Freshness and craft beer

[shoreman]

When you homebrew you really get to experience beer at its freshest peak.

Quick rant - it just sucks when you pick up a craft beer that cost about as much $ to make a 5 gallon batch and it's out of code or just stale. I've been to distributor warehouses and see all the beer sitting there even before it hits your store - then it can sit there and the owners/owner just doesn't care. I saw some stone porter 2 months out of code tonight and picked up a beer that is supposed to be hoppy - its so flat in hop department it sux.

Say what you want about the big boys but with mass of product they put out, they still seem to control their product through the system.

Craft really needs to address it - as a consumer I give up on a brand right away with a stale beer and never come back.

 

[Pappers_]

While I enjoy trying interesting beers regardless of where they come from, all things being equal, I will order a locally made beer most of the time. Besides the issue of freshness that you raise, I also like to support local brewers because I think beer culture is a real phenomenon and local brewers help develop it.

 

[djfriesen]

I have read comments advocating contacting the brewery to let them know. With one the size of Stone, I don't know how effective it would be. However, I would imagine anyone in the craft business would like to know if their beer is being mistreated, either by the distributor or the store owners, and cutting into their margins. Couldn't hurt to shoot off an email. Maybe they'll contact their distributor in your area and get them straightened out.

Probably won't do anything in the short term, but maybe it will help everyone else long-term.

 

[LimerickBrewCo]

I have read comments advocating contacting the brewery to let them know. With one the size of Stone, I don't know how effective it would be. However, I would imagine anyone in the craft business would like to know if their beer is being mistreated, either by the distributor or the store owners, and cutting into their margins. Couldn't hurt to shoot off an email. Maybe they'll contact their distributor in your area and get them straightened out.

Probably won't do anything in the short term, but maybe it will help everyone else long-term.

Hey, maybe if you word it nicely they'll send you some beer. Honestly though, phrase it nicely and not as a knock on their beer or even them just that you are seeing beer and bought beer that was stale. I'm sure you're not the first to encounter this and honestly a business should know these kind of things so that they can try to fix it if it's a rampant problem.

 

[shoreman]

I've tried to contract breweries in the past and nothing - I'm not going to name names but I guess I'll go back to drinking Sierra Nevada or Sam Adams seasonal products - it just sux