I'm a new transplant to the area and I was wondering if there are any beer stores known for focusing on keeping their beer inventory fresh? In the previous places I've lived, most stores don't care. To add some context, I recently went looking for some pilseners at everyone's favorite chain liquor store and I noticed the majority of pilseners had dates ranging from six months to over a year old. I'm not the guy who's going to complain if my IPAs are anything more than a week old, but when a six month old pilsener is considered fresh, I think we have a problem.
298 views and one suggestion. Wow. I'm going to give my new DMV brethren the benefit of the doubt and presume like most places this simply means most retailers don't care much about freshness. Their turnover or lack thereof is based solely on their interests in keeping inventory low and if there is an ancillary benefit of freshness, so be it. Thanks @grover37 for the P street suggestion. I haven't shopped there enough to test them out, but they definitely seem like a high volume store, so maybe due to their demand, they stumble into having fresh beer. I will continue to investigate and report back.
I'd say that low inventory, and so more frequent ordering, would benefit a store's percentage of "fresh" beer. The tendency to over-order - especially due to typical distributor discounts for ordering larger quantities - adds to all the out-of-code beer on the shelves.
Its not as bad as you make it sound, there are plenty of places to get fresh beer, just nowhere that makes it their thing, like the Beer Temple in Chicago does. Just check dates, you'll find fresh beer.
Thanks. That's exactly what I wanted to know. As I said in my original post, I don't have to have everything less than a week old and I feel the majority of stores, all over, are better at keeping fresh IPAs and their derivations, because they know people like us care. However, I'd argue pilseners are typically a less popular style for BAs and the like, and so I was wondering if their lack of freshness was typical or was this a problem at the particular store I happened to be looking.
I don't really know the answer to that question, but I agree with you about pilsners, especially hoppy ones. Pivo is one of my favorite beers, but you can't find fresh Firestone beers out here for shit. I found some Pivo dated 2/10 yesterday and that was the freshest I've seen in a while. I think you're probably right though, most turnover is with IPAs, so they are easier to find fresh. The key is figuring out which brands we get fresh and which we don't. Anything local, obviously, can be found fresh. Cigar City is usually about 10 days old when its delivered. Stone is usually fresh. What pilsners do you like to drink?
In general I think the smaller stores with high turnover are your best bet. My suggestions are Dominion wine and beer and Norms. The guys at Dominion have been very helpful since I started shopping there. One employee saw me looking at dates and suggested a few beers that were just delivered and helped me check dates of some others.
Its definitely a more hop forward Pilsner but I'd recommend Lost Rhino's Rhino Chaser Pilsner. Comes in cans, its around $9 for a sixer, and can be found very fresh. Will probably be a stable in my fridge this summer.
You're right about Dominion. After my original post, I stopped in there and starting chatting with the owner about his lack of pilseners and his inventory freshness. He immediately asked me which one I was talking about and pulled the older ones off the shelf. He also told me about a pilsener release he was getting Friday. Now, I didn't want to deal with the KBS madness on Friday after work or I would've gone by and picked up the new pilsener release. I will definitely be going by next week to reward his customer service.
Honestly, I don't have a go to pilsener. However, I've been wanting to try some of the available options around here to be able to answer your question, which lead me to my recent discovery. I will happily do some research and report back.
