Taking a Stand Against Stale Beer

We Americans drink far too much stale beer, all the while pretending it’s the best stuff on Earth. Whether it’s from Belgium, Germany, Japan or a few states away, our willingness to spend big bucks to get burned time and again has to be some form of gastronomic psychosis.

During a recent trip to Belgium, I found myself in the company of Jean Hummler in the cellar of his famed Brussels beer bar, Moeder Lambic. Upstairs, beer geeks from around the world were drinking fresh, carefully handled beers, largely from around Belgium. Having seen American beers popping up in beer geek-friendly bars around Europe for many years, I asked Hummler whether he intended to add any American beers to his draft lineup. His answer was a striking and unequivocal “no.”

It’s not that Hummler is a devout locavore or a xenophobe who dislikes American beer; quite to the contrary. In explaining his reason for informally banning American craft beer, Hummler related a simple story. While visiting California, he tried Sierra Nevada Pale Ale fresh at the brewery, very much enjoying it. Upon returning to Europe, Hummler found the beer on draft in a bar and was excited to revisit it. Much to his dismay, he found an oxidized shell of the beer’s former hoppy self. Hummler decided that despite enjoying American beer, the shipping distance was too great and the conditions too unfavorable for delicate craft beers that serving them wasn’t right.

Hummler remains puzzled as to why Americans spend so much time drinking imported beer. After a long, cruel transatlantic journey, most beers from Belgium, Britain and Germany fail to resemble their original forms when they fill American pint glasses. The same happens with shipped American craft beers. With IPAs and other hoppy beers suffering the most, such stale beers remain near lifeless versions of what the brewer intended. While the experience feels as if we’re traveling, in reality, it’s a pitiful replacement for the real thing.

Brewers, package store proprietors and better beer bar owners really should be held accountable for their failures. For brewers, the lack of uniform, legible freshness dating continues to harm the industry. It’s unacceptable for breweries to employ some archaic, unintelligible bottle code system or to use a labeler that renders indecipherable or smeared dating on packaging. Beer store buyers also need to do a better job of reviewing date codes, and sending back or rejecting stale beers. While it’s generally ridiculous to find an Amber or Pale Ale from Baird Brewing of Japan on the shelves of a Boston liquor store in the first instance, allowing Angry Boy Brown to sit on store shelves collecting dust with a fat price tag is just irresponsible and lazy.

Many well-regarded American beer bar owners should answer for cashing in on selling stale imported beers. While they may be able to get away with selling some higher-alcohol beers or a few Belgian styles, staleness issues plague just about every British, German, Czech and Scandinavian beer offered. In most beer bars, it’s coming to a point where anything with hops should usually be avoided. I don’t care how well beer bar owners treat these beers, they’ve still spent more time in foreign warehouses than in American bars.

Americans really should stop drinking stale, imported beer, whether it is received from across an ocean or just several states away. Until these issues get resolved, and with prices continuing to rise, I’m going to keep asking for samples before I commit to an $8 pint of West Coast IPA, British ale or German lager. ■