Why is Alesmith beer always old?

Did it arrive old, or become old on the shelf?

 

I got some alesmith once. It was good, but pricey and only came in a 750. I didn't buy any more. I'm probably not the only person that did that.

 

That 394 just hit the shelves this week! I get why Alesmith sits on the shelf, but why the hell does it land old?!

 

Ale smith hoppy stuff has consistently landed here super old. I remember several times in the past Grapevine posting pics of Alesmith IPA being delivered to them 4-6 months old or something like that. Fairly certain this is a distributor problem...

 

Wait, these guys are still dropping bottles here? I thought the bottles I see are the same ones from 2013.

 

This is the main reason why I buy zero Alesmith here. I always enjoy their IPA (when fresh) but I've given up trying to find a batch that's less than 3 months old. It ain't gonna happen.

Plus, if the distributor doesn't give enough of a fuck to get IPAs to the shelves while still fresh then I can only assume they don't refrigerate anything during it's "cellaring" period.

 

I'm not sure it's a distributor issue, more that the beer doesn't really sell here. If Elite reorders when they run out but stores still have it sitting on the shelves there isn't a store who's going to reorder more fresh and sit on it themselves. It is odd that a new SKU arrived old though. Maybe the low demand in the market makes us a low priority.

 

I saw the double IPA on the shelves a few weeks ago at a shop. First time I had seen it there. Looked at the bottling date and it was 4/26, so I think that it is a distribution issue

 

What you just described here is a distributor problem. Why would they keep ordering beer that they know will just sit in their warehouse for months? I mean I guess I can see it happening once or twice, but continuously for years now? With this logic couldn't they just skip an order or 3 and the problem would theoretically fix itself?

If the distributor wants to increase sales of Alesmith within CO they should start with getting the beer to the shelves within a month. I for one would buy them if they had a reasonable "born on" date.

 

Could be a contract thing between brewery and distributor. They'd have to work out which beers to send, when and how often. If Beer X sells quickly, but Beer Y doesn't, then staggering deliveries will have to be worked out and on quarterly projections. By then, though, shelf spots are filled with other beers.

I guess what I'm saying is that it's a headache and certain beers probably should be withdrawn from this market.

 

Agreed on the .394. Really enjoyed when I was in San Diego last year. Never seen it here in CO. Where did you see it?

 

I know when the 6 packs of the IPA landed it was fresh. But I see those same dates now all over the place. It just doesn't sell.

As far as the 394. I've actually never seen or tried it but by the reviews it sounds fantastic. Now I would like to try some fresh stuff but sounds like that isn't gong to happen.

 

The reason .394 landed here when it did was originally it was not slated to reach Colorado at all but the brewery had some extra that they sent to Colorado. I believe it was supposed to be an exclusive to San Diego obviously honoring a San Diego legend in Tony Gwynn. Hope this helps at least explains the date on this beer.

Curious the boards thoughts on the slower sales of their large formats beers in this market such as Speedway Stout and their Belgium style offerings? They are competitively priced, having incredible ratings/awards. I am biased but many world class breweries in this market are often overlooked, yes i know first hand how crowded and competitive it.

I am not just taking about some small, new brewery neighborhood brewery. Alesmith is as accomplished as any brewery in the world. I like stats, check this out..
Every year since 2002 Ratebeer has released a list of the top 100 breweries in the world. Today this is considered from over 22,500 breweries! Alesmith has been top 10 on this list every single year and has been ranked the #1 brewery in the world 4 times. #2 in 2015 - most recent ranking and #1 in 2014.

Feels strange to reference Ratebeer on a beeradvocate board. Anyway what can Alesmith do in this market to be a bigger player? (Besides making sure there is only fresh beer on the shelf, which i agree needs to be fixed). Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions. Also i do not work for Alesmith.

 

They can send us Hammerhead in the bottle

 

They should have just kept the .394 instead of last minute giving a hey we have extra let's send some stuff to Colorado that isn't super fresh. I do like Alesmith but old beer is the biggest issue imo. I like speedway but I don't drink Stouts at all during the summer mainly just IPAs. But if I do buy a speedway I realky don't just want to sit down and drink a 25oz beer that is 11%..

 

I'll honestly admit that on my recent visit to San Diego, Alesmith was my favorite place. The beers were awesome and the "secret" speakeasy was amazing. But what I think Colorado needs are some of those BA and variant versions. I'd buy them all day.

 

The 6 packs (best selling format for almost any beer) are also not competitively priced.

 

Especially when they are old. Elysian space dust has the same problem. The other problem with Ale Smith is that their bottles aren't very dark. I'm not sure if that is a problem with their new 6 packs, but it was an issue with their bombers. If I could get Ale Smith IPA fresh like Melvin, then I wouldn't mind paying $15 for a 6 pack. It's a shame that the Denver market is over saturated with IPAs (some very questionable), because fresh Ale Smith IPA would definitely be in the top tier of IPA's available in stores.