It seems every little corner liquor store has at least 2 dozen varieties of craft beer, with many larger local stores having several dozen. It seemed like a great situation at first for us beer snobs. A quick walk over to the nearest store would score something pretty good for that moments whim.
But there is now so much, that there is no dependable throughput on any particular beer. Some sit there for months skunking up. And my eyes are not able to read the tiny dates they stamp on the thing these days. Of course it isn’t a problem for the IPAs that were designed to have no beer flavor, just an overload of hops, that’s why they were freakin’ invented in the first place.
But for those of us who actually like the flavor of the grain in their beers, it’s back to the same old story, you gotta go past the local stores again, to the big one that has the throughput, and understanding, to keep stock fresh.
I hear you, but compared to the 1980’s, it’s a paradise.
Frankly, if all the American IPA’s were to disappear, the craft beer selection would shrink about 80%. And I’m one of those folks that think almost all US hops and especially the IPA hops taste like ass.
I think modern canning is a good thing for craft beer. It certainly travels and ages better than in bottles (with the possible exception of big beers that are meant to age like a barleywine or Russian imperial stout).
I will keep on homebrewing 95% of what I drink as 1) there are virtually no real session beers (2-4% alcohol) for sale, 2) brew what I like with the hops I like, 3) almost no real ale/English beers are available, 4) there just isn’t a large selection of beers that fall into what I like on the shelf, and 5) I still really enjoy brewing my own.
Are you talking about dark beers or India PALE Ale? Sure there’s the oxymoron of Black IPAs (though I generally like that style and the white variety more than a random grab bag IPA or DIPA).
I think your local stores might suck. IPAs aren’t really meant to sit longer than 6 months.
Nothing should really be sitting on the shelf too far after the date. The sales people (not the store employees, the sales people that work for the distributor) should be checking the dates and pulling anything that’s been sitting around. Further, the actually brewery/brewery reps do audits from time to time. They’ll walk through stores that sell their product and check for anything that’s either out of date or, in some cases, just out of season. They don’t want Christmas beer sitting on the shelf taking up a space that the spring seasonal should be in.
Now, some little out of the way place where the sales person just calls them from time to time instead of stopping in can be a problem. But even at my little store, every distributor I buy from, I see their sales person 2 or 3 times a month.
Want truly fresh tasting Ale? Find a place that serves cask beer. Basically, another fermentation is done in the cask, and there is no added CO2 or Nitro. The cask is tapped and a beer engine is used to pump beer into your glass.
At Leaning Cask Brewing, they tap a cask each Wednesday. It is served until it kicks. Any remaining beer is dumped at close of business Sunday, so your beer is never older than four days.
Not sure where OP is at, but this doesn’t seem to be the case at the ubiquitous Food & Liquor corner stores in Chicago. I’ve definitely seen beer past its date on the shelves or, at least, older than would be a wise purchase.
I’ve never really had a problem, though. I don’t even have to check dates closely; I just tend to buy seasonals or things I haven’t seen before. I don’t go through a ton of beer, but I check out the stock at the local shop enough that I recognize something new.
Yeah, I don’t run into the outdated beer problem at my local beer stores.
What I do run into is almost too much choice. Dallas has a pretty good local brewing scene, and so does Texas. And we get national stuff as well, and imports too. So my local Spec’s has a wall with 6’ tall shelves, and a 5’ high two-sided shelf, both of which are around 50-60 feet long packed with various beers. And then there’s the cold case, which sometimes has stuff not on the shelves. So it’s often overwhelming unless I know specifically what I’m looking for.
And thelurkinghorror, WTF is a black IPA? Wouldn’t that just be an imperial stout of some kind?
Generally, darker beers are more shelf stable or even can change (which many people consider better YMMV) in the bottle. But it’s not always the case, just like people who assume all white wines can’t be aged and all reds can.
As it says on the tin. An India Pale ale style that’s very dark in color. Supposedly you can blame Vermont. The name is an oxymoron but they lack the creaminess/thickness of (some) stouts and porters.
I heartily endorse anything decreasing the number of IPAs being made. While the growth of small breweries has been great, the tendency of the last few years, for every other beer to be an IPA, has sucked.
I’ve noticed this has limited the number of varieties that used to be available at my favorite bar. IPAs are okay but I’m rather burned out on them. I’d like to see Scotch ale, Belgians, doppelbocks, and barleywines more often.
Oh, I get what it’s supposed to be, but I’m really hazy as to how it’s not just an imperial stout with a weird flavor profile, as the gravity and bitterness fall pretty much in the imperial stout area.
IMO “black IPAs” are about as dumb as brewing a pale ale recipe with lager yeast and calling it something like a “lagered pale ale”, when it’s definitely NOT an ale in any way shape or form.
I regret not joining my gf on her trip to the UK a few years ago. She went with a friend from work and they split their time between pubs and graveyards.
There is one possible good thing for me. The Brew Pub just around the corner that shut down a couple years ago, just announced a surprise reopening. So getting fresh beer by growler will be more convenient.
Unfortunately the company opening it does mostly pale ales.
There is a world of difference between (IMHO) overchilled, gassy American IPAs and smooth, lukewarm English IPAs - maybe you’ll get lucky and your local will stock some of the latter on tap.
