Equilibrium Brewery

If you really need to know the science behind it, this is what @pproof responded to some guy who said his cans of Photon were exploding. The real take away is just keep your cans cold.

 

So you admittedly have left EQ cans warm as well, but digdug can't ask a simple question (in a polite manner) when his experience wasn't the same? What is the take away here? We all know these beers are best stored cold. I typically like your posts but there is no need to be so condescending.

 

What annoyed me is the repeated posts throwing shade at the brewery. He was the only one with this experience and I didn't find his conclusion that only EQ would have his beers turn into seltzer.

It's too bad that the brewery didn't answer his email but there is really nothing wrong with EQ cans. Could he have bought some off cans? It's possible but we'll never know since they were not kept cold, so thus the moral of the story...

 

This beer has held up very well! Orange marmalade in a glass!
On the other hand I did not like Fools Equipoise much at all! Especially considering the amount of effort that it took to score those cans! Not a rant by any means, just an expression.

#properglassware!

 

Time to redo the labels

 

@digdug1810 repeatedly accepted responsibility for not keeping the cans cold and said multiple times it was his fault, so I'm not sure where you got that he was "throwing shade" at EQ. Since he has had EQ cans have this problem, it seems reasonable that he would question their canning/carbonation practices to understand what would cause this to happen. Your proclamation that "there is really nothing wrong with EQ cans" is wrong and alarmingly fanboyish since @digdug1810 clearly had problems, and @Xerlic's post further shows (an)other(s) have had them as well. The research about the hop enzyme is pretty interesting, and I'll have to go look for the paper to see what that entails and how additional CO2 could be produced in the can. Cans can usually take a pretty damn high pressure compared to bottles, so that mechanism must be pretty strong...but it's been known about for quite a while.

When did it become acceptable for a brewer to say "you have to store cans at this temperature or it's all going to go to shit"? Beer should hold up better than that. I don't see Trillium/Treehouse/OH saying it has to be held at 38 degrees or your can will explode/flavors will be destroyed. What is EQ doing that necessitates this? Can conditioning? Admittedly, that would be kind of cool. I'd trade for some of their cans to experiment with the effect of that.

 

Opens to sweet, caramel roasted malt with citrusy/floral hops. Quite unique with the set classification: has a bready bite with toffee, dark fruit, and some chalky vanilla aspects. The appearance of malt is lead yet creamy with subtle bitterness + hops just explode overtime, as it becomes smoother and juicier.

EQM may have gotten higher praise if misclassified as a American-style Barleywine. Regardless, fairly clean, complex, and well balanced

 

1. Did not see that this way after his repeated posts... You can say you take responsibility and still throw shade afterwards.

2. Not a fanboy but I do like the brewery, staff and beer.

3. These guys are scientists and have clearly stated what MIGHT HAVE happened. What was written could happen at any brewery, not just EQ. Really not supported that this is a current widespread problem just because he may have gotten a bad can or two (mine have always been fine). If one person posts that his Tree House can has a problem after not keeping it cold, does that make it an issue for all Tree House cans? It's certainly not like the numerous people complaining about the Kane Mexican Brunch bottle issues that affected some bottles and was later the brewery refunded the money for all the bottles from that batch after finding some issues (even though the majority of the bottles were fine). Nice move by Kane to protect their brand btw.

4. I stand by my moral of the story that you should keep your IPA cans cold. Not just EQ cans but from all breweries. Just because EQ is honest and tried to explain, in a scientific way, a possible reason for an undesirable event, that doesn't automatically mean that EQ cans have a problem. I totally agree with Pete's last sentence (which applies to all breweries):

Everyone --- Please store your beers cold and drink them fresh; mostly, because they will taste better (but perhaps it would also help to mitigate brewery anomalies)

I strongly agree since I generally tend toward a "better safe than sorry" philosophy and try to keep all my IPA cans as cold as possible. Wish more people would do the same.

 

This is simply not true though. Pete mentioned in his facebook post that this has happened to pretty much everyone at the brewery. He even mentioned getting hurt. The brewery is aware of the problem so it needs to be addressed. Other breweries that heavily fruit their beers make sure it is known to keep the beers cold. JREAM's for example say it on the can. IPAs aren't supposed to explode. If they do it is an issue that needs to be resolved or addressed outside of a facebook post. Not everyone buying their beer knows to keep IPA's cold for best results.

 

Ca

Can you post this Facebook post you are referring to on this issue?

 

@Xerlic posted it above:

 

I thought you had a new post since I already referenced this old Facebook post in what I wrote (and even quoted from lol). Also, he did not mention that anybody got hurt as you misread his sentence. I'm sure you were just skimming the long post, as most people tend to do.

 

I never said anyone got hurt, I said he mentioned it. I was just pointing out that’s this is not just one persons issue like you said, the brewery knows about it and did nothing.

 

"He even mentioned getting hurt." Guess you didn't mean somebody actually got hurt but it read that way to me. Anyway, this was back before June of last year and I'm sure if there was any real issues that they would have been fixed as the brewery did address people and did NOT just do nothing, as you claim.

Fwiw, the new labels being rolled out do not have the store at 38 degrees anymore.

 

Sorry, I realize now my first post might have come off the wrong way.


Any idea why they’d remove that from the label if that’s how they want the beer stored (and to prevent bad/exploding cans?)

 

That's cool. I like most of your posts and agree with many of them.

Pete stated in his Facebook post above that they created three hypotheses and ran some tests back in June of last year. However, they were looking for people to submit cans which had this issue (from the same 4-pack maybe?) but I don't think they got any submissions. EQ constantly is tweaking and adjusting their brewing/canning processes and it certainly not an issue anymore. As I stated in a previous post, "Could he have bought some off cans?" Certainly possible and we don't really know how old his cans were just that they were not stored cold. I know that I've had some bad cans from almost all breweries, even Other Half, which we both like to buy. It happens but I resist jumping to the conclusion that the operation is flawed. Statistically, a few bad cans out of a 7,000 can run is really not significant, in a truly math sense. Though it definitely sucks to get a bad can.

In terms of the new labels, I know that they are making all new labels but trying, when possible, to use up their own stock of labels. I don't know if the "store at 38 degrees" is missing as an oversight or they just assume people now know that they need to store their IPA's cold. I wouldn't read much into it, either way, as a warning to exploding cans. These guys are scientists and I know that they wanted to find and solve the issue back then. It's their jam.

 

This guy is complaining about the labels AGAIN!?!?!? I kid I kid.

Seriously though, are you guys sure the 38F warning isn't on the new labels? I haven't been to EQ in a month, but I made the ODB and Fluctuation release yesterday. The warning is on the ODB cans, albeit a bit hidden compared to the older labels. My Fluc cans have the old label.

 

Actually I was only partially correct on the new labels. The cans I looked at that didn't have the 38 degree statement were Master of Pellets, Mystery of Chinook, and Fools Equipoise. The new Fluctuation can labels and the EQM labels have "Refrigerate at 38 degrees or Drink Fresh" in the left hand corner (easy to see).

 

didn't mean to ruffle any feathers with my posts.. mainly i'm just pissed at myself for not storing the cans cold... i know that is what needs to be done and i didn't do it.. mainly i didn't do it bc there simply is too much beer in my possession at the moment... (first world problems)... i wasn't storing these things at 90 degrees or something.. they are in a cool dark place and as mentioned before i really didn't think that they would develop into seltzer... live and learn

cool to see that post on the photon issue.. maybe it is some brett cells.. maybe it's that sugar theory from the allagash paper... maybe with more places using lupin powder the science is shifting... we all know shops keep bottles of ipa on the shelf at room temperature and they don't explode.. sure they'll fade super fast and taste crappy but i just hadn't experienced this to this level before... EQ makes killer beers and i'll still support them regardless

how was the old dirty beer from this week and the fluc with the what... high oil citra or something?

 

The new Fluctuation cans are killer. Real juicy. Definitely improved. Haven't cracked the other can yet.

Btw, you never mentioned how old your cans were and what beer it was.