"Can Shock", "Bottle Shock", and Freshness

He states that the beer from the brewery is "28 days old" but I am uncertain what the start date is for that quote. Is it 28 days from brew day or does that 28 days mean from package day?

Cheers!

 

Is that from watching the video (which is ambiguous) or do you have a separate source of information you can quote here?

Cheers!

@telejunkie

 

Yup, that is indeed what he stated. But the start date could be the day they brewed the beer. A 28 duration would be consistent with about a week for fermentation and a few weeks for dry hopping (and then some time in the Brite Tank)

Again, if you have separate quote you can provide which unambiguously documents that The Alchemist stores their packaged beer for 28 days before releasing the beer from the brewery I would be interested in reading it.

Cheers!

 

Warehousing packaged beer for 28 days involves a non-trivial cost both in terms of resources (e.g., space in the brewery) and delayed revenue. If there is any brewery that would be willing to shoulder this cost The Alchemist would be one but even they are a business so I wonder here.

Cheers!

 

I swear I recall seeing something from Tree House before where they said the flavor was optimal at around 2 weeks or so. In my search though it looks like someone just tweeted them the question:

Basically they just say they like it super fresh but it has different qualities over time.

 

I like most Tree House beers after a week or two except for Haze. That one drinks the best to me the first couple days.

 

That mental image made me chuckle.

Not sure if every brewer of these hazy beers is making that intent clear. For example, Tired Hands certainly doesn't hold back with the hyperbole about drinking their beer as soon as possible.

 

And needless to say I do not 100% agree with Tired Hands as per my previous post:

"I have no idea what "can/bottle shock" means but I have had many cans of Tired Hands beers of various brands. Those canned beers have consistently tasted better a couple of weeks after canning day. I have since made it a practice to not drink newly canned Tired Hands beers and always let the cans 'sit' for at least two weeks in my refrigerator before drinking them."

Cheers!

 

It's pH and concentration dependent, but yes, if your beer is below 4.4 pH (most are right about that, some are higher, a small number are lower) then spontaneous hydrolysis of terpene glycosides should occur. It has been shown that geraniol, linalool, and other compounds we know are present as glycosides increase in concentration during aging; as far as I know it has never been conclusively shown (with isotope tagging, for instance) that they're coming from glycosides. It seems safe to say that they are, though.

Regarding the above quote, all of the terpene glycosides are from hops, and survive the brewing process essentially intact (stable covalent bonds, very soluble). Some yeast can cleave them; most can't. A lot of us thought that "kettle hop flavor" should come almost entirely from glycoside hydrolysis during fermentation/aging since all the free compounds would have boiled off, but the work in Germany trying to show that has been really inconclusive.