Otter Creek discussion

It doesn't irk me so much but based on what people say on sites like this, freshness concerns often do seem to take the form of magical thinking.

 

It bothers me because it's so binary. I work in a retail shop, and dating the beer is key, but it isn't universal. Especially pre-heady days the goal was to create a beer that would taste the same within a specific period of time. Beer depending I'll happily drink back a beer that's a month and a half old. Especially if it's within code.

 

Are you seeing people refuse to consider/buy beer that is ~month old, or are they buying other things on the shelf that are fresher? All things being roughly equal, I'll take the fresher option. But if I'm looking for a beer and the only thing on the shelf is 40 days old, I'm not likely to walk out over it.

 

It's hard to say, we do first in first out, the heavy hitting fresh beers (whirlpool, ET all) move without much help. I've had people come in when I don't have week old beer and just leave. But I don't know if it's freshness or specific beer brand loyalty.

I have had people complain about month old beer though. Sometimes they'll but an alternative like be happy. Sometimes they just leave.

 

Just to second @Justin42, in the abstract I don't sweat the fact that a hoppy beer is a couple months old in the least and I definitely understand why the date wars can be frustrating for brewers and stores alike.

But there's so much damn stuff on the shelves trying to justify its own existence that the importance of date and price get amplified. Should I spend $15 when I know this $10 Candlepin is damn tasty? And should I take a flyer on a 3 month old beer when I know this week old Excess IPL is great? Combine high price and old-ish beer together and I bail in favor of a cheap, reliable brand almost every time - usually Sierra Nevada or Ipswich.

It's perhaps splitting hairs a bit but when you're surrounded by an embarassment of riches you gotta hone in on something or other to differentiate things

 

I really like OC and consider Backseat Berner a pretty reasonable go to IPA. However I don't really understand why they have so much sediment in their beers sometimes. I bought a Fresh Slice at the brewery on my way home and drank it that night and it was one of the chunkiest beers I've ever had. Again, it's not every bottle, but it's enough of them for it to be more than a fluke.

 

Ditto. This almost makes me wish I kept stats on every bottle I purchased this past year. I expect I've consumed more Sierra Nevada and Jacks Abby than everything else combined by a factor of 3x. Troeg's is probably a lagging 3rd place.

 

Truth. Centrifuge problems

 

I'll definitely be checking out Free Flow when it hits the Boston area.

 

I really don't mind a month on a beer, but all my local stores only have Otter Creek from April or May right now. And that's almost always the case- 4 or 5 month old sixer for 12 bucks? No way. Sorry OC but you need to check up on the local VT distro. I haven't bought OC for 2 years since all the stores started pulling these shenanigans.

 

According to Twitter Sean was at otter creek brewing double dose late last week

 

Otter Creek's first beer listed for Beervana in RI on October 14th is Double Dose...so I would think it will hit shelves by/before then (depending on how fast your distributor is.)

 

Yeah that's terrible

 

We got a case in at my store in CT today, so I'm guessing everyone else should be getting there's by tomorrow if not already

 

Correction shipping this week

 

Big fan of Otter Creek, but can people taste the difference between Over Easy and Overgrown? Both solid but boy are they similar.

 

Perhaps with one aged they'd be similar, but not by design.

Overgrown SHOULD be an aggressively hopped APA, Over Easy should be an easy drinking IPA. I guess in theory the 2 should be similar but in my experience the beers are completely different with dissimilar hop profiles.

 

Anyone try the new year round I.P.A - Free Flow? 6% 60 ibus

 

Yep, I just added it to the database and gave my thoughts. Hint: it was easily worth going in for a six pack without knowing a thing about it other than it was a 6% IPA with FF/Citra/Galaxy. I trust Mike and Otter Creek enough at this point!