Since BAs are sophisticated beer consumers, I doubt the title of this thread is a surprise. Below is a video by Nate Lanier (Tree House Brewing) entitled “Should I keep my beer cold?” While the short answer is yes to that question there is some interesting discussion in the video that should be of interest. Early in the video, Nate discusses the ‘variable’ that the amount of oxygen in the packaged beer is an important factor. Later in the video he mentions that at Tree House they are able to achieve a value of less than 10 ppb of dissolved oxygen. Kudos to Tree House Brewing for their quality control here! He also made mention that hoppy beers (e.g., IPAs) are more sensitive to going stale (oxidizing effects) vs. less hoppy beers. This is an important consideration as well. He states that Tree House hoppy beers such as Julius will hold up well over time (e.g., 3 months from canning) if the beer is continually stored cold. At the end of the video, he has a Q&A session with the fellow shooting the video. In response to one question Nate stated that he never buys beer off the shelf at beer retailers, he only buys beer from coolers. This is indeed a commitment he makes to optimize beer freshness. I wish I could state that I am as conscientious as Nate but the fact of the matter is I am not. There are some beers in the refrigerators at my local beer retailers but the vast majority of the products are on shelves (or floors) at non-refrigerated temperature. When it comes to hoppy beers (e.g., IPAs) I will be fastidious in only purchasing beer that are very fresh (e.g., less than a month from canning) and when I get those beers home they immediately go into the refrigerator. I recognize that the time these beers have spent at non-refrigerated temperatures is non-ideal but… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Cheers!
I refrigerate all of my beer from the moment I get it home. I also never purchase hoppy beer unless it is reasonably fresh and is stored in a cooler where I buy it. It’s impossible to know if it’s been in the cooler since the moment it came off the truck, but that’s where the freshness dating helps me out. I can be reasonably certain that even if the beer has been at room temp for some amount of time, at least that hasn’t been the case for very long.
Thanks Jack, good information. I like to purchase beer cold. And always keep it cold when I get it home. Unfortunately as we all know, the temperatures it is stored at and exposed to between the brewery and your possession are not always ideal. I really hate that many places that carry higher end craft beers tend to put them on a shelf at room temperature.
And when that beer was sitting out for weeks and then put in the cooler yesterday you are still getting a beer that was warm. Seen it happen many times to fill a cooler at a beer place. There is a place here that keeps Lawsons on the floor and not in the cooler till they sell some from the cooler. I dont go there more than 1-2x a year. Enjoy
Without a lot of empirical data to go on, I kinda feel like this might be a regional thing. Every reputable establishment in the PNW I’ve been to has tons of cooler space—now, do they have more inventory in back? Maybe. But for the most part what’s on the floor is refrigerated unless it doesn’t need to be. Some larger chains (TW, BevMo) do not follow this practice, and they receive a commensurate amount of my business. But I see a lot of posts about IPAs sitting out at room temp and I have to say, I just haven’t seen a lot of that here.
To be fair, keeping coolers running year round in the rest of the country has got to cost a lot more than it does in the PNW.
Well, I have my ‘answer’: homebrew my own. Right now in the cellar is two batches of Quad, Dubbel, Saison, and a clone of Orval (2 batches). Needless to say but none of those are hoppy beer styles. Cheers!
Used to be my solution, but the math just stopped working for me. Orval is definitely on the hoppier side for a Belgian when fresh, as are most saisons. It just mixes so well with the yeast expression we don't notice it.
Yep, I dry hop my clone of Orval. Really don’t notice the hops much even when fresh (e.g., a month after being bottled). That beer really needs a few months for the Brett aspect to ‘round out’ that beer. FWIW my Saisons are not all that hoppy. I will be brewing another batch in a couple of weeks. Saison yeast likes warm/hot ferments. Cheers!
Have you tried hopping your Orval clone with PNW analogs of the hops used? If you used Mt. Hood and Willamette for a batch, you'd probably be pleasantly surprised. Go out on a limb on over hopping a saison. This is one area that I really liked the new school PNW and southern hemisphere hops. Pacific Jade and El Dorado were a favorite blend for saison. Late hop like you would for an APA, adjust bittering addition to reach 35IBUs, dry hop after FG is reached like you would for an IPA.
I brew my clone of Orval to be like Orval, I dry hop with European hops. My last batch I dry hopped with 3 ounces of Strisselspalt. In previous batches I used Styrian Goldings. I have in the past made hoppy Saisons, beers akin to Boulevard Tank 7. Those batches turned out well but my personal preference is for Saisons more like Saison Dupont. Cheers!
DuPont is a hoppy beer compared to other Belgians. I like de Baets theory that saisons should either be well hopped or slightly sour so that they are refreshing.
Whew! Good thing this fucking guy came along to tell me that thing I've been doing for decades is acceptable.
The same seems true in So Cal, most beer is stored cold. The exceptions I can think of are Total Wine, Bev Mo and Trader Joe’s
