Fresh IPAs getting harder to find

Like I said, sorry for rambling. You're right that they weren't hopping for flavor, but I was trying to help dispel the myth that they weren't aggressively hopped at all.

 

I have no first-hand idea either, but based on the informative posts of people actually in the industry (Firestone, Victory, Anheuser Busch), it seems (unsurprisingly) that cans are harder to keep oxygen out of at packaging. Only the top tier can fillers will give you results that are even comparable to bottle fillers. It's safe to assume that Anheuser Busch has access to these can fillers, and the average "craft" brewer does not... and yet, Anheuser Busch's bottles (with their scavenger liner) are still better than their cans at keeping oxygen at bay.

The irony is that this info pops up in "fresh/old IPA threads" (just like this one) where drinkers proclaiming their devotion to drinking "fresh" beverages. If these drinkers are just buying "fresh" beer, then they should be more concerned with oxygen at packaging than oxygen ingress over time (if even concerned at all).

Back on track: Drinkers want more breweries, more product distributed to their area, and a retail environment where beer doesn't sit around. You can't have it all.

 

With a market as massive as Chicago and nothing fresh on the local craft brewing IPA scene??

 

As other Chicago posters have suggested...it is simply not the case. Lack of fresh options here is not a concern in the slightest.

 

I only buy my IPAs from a brewery. There is only a handful if that I buy that arent from the brewery most are "made in CT" but not all them. Sip of Sunshine, Super Session, G-Bot, SeaHag, Stone Enjoy By, Pour Judgement, and Captians Daughter

 

Cask Brewing Systems caters to the craft beer industry. Oskar Blues purchased a Cask Brewing Systems canning line.

For your consideration below is the video of their Automated Filler. There is mention that this line has the “Lowest air pick-up in the Industry” with a metric of 15-20 ppb provided at the 1:20 mark in the video. If this value of 15-20 ppb is in reference to air then the value for TPO is even lower.

Whether the performance of this particular canning line is ‘representative’ of the craft beer industry is something I do not know.

Cheers!

 

The key to drinking delicious IPAs is not to be brand picky. Choose a fresh one

 

Drink fresh, drink local? Works for me in MA. Got a good beer store?

 

OP - agree with you 100% and I also live in the western burbs of Chicago. I am even seeing this trend at some of the downtown Binny's by my work. Grapefruit Sculpin is the perfect example of the issue....when it started to show up last spring/summer you'd see it every few weeks and it was like two weeks old. It would sell in a few days and then we wouldn't see it for a few weeks. Then BOOM! Huge shipments saturate the market and the stuff sits. It's now at least 2+months old everywhere I shop.

I'm a big Lagunitas fan...but now there are just mountains of their beer at every Binny's I go to that is OLD. They have completely over saturated the market here and it's frustrating.

The pipeworks cans are starting to do the same thing....from what I'm seeing.

 

This post is not specifically directed at you per se but since you made mention of so many breweries in this post it might be construed as being a brewery issue. The fact that there is so much hoppy beer from a given brewer(s) is the result of that beer store ordering too much of those given beers. One rationale for why a retailer orders too much of a given beer brand is that they were presented with a bulk discount from the distributor but nobody has a gun to the head of the beer store owner/manager to buy so much. A 'better' method from a freshness perspective is for the beer store owner/manager to order a lesser amount, something like just a few cases of a brand that will sell over a time period of a week or two and then when their inventory gets low reorder just enough for the next few weeks. This method of just ordering what you need for 1-2 weeks requires more effort but it is a 'better' way to manage a product where freshness is key. Having stated all of this, if the only beer that the wholesale distributor is willing (or able) to sell to that retailer is already old product from their warehouse then this method of retailing has limited appeal.

Cheers!

 

I agree with you Jack, but I also want to add that not only would that require more effort, but it's probably more expensive. Price sensitive shoppers might go elsewhere. There are many beer buyers who are unaware of these freshness issues, and wouldn't understand why they should pay a shop a little more for a more reliably fresh product. To echo @zid...

...and they want it cheap....

 

True. And it's all a matter of perspective.
Even "American" IPA has undergone a massive transformation with the advent of the micro or 'craft' brew revolution.
In the period both pre and post prohibition in the USA, great care was taken with IPA and it was usually a strong, and very well aged brew...aggressively hopped for bitterness that remained assertive even after the routine year of aging, and dry hopped after aging and prior to packaging for a rich and intense hop aroma. It also lacked the 'fresh' hop character of modern AIPAs (which many, like myself, dislike and characterize as 'green' or 'grassy').
Just a matter of personal taste, of course.
With the exception of the excellent Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale which I love, pretty much the only IPA I have consumed with any regularity (like Jack H.) for the last 35+ years has been homebrewed...and I intentionally formulated and dialed in the recipe and process to allow it to be aged for at least 8-12 months, still have a massive hop bitterness and deep hop aroma from dry hopping... and not have it wind up looking like yellow pea soup.

 

Solution: buy Stone Enjoy By IPA or other styles of beer. Works for me! Especially since Stone Unfiltered Enjoy By is easily my favorite IPA/DIPA they've ever put out.

 

Maybe with some, but I find with social media you can see when good stores get certain beers in and then know they are fresh. It's way easier now to get a fresh IPA in a bottle or can than it was, say, 10 years ago.

 

I wonder how much money the beer stores make off the old IPAs that are collecting dust in their stores (otherwise referred to as shelf turds)?

Cheers!

 

I'm a sucker for a ipa that happens to be a seasonal that I know is fresh. Even better are the "new" core beers. They are at least fresh for that first month. Deschutes nwpa comes to mind as a seasonal. Born yesterday too. Sucks comes and goes as far as freshness. Rebel gf ipa tasting nice now. Citradelic too. Those two are "new core" as far I can tell. I do know that those will age not so gracefully if they sit and no1 but me buys.

Add in the fact many breweries have canned on or bottles best by dates that you think are 4 months but when you get home, they are six. So ideally you have to be almost too careful. Beer buying can be a chore now.

It's pretty much the reason I only drink local LA cumbre elevated ipa. 5 days old seems old lol. And as a result, they have expanded and everyone else seems to suffer. The freshest sn torpedo is 6 wks old at the moment. No Thanks. BP was sitting at mid December on Sculpin and GF on last glance. A few other local IPAs dont seem to have a concise dating system so they ultimately get ignored. I can truly only drink so many gallons of beers a week, why not the best? Some people seem to get it. I reward those guys.

I will say, even the best shop in my city can "suffer" from too many options. I've seen IPAs that are 6 months dated best by, and are within 1 month of that date. Its technically not expired, I suppose. But I just don't know anymore. Then sometimes its the luck of the draw. I saw 10 day old Hop Hunter awhile back.. That tends to sit at least 3 months every time. I saw some 2 week old Lagunitas Sucks, that I bought back then, and is still sitting with the same date, some 6 weeks later. Sometimes its that luck of the draw that sadly becomes a rewarding phase of beer buying. It's tough that we have to literally check every sixer, and then some sixers behind it (stores love hoarding the new stuff in the back). I guess its a worthwhile chore, if anything.

 

I have been noticing this too and it seems to be a multi-pronged issue:

• Oversupply of IPAs, there are just so many choices these days!
• Local competition that may not have been there before so the more well known choices sit longer.
• The extreme freshness trend and if the same IPA is on the shelves but one bunch is a few weeks fresher, those are grabbed before the others and then the ones left on the shelf age further.
• Distribution issues.

I feel there needs to be a better routine for older stock (maybe a sharp discount or something? I know this can be a slippery slope, though) and it would be cool to see some real science surface to let us know what is going on for a particular beer at any given time. For example, I have had some beers that clearly fall off within 30 days and some others that tasted just fine at the 65 day mark.

The whole IPA trend and all that goes with it can get just a wee bit tiring to me at times and it's a good thing I enjoy the maltier/juicier ones better I suppose.

 

In all fairness that is how retailers (beer or non-beer) are instructed to manage product. But the older product in front (to encourage moving old product) and the newer stuff in the back. You are an 'informed' shopper so you know to 'dig' for the back product.

Cheers!

 

How does somebody utilize "real science" when the aspect of hop fade can be a subjective (personal) experience? Some people will post that in their opinion beer x is 'good' for x months while another person will post that beer x is only 'good' if you are drinking that beer right from a valve at the brewery from the bright tank.

Cheers!