Editor's Letter

Careful: Fresh is Best

Jacob Johnston
Editor

I was reminded of a horrible thing during our tasting of summer beers for this issue. It wasn’t that I hate the styles of beers brewed for summer seasonals – these can actually be quite good when made well. Instead, I was reminded that some stores could really care less about the quality of their beer stock.

On my shopping trip for the tasting, I found several summer brews. We had Dogwood Summer, Grant’s Lazy Days and Sierra Nevada Summerfest among several others. One of those others was Atlanta Brewing Company’s Summer Brew. I had heard from Greg Kelly at ABC that he wasn’t sure if they were going to bother bottling the product this summer, so I was a little suspicious of the beer. Still, he hadn’t been positive at the time that there would be no bottling, so I went ahead and bought a single bottle.

Unfortunately, during the tasting we noticed some off flavors. It was tart and a little funky in the finish. Combined with my suspicions about it not being bottled, I contacted Kelly the next day. He confirmed my suspicions about this. ABC is not bottling the Summer Brew in 2003. Any store that is trying to sell you this beer in bottles is trying to pass off stock that’s at least a year old.

I do have to commend Kelly and ABC for their actions. He contacted the distributor to make sure the old beer will be pulled off the shelves. The brewery is also now dating their bottles and six packs so consumers won’t get screwed over when a retailer makes a mistake, or is ignorant or unscrupulous. In some parts of the country with more enlightened beer laws, there are beers available that can be aged without an negative effects on the beer. Since many states in the Southeast limit beer to 6 percent alcohol by volume, most beer that we have access to is not in this category and is best consumed fresh.

To help the rest of you avoid the mistakes, here are a few suggestions on how to avoid beer that’s too old.

Avoid buying dusty bottles. It is possible that the beer is only a few weeks old and the place is just dusty, but if you don’t know, play it safe.

If you go into a store often, try to keep track of what’s on the shelves. If you notice that every time you go into that store certain beers look like they haven’t been touched, avoid them. There’s a good chance those are the same beers. If you haven’t seen a beer on the shelves before, it’s more likely new and would be a safer choice.

Think about the beer you’re buying. Don’t buy a summer beer in April or a Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome in May. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work for year-round brews.

Read the date coding on the beer. Sweetwater’s is fairly easily understood notching on the side of the label and Dogwood actually prints the date on the label, although their ink has a tendency to run. Atlanta Brewing Company has started date coding their beers, but I haven’t seen their system. If a brewery doesn’t date their beers, you’re taking a chance no matter what.

Be exceptionally careful with lagers and light ales. Darker ales usually have bigger flavors and can cover off flavors caused by age more effectively. An American wheat beer or a Pilsner aren’t going to cover up anything.

Join a local beer tasting group (Ale Atlanta is one, and you can join the atl-beer mailing list at http://www.beerinfo.com/atlbeer/maillist.html. The other members can tell you which stores to stay away from and which stores are usually safe if you aren’t sure.

If you have any tricks up your sleeve, send them in to us and we’ll post them for the benefit of others.

Sincerely,

Jacob Johnston

Editor, TheBeerCellar.com