Correct freshness question for bartenders

Yes, most people can taste the difference between a beer they just don't like and an old beer but what if it's a beer that's great fresh and the keg is maybe 2 months old? The beer won't taste old, it just won't be at it's peak.

No, I'm sure there are tons but that's not really the point. If the guy is trying to find new beers that he likes, drinking kegs that are a couple months old isn't going to help him. The comment that I replied to was about there being nothing more to it than if the beer tastes good enough to buy. There are tons of beers that are good enough to buy at a bar but maybe he's not just looking for something to drink at that moment. Maybe he's looking for beers that he can seek out. 3 month old Heady is still a very good IPA but I certainly wouldn't drive all around VT looking for it if that's how I thought it tasted fresh.

 

Beer is still perfectly good 2 months old. Also where can I find the "peak" you speak of. All beers are different how am I supposed to know if my beer is the eaxct right age, the exact right degree, ect to get peak taste.

The simple answer is ask for a sample. If its to your liking great if not move on.

 

It isnteresting that you say that considering the brewery considers it to be at its "peak" at 10 weeks.

 

Id go for the sample route...if you make them go check a date, any beer you get is just gonna taste like spit anyway

 

Well, if he's concerned with freshness, I'm assuming he's referring to IPAs. I'd prefer a 1 day old IPA rather than a 2 month old IPA. No, a 2 month old IPA won't be bad but it also won't be at it's peak. You can mock the term peak all you want but the fresher the better when it comes to hops. Different people prefer their beer in different ways so I'm not sure why you seem so opposed to wanting to know the freshness of their beer. I don't know why you feel the need to tell me my opinion is wrong, but whatever.

 

Well, I guess you answering your own question. My taste buds don't agree with them, but that's fine. Thats what makes beer so great, we all have opinions and unfortunately for you, none of them are right or wrong.

 

I'll be the minority voice and say that these are all fine questions to ask, but I'll also be realistic and agree with everyone that there's a snowball's chance you're going to get much of an answer. With that said I am presuming that you are tactful enough to ask questions like these of someone who has a minute to entertain your curiosity. There are obviously different levels of how busy a bar is, and different levels of commitment to craft a bar can have.


The simple truth is the busier and less committed they are, the less info you'll get; the slower and more committed they are, the better. I of course can think of lots of situations and locations where you'll get nothing more than "I dunno".

I can also think of a couple places that have a level of commitment to quality and depending on the timing of your visit may well be able to give you all that information, especially if you have the attention of the person that runs the beer department, not just a random bartender.

Try 2 month old Jai Alai or Sculpin next to week-old versions of the same and tell me that again.

 

Beer is perfectly good 2 months old. The same - no. Good - yes. Again a simple taste in the bar would tell me all I need to know.

 

Good, yes. Perfectly good, no.

 

Aaah, delicious ephemera.
Perfection is where boredom begins.

 

Sometimes. I used to work as maintenance in a bar and would help.the beer delivery guys put kegs when they had a lot. There should be a ring of this cardboard paper around the top end. Sometimes it wasnt there and others explained brewery, abv, style etc.

 

As a bartender/beer advocate I usually know when most of the kegs have been tapped, but a lot of kegs don't have dates on them, so your just gonna look like kind of a jackass asking when it was kegged because most bartenders have no clue, or even know to look when changing a keg. The only beers we regularly have that date their kegs is Firestone Walker. Your best bet would be to just get a sample, see if you enjoy it enough to purchase it. And in my opinion there's absolutely nothing wrong with doing that. My bar only has a few taps but over 80 bottles and cans, so I tend to pay more attention to how old those IPA's/ pale ales are before suggesting them to my customers... We still have the problem of getting two+ month old sucks in, and I refuse to suggest someone order one of my favorite beers because of it. But pretty much all the other bartenders where I work will have no clue how old any of the bottles, most don't even know why it matters...

 

@jesskidden kindly posted the below in the other thread (Old IPAs thread):

Here are 4 examples of the typical way kegs are date-coded (NOTE-I added fictional dates for the center 2). These are what the typical bartender might find on kegs. Can you find or determine the "brewdate" on these kegs?



As with bottles and cans, kegs are dated either with a "Best/Use by" or "Filled/Packaged on" date. Very few beers note on the label when the beer was brewed and, generally, that date would be of little or no help in determining freshness without also knowing the time spent in the fermentation, aging/lagering and other processes before filling.

 

It sounds like the OP doesn't think he can tell if a beer is at it's freshest by tasting a beer he's never had with nothing to compare it to. Maybe you somehow can, but if that's the case, this thread may not pertain to yo. It doesn't make his questions less valid.

 

Asking those questions is probably not in your best interest as you are probably going to come across as a douche/snob. As others have said, go the sample route and judge for yourself if the beer is good enough to buy.

Can anybody? Unless it's pretty old, it's probably near impossible if you have not had the beer before.

 

It is, because that is the only way you can tell what's what and where it came from. Kegs should be taken as seriously as cans and bottles because that is the breweries representation on the market.
Smaller breweries who keg a hand full of pallets a month and larger breweries who have the financial legs to outright own them, both have a tendency of marking very clearly that those kegs are theirs, and theirs alone. Smaller breweries have x allotment, and bigger ones have the dollar muscle to own them outright. Why mix product streams and run the risk of cross contamination with someone else's product which could be all sorts of nasty and probably funky too. And, some of them are truly nasty and what comes out of them you drain them is foul.
With big brewers who keg a ton of product and have automated the process. it is probably printed directly onto the keg itself. But, at the point. Reflect on my other post with the bold caps included.

 

I agree, I personally wouldn't ask but if that's that the OP wants to do that's his decision. my point was that he may think the beer is good enough to buy and drink that one time but he may decide it's not a beer that he wants to seek out again, not because it's bad, but because it's not "great" because maybe it's a 2-3 month old IPA. If that's the case he might be missing out on a beer that he may love if he had it fresh.

I tend to think this probably wouldn't be much of an issue because if it's a really good beer, it's unlikely that it stays tapped for that long anyway. But again, it's his right to ask if he wants to. I don't think he should avoid asking just because the tender may be a douche. Most likely he would just get an "I don't know" so it can't hurt to ask.

No, it's not possible and that's the point. Just because a beer is good enough to drink doesn't mean it's at it's best. I'd drink a 3 month old Pliny but I'd prefer it 1 week old. If the OP is a stickler about making sure he's trying new IPAs while they're super fresh, the only way to know is to ask. Again, the worst he will get is an "I don't know".

 

Depends on if you're talking about hoppy beers or ones with less impact on short-term age. If you're talking about a brown ale or a porter, you're probably right. If you're talking about IPAs, I beg to differ. With over 400 APA/IPA/DIPAs ticked on this site I'm experienced enough to know what a beer brewed with Citra hops (for example) tastes like when fresh compared to less-fresh, even if it's one I haven't had before.

That's a lot of ticks, but I'm nowhere close to the most experienced, so I don't think it's at all "impossible" to tell, even with a beer you haven't had previously.

 

Pretty much every keg I tapped at the brewpub I used to work at would be dated. I usually had freshness in mind when I chose what to put on and what to hold onto, so I would generally know how old each keg was, and unless it was crazy busy I'd always oblige any request to know the exact date.