How does distribution work?

Your retailer can only receive what their wholesale distributor provides to them. In other words the wholesale distributor has beers in stock in their warehouse and those are the beer available for sale to the retailer. The wholesale distributor will send out the most 'mature' product to the retailer since they want to get rid of the oldest product first.

This is how the three tier system 'works' throughout the US and it is not specifically only an artifact of beer.

Cheers!

 

It is called FIFO. First in, first out. The distributor needs to get rid of the old stuff first. I would also wager a guess that the store owner is not willing to spend a bunch of time trying to get one case for someone. I bet if you went in asking for 10 cases he would have them on the next truck.

 

I can relate, I think the distributor here on the Oregon Coast takes all the old beer from every other distributor in Oregon and sends it out here to die of old age.

 

I think that sometimes people here on BA set unreasonable expectations for beer freshness. I am on facebook beer groups where people think an IPA is "old" after a week.

 

Gotta check those dates. Some stores are more notorious for having old beer. I won't name any names but their initials are TW

 

You can order a fresh case but the retailer may not be able to get it since when the wholesaler orders it they can only guess at how much to order and how fast it will sell. It's not really the three tier system to blame as much as it is the problem with estimating demand. Also, if you are ordering an import it may already 2-3 mos. old because of shipping time.

 

Let's put the brakes on blaming all three tier solely for this. Sure the distributor in question may be poor--not the system as a whole. Perhaps they over ordered. I credit three tier for getting my fresh Sierra Nevada before Mills River opened and many things from other places that would have struggled to get beer far away--Lagunitas (before Chicago), uber fresh Bells/Founders and some smaller ones too like Green Flash (although they were more guilty of old here than most).

My local place checks everything that comes in--owner won't take it if "old."

Too many good choices in date to sweat it.

 

You might have better luck, distributors will generally not keep keg beer in inventory as long as they do package beer. Depending on your state you might be able to buy direct from the wholesaler, just show up, be cool and ask if you can get some of beer x out of the most recent shipment. Depending on mood, etc you might get it (the logical fallacy assumes they have anything other than the shipment currently in stores).

 

If you are talking about German hefes, you are never going to find one in the US less than 6 weeks old. It takes that long just to get from Europe to an importer's warehouse.

 

How many different "bottled on" dates do you think a wholesale distributor has in stock for one specific beer at any given time? On a slow-moving brand, it is unlikely they have more than one or two. It's not unusual for every store in a distributor's area to all have the same bottling date(s) for certain beers.

If the wholesaler's stock is truly always past the brewer's "best by" date - "...straight up out of code according to the breweries that make them..." - check out the brewer's website and look for an email for their regional rep in your area. If not available online, email or call the brewery or importer for that info. Some breweries even have "Report old beer" features on their website.

Lots of retailers will order 1 case for a customer, particularly if it is distributed by a wholesaler they routinely order from - some may require pre-payment. (Wholesale reps have seen one guy hitting every store asking for them to order the same beer - "Geez, everybody's ordering a case of XYZ Cream of Tomato Ale today...hmmm...".)

It's unlikely a store can or will request a particular freshness date but the customer can always specify that they don't want and won't pay for a beer older than a certain time period (within the brewery's recommended freshness period isn't unreasonable) - of course, that just might cause the request to be "lost".

 

There are numerous parties/factors at play here, and you can't just blame the whole three-tier system. I used to work for a distributor in Brooklyn, NY so have some perspective on this area.

Being able to order a case through your shop really depends on the shop and the distributor(s) they use. If the shop has a great relationship with a distributor, then they should be able to get priority on the most sought after beers, which would likely move quickly and for that reason be 'fresh'. As for 'getting whatever the distributor provides'...I would say that is broadly true. But if the bottle shop is a good enough customer, they can make special requests.

In general distributors will try to shift their oldest stock first, but there are exceptions. I know of some breweries that give very specific guidelines to the distributor where freshness is concerned, so their beers don't sit in the warehouse for long. Of course, such breweries are in high demand from bars/retailers/consumers, so selling the beer immediately is never an issue. But at least in certain cases, you know that both the brewery and the wholesaler will be making an 'extra' effort to shift the beers as quickly as possible.

In NY, you cannot buy beer directly from wholesalers.

 

I know a local distributor orders massive quantities of beer in one go from certain breweries so they don't have to get multiple shipments to cut costs. Which leads to a lot of old beer constantly on the shelf. They even ship out expired beer and hope nobody notices. All that poor SNPA never stood a chance!!

 

When I unload the trucks where I work,I make sure I check everything I ordered from my distributor's is fresh or at least pretty damn close to fresh. If it's not I send them packing.

 

A week is not old. Three weeks is not old. However if I can get a beer that is one week old, I will bypass the three week old one. Around here three weeks old is rare for out of state beers, and usually much older is the rule for beers that are distro from out of state.

I can relate to OP. We have traditionally in the Mid Hudson Valley gotten the oldest stock dumped on us, north of us Albany got fresher, south of us NY City got fresher. Nowadays we have a thriving small brewery scene here, with fresh, top quality beer available all the time. I'll buy Union Jack, FW, if you can get it to me under two months old.

To me the inability of out of state production breweries and their distributors to get fresh product on shelf is helping the local brewery movement. Keep it up you guys! You are helping turn all my locals, some of whom are my friends, into very successful businesses. Freshness is one way mid sized craft breweries have major trouble competing.

 

Reality the salesmen doesn't check for freshness. The person at wharehouse picking loads for 10 hours doesn't check freshness. The driver who started at 3am doesn't care about freshness. The merchandisers who are supposed to rotate but have 5 more stores to goto don't care about freshness. All of this is why I spend a long time while I shop for beer.

 

It's time we realized that retailers (both online and offline) are really pissed off that people keep asking them about beer freshness. Either you trust him or you don't. Try buying one, if it's not fresh enough for you, change retailer. But you can't ALL go and ask about the date, it's just impossible to answer everyone... His job is to buy fresh, and as a customer you decide to trust him or not. Most retailers will only sell fresh beers, mainly because if they don't the customers know and it's bad for business. This is what Saveur Biere is doing in France for example. I asked them why they didn't have more American beers, and they told me it's because they don't sell when they're not fresh, so they only buy them fresh, leading to a lower amount than what they could provide if they bought "not so fresh" stuff.

 

There are a couple breweries who's hoppy beers I really enjoy, but I can't seem to find fresher than 3-4 months most of the time. I've had the opportunity to speak with distributor reps about these beers and learned some interesting info about the freshness situation.

1. Often, the beer is already 5-8 weeks old when the distributor receives it. Unfortunately, the distributor can't exactly reject beer and say they want a fresher batch

2. The distributor's sales forecast might call for them to get so many pallets of a certain beer, but the brewery will force more on them, it then takes longer to deplete stock.

3. More competition is not exactly good for freshness. Whenever a new beer comes out it sells fast but sales are tapering off quicker then in the past. Beers that used to move quickly aren't selling as fast due to so many new options.

4. Consumers are paying closer attention to freshness than in the past. Many individuals are no longer just buying their favorite IPA when they go to the store, but getting whatever the freshest IPA they can find is. (I'll admit I've done this)

If anybody wonders, the beers who's freshness I was concerned about were FW Union Jack and Founder's Centennial.