How long is beer good for?

If you purchase the beer fresh (under a month old) and ship it 3 months to arrive there when you arrive, then you'll be drinking that beer when it's 4-9 months old. That's not so bad, but I don't know how that good that beer is when it has 9 months on it. However, the unknown here is what conditions that beer will undergo during transit. If it's in a metal shipping container, especially a dark-colored one, that might be on the deck of the ship and subject to direct sun, your beer will probably take a beating. If it's in a container inside a ship's hold, maybe those conditions aren't too different than when the beer is stored inside a distributor's non-refrigerated warehouse for 3 months. Being refrigerated during transit would be ideal, but I doubt that you'll get that treatment. So it's a gamble unless you know the shipping conditions and can make a reasonable prediction. I don't think you'll end up with bad beer, just not nearly as good as fresh.

Let me suggest that you browse thru the South America forum to see what the beer culture might be in Brasil, and then consider just drinking what the natives drink.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/forums/south-america.103/

Or, you can browse this list of beer-centric places in Brazil to see if there are good breweries, bars or beer stores near where you'll be staying. Maybe it will add to your trip to enjoy local beers, or visit a good bar or beer store nearby that might have a good selection of American imports (or other countries) that you can enjoy.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/place/...earch&name=&city=&s_id=&c_id=BR&submit=Search

 

Ah, no, I’d just drink the local.

 

Are you shipping it from California?

 

I agree with everyone else - drink local - what an opportunity. Or are you from there so it's no big deal?

 

Last I had Sam Adams summer ale was maybe 10 years ago when my roommate had a case. But I distinctively remember having it in the fall amd it did not hold well. I do not recommend. Just drink local.

 

"6 or more cases"? For 5 months?
Gonna need a bigger boat

 

I think the rule of thumb is that beer has a shelf life of about 6 months, and ale about 3 months, but I join in the prior suggestions to drink local.

 

Beer is food. So like all other foods, time and temperature does have an effect on its quality. Fresh beer is typically better beer.

But beer does not necessarily go bad. It just wont be as fresh (with the exception of domestic kegs which are almost always unpasteurized and will definitely go bad if not handled properly. But that is an exception).

Beer is not a very hospitable place for microorganisms to live much less grow so no worries there.

SA Summer Ale is not particularly robust. Packing it in a storage container that will sit on a hot dock for a while, into the hold of a ship for a while and then back on to a very hot dock through customs, oh and on to the back of a truck finally to sit around again. Yeah, that's far from ideal.

If you are not really particular there is not harm in having this beer shipped. Just don't expect to be amazed at your awesome Summer Ale shipment.

Unless the local brew is really shite you would probably be just as well off drinking that.

Cheers

 

Sam Adams is ok, but shipping 5/6 cases is insane, probably cost as much or more than the beers are worth.If I’m going to do something insane I’m shipping myself Alchemist beers. Logically I’d explore the local options, drink some wine, rum.

 

I suppose another point to make here is that Brazil is approaching winter, and depending on your location that you are visiting, maybe shipping some nice warming stouts will be a better plan.

OP? OP? OP? Where are you?

 

Sam Adams uses a best by duration of 5 months for their beers. If you are able to obtain fresh beer (e.g., 1 month old) and then tack on the 3 months for shipping those beers will be 4 months old upon reaching Brazil. Are you willing to consume 6 cases in 30 days?

As others have made mention above, my suggestion is that you drink local beer.

Cheers!

 

Agree drink local - but I’m curious cause this has all the hallmarks of a troll post. OP can you better explain why you’d want to bring SAM summer to Brazil? You have a particular love for the beer? Don’t think Brazil has any decent beer?

 

This reminds me of a high school kid I knew. Went on a trip to Portugal and packed bread and peanut butter to eat and never experienced any of the local cuisine. Isn't part of the point of travelling to experience new things and be exposed to whatever local culture applies - food, beer, social life, whatever.

Never mind shipping (and paying thru the nose for said shipping) a beer that has a 3.33 rating on here to begin with when there's so many superior choices. Especially if the purpose is to bring some American beer culture to friends in Brazil...

This whole concept makes no sense to me whatsoever.

And that doesn't include acceleration of degradation due to possible exposure to high temps if that cargo container is sitting on deck. We've been horrified by some of the results we've gotten from travelling temperature (and humidity) recorders on cargo ships, warehouses, loading docks, and LTL carriers domestically. A week at 90 F equals a month at 70 F, roughly speaking in terms of reaction rates, so that hypothetically fresh Sam's Summer could have an equivalent age that is substantially greater depending on conditions.

Again, this whole idea is just nonsense. My opinion, man...

 

Larry, you won't get an argument from me here.

That is why I chose to finish my post with: "...my suggestion is that you drink local beer."

Cheers!

 

Clearly you didn’t check the cost to ship cases of beer via ocean container. Forget asking how long the beer would last. The question is why would you spend that kind of money shipping Sam Adams.

 

The shipping is a crap shoot and it will be hard to determine what your beer will go through from the shipping company to the shipping warehouse to the container to the dock to ship. Where on the ship the container is put makes a big difference. Then the package will go through the reverse process when it gets to Brazil. You should check to see if Sam Adams is distributed to Brazil - that would save you money and effort. Drinking local is probably a better ides.

 

If the only thing going in that container is a few cases of beer then sure. It's ridiculous.
But if you are relocating, using a moving company, part of a University expedition or otherwise have access to space in a container, cost is not any issue at all. If it's legal it can be shipped. Shipping containers are not readily available to the average Joe though. There is most certainly a shipper in between.

I once had the pleasure of relocating Citibank executives all over the world. You'd be surprised how many wealthy educated bankers could not understand why they couldn't put their houseplants into a dark box for a 2 month trip to a foreign country. But 5 tons of sand? Go right ahead.

Cheers.

 

Whose "thumb" is that? Can't think of one well-known, well-distributed brewer, even those with a variety of "shelf life" periods for their beers, that breaks it down like that.

(Or uses the term "beer" for "lager", but I come from the era when that was common usage in the US.... ).

 

I am familiar with shipping, not as much on the ocean container side, but I work in the shipping industry. Containers are huge and your beer will be loaded with thousands of other items. Also, it takes weeks to unload a container ship. Thus, the time to get said beer is the ocean travel time plus unload time. I didn’t think that the op could be shipping beer as part of a much larger shipment but could be possible since the op says he’ll be in Brazil for 5 months.

I would have loved to hear the conversation with the bank executives about shipping plants in a container.