Shorts 2014 Beer Schedule Released..

My wallet just shriveled up and tried to hide. Moving out of MI feels like a really, really bad move right now.

 

Guess I'll ask again this year: Is Bourbon Sustenance being bottled for a spring release at the pub again? It was in 2013 but was never on the bottle list. Hoping the same holds true for 2014.

 

To answer a few questions--

1. Don't expect beers like Smore's, Turtle, Uber Goober, Carrot Cake, Pistachio Cream Ale to ever be bottled. For one reason or another, they don't do too well in a glass container. BUT--we will certainly still keg them, so consider purchasing a kegerator this holiday season and you'll potentially have plenty to engross yourself in.

2. Aphasia, from what I recall, has always been barrel aged. I'm not sure if it will be next year.

3. Bourbon Sustenance is usually bottled for a pub only release every Spring. I'm unsure if it will be next year, but expect to see some pub only bottle releases at points throughout the year.

 

Do you have an ETA on Smores? I'm now 7 hours from the pub, so I need to plan trips back to the area. If I'm heading back, I'd like to be able to grab some Smores while I'm up there.

 

I don't -- my advice would be to contact the pub sometime in November and inquire. Our Brewski Bash at the pub is held the weekend after Thanksgiving and is the unofficial start to our stout season. It has a great chance of being there then.

 

undetermined stout?

 

I'll be up the weekend prior. Not likely going to make it up two weekends in a row, but I'll try. It's worth it.

 

1. Just did today!
2. Not true, there is Bourbon Aphasia and normal Aphasia (I've had both, former is better IMO).
3. Yesssssssss!!!!

 

Thanks, for some reason I thought it was all barrel aged. I've sure I've had both at one point or another. So many beers to keep track of these days and I only get to the pub once every couple months...

 

I just want to say how much I love Goodnight Bodacious! That was the first one I looked for, but I love shorts because they constantly allow us to try new and unusual offerings.

 

If the carrot and/or uber goober is as good as folks say (Never had it myself), I'd find a way to road trip to MI from South Carolina for a keg. Yes, I'm that persistent when it comes to good PB beer or something super unique.

 

im stoked for the return of key lime pie in bottles!

 

That's a beer either you love or hate. It's not for me personally.

 

LETS ALL VOTE CARROT CAKE!!!!

 

Have those beers been bottled since you guys started pasteurizing your bottled beer though? I thought the main problems Short's was having a couple years ago with their bottles was the fact that the beer was never pasteurized.

 

We flash pasteurize to assist with keeping beer fresher, especially on the the warm shelf. Even though we state keep this beer refrigerated on every six pack, many of them end up there.

From what I've been told, those are just not beers that our brewers like to bottle anymore--the ingredients ability to maintain the right flavor is a concern, and I don't believe pasteurizing will aid much either. But if there's one thing I know, never say never with Short's...

I can look into it further.

 

Awesome.

 

Ok, alright! The moment you've all been waiting for. Straight from our Quality Manager, this is the reason why we do not bottle certain acclaimed Short's beers anymore--

Pasteurization is not sterilization. Pasteurization is intended to take high levels of yeast and inactivate them with heat. Not all of the yeast are killed in this technique. The microbial number in the beer are exponentially reduced to near theoretical levels. Again this is only to reduce the numbers of yeast in the beer. If a small amount of yeast remains in the bottle nothing will really go wrong. There are no more food sources for the yeast to eat so it too will also die and the beer will have increased shelf stability because there are no more living organisms in the beer. If a single bacterium is present in the bottle, that bacterium will multiply because there is plenty of food in finished beer, and beer spoilers are alcohol tolerant. This will lead to terrible beer quality and extremely low shelf stability in terms of flavor and haze.
Now that the goals of pasteurization have been discussed. Let me go through each of the beers that you have asked about. Keep the theory of pasteurization in mind while I go through the list.


Carrot cake. This is a beer that has never been produced in any fashion without the presence of beer spoiling microorganisms. As a matter of fact, this beer relies on the beer spoilage bacteria that are undesirable in other brands to give it the flavors that make it great. Pasteurizing this beer would actually make for more of a shelf unstable beer in that we would alter the concentrations of the beer spoilage microorganisms that are extremely fastidious. If we allow the balance of microorganisms to be changed via pasteurization we will experience a huge shift in the product's stability and great inability to predict the way in which the beer will spoil.
If we were to bottle Carrot Cake, we would not use pasteurization for this reason. There are actually two reasons that we don't make Carrot Cake in the production facility. The beer spoilage bacteria that is present in Carrot Cake poses a huge risk to the rest of our packaging equipment. If any residual bacteria is present in the bottling equipment after the CIP, which is very possible on our current filler (it's virtually impossible to clean perfectly), a beer like Huma could pick up that remaining bacteria in the bottler and spoil it while its on the shelf. We choose to not to take that very probable risk. The second reason that we are not making Carrot Cake on the large scale is the great variability in the batches that we make. The bacteria that is present in that beer is very touchy, and without a large blending program like is done with sour beer, this would not be possible.
There is no reason not to put S'more Stout in bottles EXCEPT that it requires a flaming marshmallow on top to make it complete and it is really hard to include a bunch of flaming jet puffed sugar in a six pack. Fix that problem and we might be able to make something happen. I really do think that is the reason. The beer needs a marshmallow to make it perfect.
Uber Goober is going to be a fun one to explain because the reason is actually quite complex.

1. Uber Goober is made with real peanut meal. LOTS OF IT. Peanut meal contains both large amounts of beer spoilage bacteria, and large amounts of unsaturated fatty acids. I'm confident that we could remove the beer spoilage bacteria in the process kettle. So that is not a big deal but it does present a risk. A small one but its there.
2. The unsaturated fatty acid content of the beer leads to big problems down the road in terms of spoilage. Unsaturated fatty acids when reacted with reactive oxygen species (ROS) create free radicals and aldehydes. Aldehydes are what make beer taste spoiled. A good example a a particular unsaturated fatty acid reacting with an ROS is that of an 18-Carbon unsaturated fatty creating the compound E-2-Nonenal. E-2-Nonenal tastes like cardboard which is what out IPAs taste like after 6 months. Imagine that same cardboard taste extrapolated into a large amount of UFAs on the scale of 10,000x more UFAs and enough oxygen to react with it. The beer will spoil in the bottle with devastating effect. It certainly is not something that would be up to the quality standards of the SBC quality department. Making this beer in small batches and packaging in kegs is the only way to make sure that our beer is fresh.

Turtle stout would not be too difficult to make on the large scale. The only risk would be the pecans. I'm not sure how much pecan we would actually use so I couldn't tell you how much of a risk the UFAs from the nuts would actually pose to the beer itself. I'm not worried about bacteria here as much as I am the UFAs.
Pistachio creme ale has pistachios in it. Pistachios are loaded with unsaturarated fatty acids. That beer runs the risk of virtually immediate spoilage just like Uber Goober and is not and will not be sound for bottling at SBC. It needs to stay in small quantities that are tightly controlled like Uber Goober to ensure it is still tasting good.
The Woodmaster holds up well because of the relatively small amount of nuts in the beer in comparison to the other beers. The amounts of UFAs are really low and alcohol is high so off flavors are pretty masked.
So in summary, pasteurizing is misunderstood and is not a sterilizing technique, and UFAs make beer taste really shitty and nuts contain large amounts of them.

 

Now that is a good read. Thanks for the insight. Not to threadjack, but I believe the fatty acid reaction is the reason Founders will never bottle Cashew Mountain Brown. Just too unstable.

 

As much as I am excited about our specialty release schedule, the seasonal pale ale/flagship changes are what I'm stoked about. Local's year round, F'n BONEFIDE LEGIT!!!, Chatterbox, Yosemite, and to top it all off--Beard of Zeus as the Fall seasonal.