a store owners interesting thoughts about ipas

I've often thought it was kind of a paradox that the most popular style is also the most perishable. I also wonder what percentage of IPAs get pulled from the shelf and destroyed because they're past their "best by" date. It's probably higher than that for any other style.

 

Does he buy milk? I hear that stuff falls off faster than Hopslam.

Better supply chains and distributors, flexible market-based pricing (as opposed to the very sticky pricing we have now), and other techniques would help avoid the problem of old IPAs on the shelf.

 

I think its a great comparison, sure milk is more versatile in its uses i.e. if the gallon is going bad I can finish it off before work (sad I can't do an IPA like that), but IPAs have a decent enough shelf life. Obviously certain IPAs last longer than others. I think it's more a question of how much does the owner need to buy to fit supply but not overstock. To me thats not the brewery problem, its the store owners and the distributors problem. but thats just my 0.02

 

Start messing with supply and demand, and you get gluts and shortages. A more flexible beer supply chain and distros would stop "making" stores buy beer they can't sell. If he keeps buying it, the breweries will keep making it. Until the signal gets passed up the supply chain, you won't see any changes.

 

Well, it seems to me that his problem is listening to the 1%.

(Wait, that can't be right...lemmie re-crunch the numbers)

Well, it seems to me that his problem is listening to the ½%.

(No, that's still incorrect...oh, wait, here's the problem...forgot to divide the last equation by two)

Well, it seems to me that his problem is listening to the ¼%.

 

Sounds like he's 10 steps ahead of most liquor store owners, in that, he at least recognizes the fact that IPA's are best fresh.

I go to that store whenever I pass through Bakersfield, it's always a good stop.

 

What does the store owner mean by fresh 1 day, 5days, 10 days ect. What does he mean by shelf life 30 days, 60 days, 90 days ect.

 

Fived that for 'ya.

 

Most breweries put around a 90 day shelf life on their IPAs. I do not think it should be an issue to a store that moves product to turn over product in 3 months. People need to learn the difference between preference and reality. It is fine to prefer an IPA under 6 weeks old but the two and a half month old IPA on the shelf is not bad. The freshness fighters out there seem to be the vocal minority, making a lot of noise over a very minor issue. The spread of false information really benefits no one and leads to ridiculous statements like we are discussing here.

 

"The freshness fighters out there seem to be the vocal minority, making a lot of noise over a very minor issue. The spread of false information really benefits no one and leads to ridiculous statements like we are discussing here"

Ditto that. This whole freshness issue with IPAs is getting kind of silly. Unless it's beyond the "best buy" date, it's going to taste just fine. I question whether most beer geeks' palates are really that sensitive. IMO, the IPA freshness thing is like wine geeks who taste flavors that virtually no one else can recognize.

 

no, they aren't destroyed. they just get shipped to my town

 

How about when stores receive Ipas 2 or 3 months past their bottling dates?

 

I would blame the distributor in what the stores stock in my area. The stores seem to sell a lot of dated stuff. A good example is in December/January several stores were selling Lagunitas little sumpin wild ale. They sold it as a seasonal release. Too bad it is released in July. These weren't left overs either, first time on the shelves. I remember seeing the sticker on the empty shelf a week before it got stocked. I was pumped because I thought it was going to be Lagunitas sucks.

With that said, i bought a sixer anyway and it was quite good. I don't get too hung up dates.

 

Besides being a paradox there is some irony involved here too. To help beer survive the long boat trip from England to India the brewers added hops as a preservative. Now it seems that we've grown to appreciate the flavor of the hops, maybe more than the flavor of the malt, hence the demand for the double IPAs.

 

hence why Hill Farmstead won't ever bottle their pale ales/IPAs/Double IPAs.

this is another fall back of the three-tiered system, as well. The beers have to exchange hands too many times to reach the customer as fresh as possible.

Breweries should produce less than the demand on their IPAs (like Russian River seems to do) so that they always sell out fresh before the next batch. But, when stores are clamoring to get the beer, the distributor wants to get enough to provide as much as the stores will buy, then when the market gets flooded with this one beer it sits on the shelf, ages, and gets passed over for the next fresh IPA on the shelf.

 

I agree that the two month-old IPA is not bad.

however, if there are two comparable IPAs on the shelf next to each other; one is 1 week old, the other is 2 months old... I'm going to easily pass over the two-month old IPA to get the freshest possible.

not only will it be in indisputably prime condition, but if I don't end up drinking it for a few weeks, it will still be in prime condition.

 

Well... sort of. My understanding (correct me if I'm wrong BA, I just know you will) is that the hops used in American IPAs today are very different from the European hops used as preservatives in the original English IPAs. The bitterness is there, to be sure - but our IPAs now have that great citrusy aroma and taste thanks to dry hopping with new hop varieties. I doubt the English soldiers stationed in Bombay would even recognize the IPAs we enjoy now. But I'm also sure they'd love them all the same.