whatevver is basically a dead beer, which will only deteriorate after it has been bottled or canned (another reason that fresher is better for those beers: ALUMINUM CAN FLAVOR, Ughh!). A homebrew, on the other hand, will still be undergoing some changes with the yeast in the bottle etc. But it is universally true that hop flavor, and especially aroma, will diminish over time (the rate of degredation depends a lot on the type of hop involved).

 

[masondelux]

You bet most commercial beers in cans are pasturized. Alot of micro brewerys that bottle still have a small yeast deposits at the bottom of the bottle.It be expensive for them to pasturize and ales peak at 30 to 60 day in the bottle. I have serveral barley wines that are 2 and 3 years old and a old scot thats 5 years old. Very tasty on a cold winter night. But i also do low gravity beers for summer with 1035 starting and ending around 1004. when its hot they go down fast and smooth. theses beers wouldnt last 6 months unless kept very cold. So many beers so little time.

 

[homebrewer_99]

It's just another thing they STOLE from the Europeans and claim as their own.

A lot of German beer have little tick marks cut out on the edge of the label that indicates the month, day, and year the beer was bottled.

Since German beer is not pasteurized it is not meant to last over 90 days.
ALL BEER IMPORTED TO THE U.S. IS PASTEURIZED!

True, most homebrew has a certain time that it is excellent, but after a while the flavor quality can become affected.

BTW, Chimay is bottle-conditioned at least 18 months BEFORE it is allowed to be sold so the argument can go back an forth forever.

I've had good HB that was years old. In the end, I really believe it depends on the state of the storage (dark, no sun, undisturbed (like wine)).