Correct freshness question for bartenders

You want transparency?
The proof is in the pour.
Get a sample.

 

OK, I just knew there was a reason I do 98% bottles/cans at home/with friends. There are several on this thread. Particularly this one...

 

I'm not an expert on this by any stretch of the imagination but you've summarized nicely what is also my current understanding of the differences between keg freshness and freshness in other containers. Seems like particularly important is that generally kegs are kept refrigerated, which is known to slow decline in freshness, and the oxygen control may possibly more important. For example, I recall having read in authoritative sources that with bottle filling lines one of the important differences between the most common and the more expensive high-end bottling lines is oxygen control and that with some of the more modern bottling lines a beer will be as fresh after 5-6 months in the bottles as it would be after about 3 months from other bottling lines.

 

Randy,

Peter Wolfe discussed keg best by timeframes in a previous thread. Kegged Budweiser has a shorter best by timeframe (60 days) vs. bottled Budweiser (110 days):

“Draft Budweiser has an even shorter shelf life (60 days) because it was not historically pasteurized.”

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...eshest-before-date.294482/page-2#post-3965588

Cheers!

Jack

 

Sure, let me hop in the back real quick...

 

As a beer delivery driver who has delivered dozens of kegs, you are asking questions that my supervisors would not have answers to. Knowing when the keg is filled is probably near to impossible to discover for some breweries, a best by date is your best bet. As far as tapping the keg, I can't imagine that would affect the beer's flavor maybe the mouthfeel but if it has a bad seal, which happens, then it's probably not going to be served. I know on some occasions humidity gets the best of the keg's label, it will peel off or the letters will run, etc.

My best advice to you is that keg beer is usually fresher than bottled or canned beer because it usually has a shorter shelf life and it's refrigerated probably for about 90% percent of the time. Also with keg beer distributors usually pay closer attention to the shelf life because we are more concerned with losing a whole barrel ($100 +) than a case or a few bottles of beer.

 

From my experience going to established beer bars, the kegs are always fresh.

 

I don't think folks were saying there'd be any harm in it. So if you want to start encouraging all the bars to do that, go for it!

 

I will casually ask how a beer has been selling. The answer to that question will tell you if a beer is fresh or not usually.

 

It might make beers go stale. All the people that think an IPA is no good after a few weeks just won't order it and it will get older and older.

You can ask whatever you want. Don't be mad when people say it's not cool to ask the fill date on a keg. Most bartenders will say that is asking way to much of them. Some bars a manager has to unlock the cooler every single time some one goes into it. If they do go and check and its not up to standards they will probably ask when another keg was filled. Not cool.

 

Its a bottle.

 

Yes you can almost always tell when the keg was filled with a date on the collar.

Why is everyone so hell bent on when it was tapped? That shouldn't make much of a difference at all.

The point being don't ask. Go to a place with good rotation that you can trust and end it there. When people ask when the keg was filled it usually comes across as snobby and people tend to think they no more than the staff so they need to know the date.

 

Please, note, however, that I posted that during a conversation of several posts in that thread (starting there, down to my post at #333) about the OP's continuing suggestions there and in another thread that a beer's freshness is based on and can be determined by the consumer by the "brewdate". (See here and here). I stated that the actual day the beer was brewed, even if known, is of little help with freshness, since it is unknown how long the beer spent in fermentation, aging/lagering and other processes before being racked into a keg (or bottled/canned). Freshness of beer is typically based on either the date of packaging, not brewing, or the brewer's "best by" dating (using a set period of time after the packaging date).

I further noted that, AT BEST, a typical bartender would only find either a "best by" or a "filled/racked/packaged on" date on most keg collars, when the OP claimed that "the best bartenders" would know when the beer was brewed.

I, in no way, suggested that the typical bartender would know the racking or "best before" dates for the beers he had on tap, that most bartenders would be willing or had the time to check the keg for those dates, or even that the OP should ask for the dates.

 

Tapped on means absolutely nothing. Tapping the keg does nothing to change it's age or freshness.

 

I usually ask if they sell a lot of it...especially if that tap hangs around too long.And no bar should be serving any Summer Ales now...