Shelf IPAs

What Yankee was it?

I typically only buy off the shelf if it is something really good and the can date is within a couple of weeks. That doesn't usually happen at Yankee Sturbridge because they typically know to make some cooler space for stuff like that. They do keep all of their Foundation on the shelf for some reason. I have found fresh Burlington and Frost on the shelf in the past but I have also seen both of those brands in the cooler so...
How does cooler space work anyway? I have heard that brewers/distributors can put that in the agreement, is that true?

 

Yankee Norwood keeps 90% of their IPAs out of coolers if I were to guess. Always kills me when I go in there.

Related, I've always found it really weird that places like CBC who care so deeply about beer keep their hops out of the cooler, too. I get it, super expensive and not realistic to refrigerate everything and they probably turn product over pretty quick, but still.

 

Some breweries will "require" that their beer be stored cold, which they may or may not enforce.

 

Like Alchemist putting stickers on their 4 packs saying this beer must be kept cold and having letters in each case saying thank you for carrying their stuff and reiterating the beer being kept cold. I know i have a large enough cooler that I can keep lots of skus cold, some stores it may be tougher to do, but I definitely believe in cold beer sells beer

 

We keep almost 100% of the beer in our shops cold aside from 12pk displays and some bombers.

Ive always kind of noticed that these demands seem to apply less the bigger your account is. Like, ive seen plenty of beers that I am told to keep cold all the time, sitting on warm shelves at Total Wine/Wegmans

 

Funny how distributors who preach the cold beer thing, let it go right out the window for big box store type accounts.

 

I agree with the large retailer sentiment. I'm always confused at the Westwood Wegmans, there are maybe 3-4 craft coolers for a large craft section. Yet they put every single Night Shift brand, even non-hoppy cans to fill up one of the coolers, then you have for example hoppy beers by Firestone Walker, Stone, even obvious local brands like Boom Sauce or Hoponius Union are left on warm shelves.

 

I straight up asked the now RIP Framingham/natick CBC why they were selling 22 four packs of Singlecut NEIPAs that were warm on the shelf when they had some lagers and stouts in the cooler. All I got was a shrug in a response. I don't buy any NEIPA that is not from the cooler and nor should anybody. IF I am being honest though, NEIPAs are a style I almost always buy direct from the brewery and the ones that care always have it cold.