Old IPAs - What to do about this problem?

Discussion in 'Beer Talk' started by joeyjoey104, Aug 4, 2015.

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  1. bubseymour

    bubseymour Grand Pooh-Bah (4,800) Oct 30, 2010 Maryland
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Your lucky. IPA distribution in my areas pretty much starts at about 4-5 weeks old if your lucky. Perhaps Flying Dog (local) you get within 2 weeks of bottle date of their single hop 10% ABV series. Average shelf IPAs are in the 8-12 week range with quite a lot in the 3-6 month range. A few turds 6+ mo.
     
  2. bluehende

    bluehende Initiate (0) Dec 10, 2010 Delaware

    Your shelf is much better than mine. I have to look hard for anything under 2 months old.
     
  3. jrnyc

    jrnyc Grand Pooh-Bah (3,012) Mar 21, 2010 New York
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    This is the not so secret, dirty little secret of craft beer. I don't know how it is economically feasible for all these beers to be sitting on the shelf collecting dust. Someone is paying for it, likely us, whether you buy those beers or not the cost of these unwanted beers is being factored into the cost of all beer.
     
    thatche2, cjgiant, mudbug and 4 others like this.
  4. scbeerman

    scbeerman Initiate (0) Feb 16, 2015 South Carolina

    That doesn't sound too bad - I just cracked open a Pernicious from 8/08 that got lost in my fridge, and there was essentially no drop-off - tasted just as fresh, tropical, and dank as the week-old bottles I had. So I wouldn't worry about that at all. Oskar Blues cans stay fresh for quite a while too.
     
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  5. Dr_Bahmbay13

    Dr_Bahmbay13 Pooh-Bah (1,751) Mar 10, 2013 Michigan
    Pooh-Bah

    This is what happens when you try to capitalize off trying to predict what your customers are going to buy.like all the pumpkin beers comming out that no one is buying. You will see pumpkin four packs for 18.99 shelf turding far into next year in my stores I frequent.
     
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  6. gopens44

    gopens44 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,560) Aug 9, 2010 Virginia
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    If i found some August stuff i wouldn't be too bothered but beyond that I would be picky. The slow movers are victims of an overpopulated IPA aisle for sure, and it's not going to get better any sooner since every up and comer puts out at least 2 or 3 IPAs.

    Sadness? Ya, that would be the dusty IPAs at TW. Just a hop graveyard.
     
    LMT, upsbeernut and jrnyc like this.
  7. vileplume

    vileplume Initiate (0) Sep 27, 2015 Arizona

    This may be a dumb question, but why don't bottle shops stock less ipas? As in quantity of each, so for example if they get enjoy by let's say six cases, and they only sell 3. The next time wouldn't it be a good idea to only buy 4? Instead of trying to sell expired beer....
     
  8. nc41

    nc41 Initiate (0) Sep 25, 2008 North Carolina
    Trader

    This is a small mom and pop store, not a TW, that beer that sits forever costs them money. I get Pernicious is still a great beer, but it's 5 weeks old now and it's stacked waist high. How old will it be before its all gone and replaced by fresher stock? And guys who don't know dates might pick up the 9 month old GKnight and just says it sucks, especially for the money. And again the retailer takes it in the shorts, they won't buy that beer again. It's a compounding problem.
     
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  9. LennyOvies

    LennyOvies Initiate (0) Jul 22, 2015 Mexico

    My limit on IPAs is 60 days, send me all the ones over your 30 day limit. I won't complain. :wink:
     
  10. Hop-Droppen-Roll

    Hop-Droppen-Roll Initiate (0) Nov 5, 2013 Minnesota

    Think of the variety available. It's not realistic to think you won't have items sitting for that long in your typical store. Imagine how rough us country bumpkins have it - I'm lucky to find anything younger than several months.
     
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  11. Brolo75

    Brolo75 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,134) Aug 10, 2013 California
    Pooh-Bah

    That's probably the case everywhere. I can go to stores in my area with one year old IPA/IIPAs sitting on the shelves. Some IPAs in my area hit distribution at 6-8 weeks. I bought an old IPA once and compared it with a fresher one and there is a huge noticeable difference, so I also try to purchase as fresh as possible.
     
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  12. Yargamo

    Yargamo Initiate (0) Jun 9, 2015 New York

    Yeah, a distributors best friend... a store who buys one case at a time.....puts you at the back of the line !!

    Looking for Double Dose? Better look at a shop that buys big
     
  13. LennyOvies

    LennyOvies Initiate (0) Jul 22, 2015 Mexico

    Same here, I live in Mexico (right in the border with California) and we get some american stuff brought here. We recently started getting Green Flash and Coronado, with very good best by dates, but we also get Sierra Nevada with laughable dates (Torpedos bottled on February for example). I have no idea why we get some brands that are fairly fresh and others very old.

    Another problem is that at least 80-90% of mexican breweries don't date their bottles. I have no problem with local stuff because it has a good rotation, but stuff coming from other states in Mexico you start finding some problems when you try them, and there is no way to know.
     
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  14. Hop-Droppen-Roll

    Hop-Droppen-Roll Initiate (0) Nov 5, 2013 Minnesota

    Not to mention that this would fail to accomplish anything meaningful. @Catracho5 said
    and that's something that happens where I'm at too. Not much you can do about it as a retailer when your distributor is just getting it's hands on something several months too late. The issue is brewers failing to achieve balance between their production and their distribution.
     
    Immortale25, Brolo75 and LennyOvies like this.
  15. bubseymour

    bubseymour Grand Pooh-Bah (4,800) Oct 30, 2010 Maryland
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Yeah, I always wonder from the brewer to distributor to retail store, where the root cause of the old shelf beer problem arises. For some reason I'm guessing the distributor is the guilty party in the 3 tier equation most of the time. I'm sure stores would prefer to only offer the best freshest product to consumers, and I seriously doubt the brewers are ok with unloading large quantities of beer into retail stores that get old/stale and give their beer a bad reputation. I have a hunch retailers are forced to take what distributors wheel and deal to them in bigger than wanted quantities, then are forced to find creative ways to unload old beer onto unsuspecting buyers (because they don't want to/cant send back).
     
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  16. nc41

    nc41 Initiate (0) Sep 25, 2008 North Carolina
    Trader

    I'm drinking a fresh Enjoy By right now, and IMO Pernicious is a much better IPA, doesn't make this one bad though. High jacked my own thread there. Fresh Pernicious is really a great beer.
     
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  17. Crackerbarrel

    Crackerbarrel Initiate (0) Feb 10, 2014 New York

    There's a gourmet market by my job has a fairly decent selection of beer, somehow (somehow, b/c I know the clientele and they're not drinking craft beer).

    I found Founders Wet Harvest today; by the time I got within 3 feet of it I could see the layer of dust. "Bottle date 9/30/2014."
     
  18. sinkas

    sinkas Initiate (0) Jul 9, 2008 Australia

    IN Australian most American made IPA's are 4-6 months old at best, and around $10 a bottle/can
     
    Urk1127 likes this.
  19. BMBCLT

    BMBCLT Grand Pooh-Bah (3,427) May 9, 2014 South Carolina
    Pooh-Bah

    The market is over saturated with APA/IPA/DIPAs. I think that's the main reason.
     
  20. TongoRad

    TongoRad Grand Pooh-Bah (3,884) Jun 3, 2004 New Jersey
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Things aren't perfect, but it seems to have come a long way in the past 5 years. Hopefully the next phase will include exclusively storing them cold so that a 3-4 month old IPA is a viable option to the purchaser.
     
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