I just bought my first 1/6 keg of Sculpin IPA today to chill in my new kegerator.I have no co2 yest soo tapping will have to wait. I pulled the paper neck ring off the collar and it states a date of MAY 14 2014. I am guessing this is the fill date, which means this beer is almost 5 months old. Should I just return this for a refund,its expensive 5 gallons or could this beer be great if kept cold since day 1. I have had some 5 month old craft brews in bottles that did not taste well esp.in the heat of summer. Please advise,thanks Steve with his new beer chiller
I would return it, a 5 month old ipa can be tough. I have returned one keg based on age, at the time I wasn't checking dates carefully. Brought it home, tapped it, and knew right away it wasn't as fresh as it should have been. Returned it, they took it back and called the disto to check dates on the other stuff they had in stock, and brought a fresher one the next day. Now I check before I leave the store. It's one of those mistakes you only need to make once.
Thanks I will take it back today. $110 is too much for questionable beer. As a customer its cool to deal with a distributor? I have only dealt with Bev-mo and wines +.
Brought it back and swamped for a fresh Racer 5 IPA. They had a keg of Sierra Bigfoot which I love.The guy said it was a year old and that beer style taste better with proper aging.
I emailed the Bear Republic brewery and they said they don't recommend the beer be past 3 1/2 months when tapped.
For the same price? The proper course of action in this case would've been to buy it and install a second tap handle at home.
Bigfoot with a year age on it from tap is sublime. But back on topic, it's a no brainer, return it just as you did and learn to always check dated on kegs before you take them home. I've even ordered kegs that when they came to the store were too old that I sent back. Keg dates to me are very similar to bottles, I want my IPA kegs mostly dated within a month of when I buy them. Sculpin is no different and needs to be as fresh as possible. $110? That's a damn good price, here in PA Sculpin is almost $150 for a sixtel log.
i meant ballast port with the 3 1/2 month old keg.The bear republic racer 5 was only a few weeks old thats one of the main reasons in buying it. It was great an will have no hesitations in purchasing a fresh keg from them in the future. I would love a fresh keg of Lagunitas but have had age issues in the past with bottled beer. Strange because Petaluma is not that far from Sacramento. I would love to try there next day pale but havent found it yet.
