Imperial bottleshop and taproom appreciation thread

As most of us know, Imperial is yet another of the many outstanding bottleshop/taproom outposts in PDX. Their prices tend to be a bit better than average, and Alex and Shawn are great owners, but otherwise Imperial is just another outstanding taproom in a sea of excellent PDX taprooms. Except for one thing that IMHO sets them apart from any other taphouse in PDX or even the US for that matter.

Was at Imperial today, when I noticed that Shawn was cracking open some IPA cans and pouring them down the drain. That's not something I see everyday, so I asked her what was up. She mentioned that the IPAs in question had a canning date from back in January, which meant they were too old to sell as far as she and Alex were concerned. You can probably imagine the look on my face when I heard this... I thought for sure I had misheard her statement. She indicated that they check the canning dates regularly at Imperial, and in fact had just put on discount some APA's and IPAs that were roughly 3 months old (which I had noticed earlier in the day, but had not realized that was the reason they were discounted - 25% off). She stated that Imperial will refuse to accept IPA and APA orders that are more than a month or two old, and that they do their utmost to sell IPAs and APAs that are no more than 3 months old.

Yet despite this unusual commitment to freshness, I find Imperial prices to be among the cheapest in the city.

I asked Shawn if they ever try to return old product to the distributor. She shrugged and said sometimes, but that in the end it's just simpler to dump old beer down the drain and be done with it.

Er, ah... OK then. Just go ahead and be that way.... One of the better beer related practices I've heard in a very long time.

 

I had similar thoughts, but didn't think to ask about it. The cans she was emptying were ones that had fallen under the cold box racks, and she made it sound like this was unusual. Typically, I think they're able to sell most old stock by way of the discount bin. For example, they had 3 month old 6 packs of pFriem mosaic pale ale at 25% off. Have to think that stuff sells quick.