It's been a big week for beer. Not only has Lagunitas made that announcement, but over at Stone Brewing Co, Greg Koch announced that he is to step down as CEO of the company (link here, with a hat tip to Stan), but just today I received this email from the UK importer of Stone's beers:
"We also can confirm that Stone have agreed to extend their dates on their beer from their original 90 days to 270 days! They’re incredibly happy with how the beer is performing over time and with our refrigerated shipping, and now have the confidence to extend this into an export market that needs slightly more shelf-life."
Which is great news, as it means that we can now enjoy Stone's beers fresher for longer, right?
I mean, it's not like anyone took any notice of the dates, is it?
Or should this comment now haunt us forever?
Somebody better not tell Stone that as soon as it is out of the refrigerated shipping it probably doesn't see fridge temperatures again until it hits the fridge of the consumer.
ReplyDeleteLike they wouldn't already bloody know that...
UK importer is BrewDog?
Is it me but at the end of the day are these people just full of shit or what?
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not just you.
DeleteI agree with Tung. Mind you that's tongue in cheek!
ReplyDeleteDeleted as spam, soz Tanders.
DeleteThis type of development riles me. I live in a place where my only realistic beer buying option is mail order. I'm fed up of paying top whack for beers, hoppy ones mainly, that have been sat in a bottle or can for nearly a year. The retailer of course just tells me that the product is still well within it's best before date. Had one the other day that was best before 01/17! Seriously? These beers taste like shit.
ReplyDeleteThe Kernel are a great example of being bold about the short shelf life of their IPAs. Fair play to them, although I imagine the retailer is less than impressed.
Stuart, thanks for the comment. In my day job, I wholesale a lot of Kernel beer, and I can honestly say that the dates have only been an issue twice 4 years. They turn over very fast, and we only purchase what we will need for the coming couple of weeks. Lots of other breweries have tried to emulate their model, but few have achieved the rapid turnover of stock necessary.
DeleteThis alleged incredible happiness doesn't quite square with Mitch Steele's blog post last month: http://hoptripper.com/the-real-quality-issue-oxidation/ where he writes: "it frustrates me to see craft brewers put 6 month code dates on their beer... in Europe, we are finding that many countries require ridiculously long code dates on beer. 180 days and 270 day code length requirements are not uncommon. Obviously we have a long way to go to educate people that beer, like bread, stales."
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting, isn't it? I wonder who at Stone OK'd the longer dates?
DeleteEvidently, it wasn’t Mitch Steele.
DeleteI don't know about the shelf life of those beers. I think that Stone should really re-evaluate their plan on extending beer dates, do we really want 270 day old beer? Definitely not me, you can always tell a difference between beer that is relatively fresh or beer that has been sitting on the store shelves for some time.
ReplyDeleteIrvin Moss @ Shop Brewmeister