Old IPAs - What to do about this problem?

This will be happening soon with the Oktoberfest beer. It is brewed in June and around Oct/Nov will be sitting on shelves 5-6 months old at that point. I enjoy grabbing them when the weather cools off but its becoming hard to do when I know they are old. I can get fresh local items that are seasonal and a week old, why buy 5-6 month old beer, to me it lost its intended flavors now just a old version of what it was.

 

I am with you 100% here. I am fortunate that I have a number of locally brewed Oktoberfest beers (e.g., Sly Fox, Stoudts, Workhorse,...) that are of very high quality and those beers are not brewed/packed in the spring but instead the end of August/beginning of September. Just as you stated it: why drink Oktoberfest beers during the season that were brewed/packaged many months prior? Drink freshly brewed local versions instead.

There are a number of ongoing threads where folks are discussing the Oktoberfest beers they are buying and drinking now. In contrast I will not be drinking Oktoberfest beers during the 'dog days' of summer (August) but will await September when it is cooler.

Cheers!

 

One thing I'm unclear on with oktoberfest specifically, is the brewed on date the date of the boil essentially? and if so, isn't there supposed to be a several month lager period after that brewing date? So wouldn't the 'freshest' you would see any lager style be at least a few months after brewing?

 

Every brewery will have their own unique 'solution' here but it is not unusual for larger scale lager breweries to lager their beers for a duration of weeks (e.g., 3-4 weeks). Time in the tank = money and once the beer has achieved the brewery's goal for lagering (e.g., protein/polyphenol complexes settle out, yeast 'cleans up' unwanted fermentation byproducts (e.g., acetaldehyde), etc.) it is time to package and free up those lagering tanks for the next production run.

Once an Oktoberfest lager beer is packaged the beer will not improve with age; it will be a steady decline in beer quality thereafter.

Cheers!

 

What brewer is using "Brewed on" dating? I've seen numerous BA posts claiming it, but have never seen a beer* with a date code that referred to the actual day the beer was brewed.

* Well, Samichlaus when brewed by Hurlimann used to claim it was brewed on December 6th (St. Nicholas Day), and I guess Schloss Eggenberg continued that tradition.

 

this is true, I think all the talk of 'brewed on' dates just had me confused. I have only ever seen packaged on and best by dates
Also I guess it ties into people complaining that oktoberfest beers were brewed in April/May. If those beers are then lagered for a few months they would be 'fresh' sometime between June and August (assuming lagering for 2 or 3 months)

 

For the case of German brewed Oktoberfest beers I refuse to purchase any beers that are not dated. Either with a packaged on date like
Weihenstephaner or a best by date like Paulaner (which is 12 months - a travesty of a best by duration). Perhaps you can report on what dates you see. Last year I purchased a number of German brewed Oktoberfest beers and all of them were packaged in the spring. By the time the Oktoberfest season arrives (September/October) those beer were many months old (from packaging).

Cheers!

 

I would have no issue if they put it out now but brewed new batches that came out in Sep/Oct. If folks want it now that is fine with me, I just hate when I have to drink stuff later than has been sitting on the floor for 5 months or in a hot warehouse. I had both fresh and old of the same and the fresh is so good the old just blah.

I know we all sound like broken records lol but man I love great tasting beer and am not sure why some just say who cares, seems weird to me.

Cheers

 

I am with you here!

Last year I really wanted to purchase the Sierra Nevada collaboratively brewed Oktoberfest but all of my local beer retailers only had available for purchase were beers packaged in July. It would appear that the local Sierra Nevada Wholesale Distributor (Origlio) got one HUGE dump of this beer (because of a volume buy discount?) and those were the beers available for retail even in November. The principle beer retailer in PA is called a Beer Distributor (I label them as Retail Beer Distributors in BA threads) and most of the time these are large warehouse buildings which are not air conditioned. PA is not quite as hot as Arizona but right now my local Retail Beer Distributor's temperature is in the 80's. I do not think they have Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest beers yet (maybe arriving sometime next week?) but those beers will have 'baked' for several weeks during the month of August. A not good situation.

If I can find a Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest beer this year that was packaged in September I will buy a 6-pack (or two). If I have the same luck as last year this will be another year where I did not purchase this beer.

Cheers!

 

I'll take a look when I see them show up, I tend not to buy much packaged oktoberfest because I'm pretty well sated in my desire for the style with a 6 or 12 pack of SN and a couple rounds of stuff on draft. I also have the same experience as many with european imports, they are months from packaging and priced at a premium

 

The only thing I buy from TW is AALs, just because these don’t sit and they’re the cheapest. Imo their craft stuff is an afterthought and probably more of a pain in the ass vs profits.

 

You highlighted that the AALs are the cheapest, this means that while TW may have good volume (revenue) here but they likely have small margins and therefore not the greatest in terms of profit. In contrast craft beers command larger margins (profit per item) but needless to say a lower rate of sales.

Cheers!

 

I’m sure that’s true, if truly craft beer was an important staple in the revenue machine they’d certainly take better care. The aisle on mixers, olives, box wines are almost half of what they allocate to craft beers. Imo they’re primarily a wine and aal beer store, the craft stuff they suffer and have to offer.