I live on Long Island and all of the distributors near me are carrying Ballast Sculpin and Grapefruit Sculpins that are 6 months old and over. I enjoy those beers but am skeptical about paying craft beer prices for old beer...Thoughts?
I tend to avoid all west coast shelf IPAs these days for that very reason. With the ever-increasing quality of fresh, local options I see no point in buying older, worse tasting beers.
It makes no sense to buy those beers with that kind of age on them. If anything, distributors need to focus more on local brews that are more likely to be fresh, and other IPA's that have better sell through.
Agreed, I have just liked those beers in the past and I have found that over the past couple of months they have all had Julian dates of roughly 150 or so....they have been keeping them on the shelves, not ordering new ones....my brother brought over a grapefruit sculpin 6 pack a few weeks ago that totally lost is grapefruit qualities....
I feel like BP was doing ok here for awhile freshness-wise but now stuff is sitting or arriving old. Same with Firestone Walker. Stone, Lagunitas and Sierra Nevada are better with this. Meanwhile 90% of my beer is now brewed very close by and is fresh.
Yea I avoid most west coast stuff also. Even when Alesmith came around initially it was a few months old. That and their prices along with ballast point suck when I can get a lot of local stuff that's only a few days old.
Agreed,when traveling through BWI, I always stop by a beer shop in Hunt Valley because of their good selection of west coast IPA and quick turn over. Even with the high volume sales/turnover, the Firestone Walker Union Jack was still 3 months old. The evening I stopped by they were hosting an FW event and product was moving quickly. Perhaps a victim of distribution center(s) that sit on product?
With all of the great local IPAs, I rarely buy off the shelf IPAs. Before the local scene exploded, Sculpin was one of my favorite beers. But even then, it had to be fresh. I suspect now even if I had a fresh Sculpin I would not hold in as high regard as I used to. 6 month old Sculpin is a pass, Sculpin a month old or younger would be ideal. but pass on any of it and get yourself some days to weeks old local stuff.
Why not contact BP's regional reps? They list all their employees on their website, including: Steve Miller Sales Rep, Eastern NY [email protected] Jen Dickey Regional Sales Manager, Northeast [email protected] (I assume "northeast" here covers NY, since there's also a "New England" regional sales manager) I wonder how many true wholesale distributors Ballast Point has on Long Island? I'd expect one or two, so they are responsible for the freshness of the product. (Yeah, I realize that NY also has large "beverage centers" that sell beer and pop retail and, like Pennsylvania, are sometimes called "distributors").
Hi -- I got a response from Steve Miller who forwared my email to the Long Island rep.... Great idea! - Thanks!
So I just had a similar incident with a weak pint of Sculpin that was obviously past it's shelf life, I reached out to the Ballast Point rep in PA with an email, no response.....
Sculpin used to be one of my go to IPAs. I find that the market is now over saturated with Ballast Point, and I have a tough time finding anything close to fresh Sculpin. I always wonder if somone new to IPAs would pick up an expired 6er and then swear off the style forever.....
Mind if I ask which shop, I just moved to the Baltimore area and would love to find some fresh West Coast options.
oh yea, if you don't see what you are looking for at Shawan Liquor, just ask, they probably have it in the back room or the cooler.
