There is no "freshness incentive" for buying local

I think a lot of this comes down to how your store does their orders. I'm in Florida and Total Wine has like 10+ cases of all the core Cigar City beers that have been there for months. The dates range from May to early July. But a smaller liquor store near me only keeps around a case or two in stock and it is always fresh. Catch a delivery right and you can get Jai Ali that is only a day or two old. Out of state beers like Ballast Point or Bell's I've never seen younger than 3 weeks.

 

Not much to say except that I can vouch for the fact that the national/regional beers are often fresher than local beers here.

Source: working here http://beercornerusa.com/

 

I just picked up a 4-pack of Two Hearted cans packaged a little over 3 weeks ago. In contrast, there are a number of local options on the same shelves collecting dust (...at a higher price per oz., too).

EDIT: that said, I do have a local option in Olde Mecklenburg that insists on freshness, and does everything it can to ensure as much (transports cold, keeps close tabs on aging stock, limited distribution to markets where it can monitor such things regularly).

 

I would say that it may speak more to the quality of your local/regionals vs. nationals. Your area is selling more nationals so your stock is staying fresh. It's the opposite here. FFF, Bells, Founders, Revolution, Pipeworks, Half Acre, etc. can find within 2 weeks of bottling. Nationals are 1-2 months on shelf. I can't justify spending $15 on a 6er of 2 month old Sculpin when a day old ZD is $10.

 

While I cannot confirm, I've been told that Budweiser tastes delicious in St. Louis.

if (demand > supply) {
beer = "fresh";
}

 

Agreed. I was trying to think of how to say this without speaking ill of NE breweries and gave up

Mostly uninspiring offerings...nuff said.

 

It is a real double edged sword. I can find both very fresh, but it all depends on the location you buy from. If the place you are buying from is a grocery store/chain, then yes you may find fresher local beers. That isn't to say you wont find other national/regional selections to be very fresh. On the other side, if you frequent a craft beer shop, the people that go there are not as likely to pick up a local brew when they have so many other national/regional brews to choose from that they may have not had before/like better. The plus side for local, and I actually did this on Monday, is that if you find a beer that isn't fresh or about to go out of code, they have an easier time getting that pulled and replaced by fresh stock because they are local. If you were to say do that with a national brand that isn't remotely close, it may take longer for the same to happen.

 

It's a mixed bag with MI breweries but I can say the one I've seen 1.5w bottles out of more consistently is Bells. Shorts and Founders are sometimes that fresh but it's the exception rather than the rule. Founders is the frustrating one: I live 15mins from them but it's pulling teeth to get fresh product sometimes.

 

My favorite local guy only carries an amount that moves well of stuff where the freshness counts. He will load up on Expedition stout because he knows his customers will want his one all year long and it is only getting better.

He routinely gets Sculpin with two weeks on it--he says he would much rather run out than carry any old stock. It runs out fairly quickly but you can trust it is right on. Walk in a Total Wine and you fill find a wall of stuff some of it has been there a while no matter where it came from. Sure they move a lot but some of the IPAs get dusty.

Now with Hop-Drop local, we have one that is insanely fresh local however because BAs are getting it shipped, it usually is less than a week everywhere. In Charlotte, other locals move pretty well but not tons of stuff bottled/canned.

If Wicked Weed would bottle/can Freak.........

 

I am in an interesting position, I cannot provide an appropriate answer to the question but I can provide an alternative viewpoint. My favorite beer is Two Hearted, probably goes without saying, I would buy older Two Hearted over other IPAs that may be fresher, this is simply a matter of freshness. I can purchase Two Hearted at probably close to 100 locations in my general area, freshness will vary but I am generally aiming for convenience. Freshness will definitely vary, even being in the breweries hometown, though I am willing to wager the difference is often negligible.

If I were to pay closer attention to these things, I would not be surprised if the "freshness incentive" for local products is exaggerated a bit. Knowing distribution restraints, habits and need to cover other markets can certainly impact local shelves at times, I have certainly experienced that. The one definitive statement I can make is that freshness is not always guaranteed regardless of the products originating location.

As stated before, i drink for preference and not freshness. If given reasonable fresh options, I am infinitely more content with my habits as opposed to constantly scouring and (over)analyzing freshness dates. I am also very lucky to live where I do, where local means very high quality, I rarely struggle to find outstanding beer. I am fortunate enough to not have to consider this problem.

 

I think that there's one very important point that's missing here, and that is the way the brewery packages their beer and the equipment they use makes a huge difference in how it's perceived even a few days after it's packaged.

There are breweries that have great equipment and make great beers with very little oxygen pick up, and there are breweries with great equipment that don't really know how to use it to it's full potential, and there are breweries with crappy equipment that somehow pull off the miracle of putting great beer in a package without harming it along the way.

 

I agree for the most part. Also, when it comes to the importance of freshness in the first place, a lot depends on style. Certain styles have longer shelf life, clearly, and some even get better with age. That is why I do not understand why more folks do not try European beers, especially those from Belgium and Germany that age very well. At least where I live, they can be pretty affordable. Given the national obsession with IPA's, I can understand why freshness is important to some folks.

 

The more I think about this, I am truly amazed how many fresh craft beers from the west coast and midwest we get in NC often rivaling those from 200 miles away.

 

I don't know that I could make a generalization about all the markets in my area, it seems that higher volume stores have fresh local and regional/national brands, while at slower moving stores, the risk of old product is equal regardless of locality. In general, though, product is generally fresh for both without a clear trend favoring local or bigger brands.

 

My best guess is that it depends where you live.

In SEPA (Southeast PA) there are plenty of high quality local breweries (Victory, Sly Fox, Troegs, Stoudts, Yards, Weyerbacher, Neshaminy Creek, and on and on...) and those beers sell briskly. There is no dust on those beers (6-packs) and when I want to pick up a 6-pack of local brew they are always fresh (typically less than a month from bottling).

I suppose that things could be different in other locations?

Cheers!