"Heady MUST be kept cold."

Anchor pasteurize, don't they?

 

Its an ugly beer.

 

My mother went to the brewery to get me some and they laid the same trip on her. She was going to get a case for me, but because she couldn't fit the extra four pack into the styrofoam cooler that she bought to transport it cold, she got one rack shy of a case for me. So I think your theory has legs.

I could sure use that four pack now.

 

He said "craft" beer. *hides*

I wouldn't keep it hot on purpose, but surely a 1-2 day trip won't make a huge difference IMHO.

 

New Belgium
Sam Adams bottles
East coast Mendocino beers
Anchor
...etc.

 

I've had heady many times. These were not the normal hop chunks and yeast residue. It looked like my glass had about 3 inches of corn pellets settled on the bottom. Only thing I could say it tasted similar to was a jai alai that had been forgotten in my friends garage for about a year and a half that we drank in the name of science.

 

It's really not, I have seen this poured every week from the can at work since they started canning, and if you have it fresh, without temp fluctuation, you will never see chunks.

 

Pretty sure Deschutes does.

That's the only one I know off the top of my head.

 

Relax, people trade Heady across the country all the time and it's not like they refrigerate the boxes during the 3-7 days of travel. Keep it as cold as you can for as long as you can, but a few days of room temp won't kill it. Personally, I bring a big cooler and keep it on ice until I get home.

 

The idea of keeping Heady Topper cold is that the cold slows down the oxidation processes; oxidation processes will result in hop fade and staling. It is always better to store (maintain) beer cold if is not a beer that is intended to be aged (like a RIS for example)

In the video there are several discussion topics of drinking Heady Topper with some age on it:

· An anecdotal story about drinking it at 10 weeks at the pub (I presume from a refrigerated serving tank)

· “keep it in your fridge and it can last a long time”

· He tasted an 8-9 months old can that was stored in the cooler

So, the reason that the older Heady Topper beers were still tasty is that they were maintained at a cold temperature throughout.

What ‘damage’ would occur to Heady Topper that was not refrigerated for one week? Likely very little if the temperature did not get too hot (e.g., 100°F or hotter). It is high heat that really damages beer (particularly hoppy beers). If you keep beer at room temperature (e.g., 70°F) the beer will not get too damaged.

The people at Heady Topper may have come off as a bit ‘extreme’ but there is no doubt that keeping Heady Topper cold is better than not keeping it cold.

Cheers!

 

Deschutes does not pasteurize any of their beer.

 

I know they did at one point after their little calamity with The Dissident.

 

The last I read, they recently [July?] instituted a 2 case max. per person to dissuade those who would be buying too much.

 

That would be the caveat. But only the barrel aged portions were pasteurized, before blending. They've considered doing the same to Abyss and Black Butte anny.

 

They actually did it because of the 2009 Abyss and Mirror Mirror batches. This policy is in place now.

 

Did not know they put that plan into action. Thanks for clarifying.

 

No. The reason for keeping heady cold is because the rate that Alpha Acids fade is directly proportional to the temperature they're kept at. This is why you always freeze hops (or at the very least refrigerate them) until you're ready to use them. I can't corroborate this, but a brewer once told me that their half life approximately halfs for each 10 degree fahrenheit increase in temperature, so the flavor and especially the aroma of hops decreases twice as fast at 50 degrees than at 40 degrees, and eight times as fast at 70 degrees.

 

Here's the blog post where they talk about it:
http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/blog/2011-01-31/pick-title

 

Interesting. So is the yeast stays sludgy and at the bottom if it stays chilled?