I have a nit to pick with local beer distribution. Actually, it’s more than a nit—more like a gigantic bone.
First, some background on how beer gets from the brewer to the drinker. Following the puritanical travesty that was Prohibition, a three-tier system was set up for alcohol: production/importation, distribution (the “wholesaler”) and the seller. This was a step up from the Mafia, which became organized under Prohibition, hiring brewers and distillers, truck drivers, warehouse workers and hired thugs known as “torpedos” to collect money and take care of the competition. After the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, some of the gangsters were free to step into a legitimate role as the distributors of liquor and beer. What could go wrong there?
Anyway, the distributor is the middleman. Producers and importers sell to distributors, who are supposed to properly store, deliver, stock merchandise and more. It’s the “stock” part where I must pick my nit.
Part of the delivery and stocking role of distributors is to rotate out old merchandise. This is especially important with craft beer. Some styles are subject to oxidizing and losing their luster, and this happens even faster with light exposure (in the case of bottled beer) and warm shelves. Ideally, beer should be stored between 45° and 55°F, but we all know that we don’t live in an ideal world, and many stores tend to have most of their beer on well-lit, warm shelving. This is just the way of things, and while brewers do their best with what they have to help with “shelf stability,” the clock is ticking as soon as the beer leaves their brewery—and the quicker it can reach your lips, the better.
All of this warm shelving can lead to lots of out-of-date beer if the distributor doesn’t rotate the stock. “Now, Brett,” you might be saying, “distributors have a lot on their plates. Maybe they don’t get to the stock as soon as they should, but certainly it gets taken care of, right?” If this were the case, I wouldn’t even bother with it here (though I might complain about it privately). But when I see a can with a date from some point in 2023, I quickly find the end of my patience.
Take a recent trip to Total Wine and More. The beer selection there is ever-shrinking, and I honestly don’t blame them. First, craft beer’s share of the market is being incurred upon by other beverages, like hard seltzer, canned cocktails and non-alcoholic beer. Second, their craft beer selection when they first opened was way too ambitious for the area—meaning a lot of beer died on warm shelves.
For some beer, being on a shelf for a while doesn’t matter that much. Mass-produced lagers are made with shelf stability in mind, and if you find a tainted example, some real abuse has happened. Belgian abbey ales and lambics can thrive in these conditions for a while. But with much of the hop-focused craft beer, these beers on shelves are in a hopeless race against time. The quicker that beer gets from the canning line to your mouth, with the most refrigeration in between (which distributors generally provide during shipping, despite some horror stories I’ve heard), the better.
Back to Total Wine, where I go straight to the end of where the “newer” beers are stocked. I comb for novelty—usually something I haven’t seen before, from a trusted brewery—but I’m open to being convinced by something else. When I find something, I check the dates, and I am often disappointed when it’s far too out of date to drink. (If there is no date, I assume the worst. The onus is on the brewery there.) Rinse and repeat until I find something that’s hopefully in the small refrigerated section in the back, where there is less and less beer that I care for; it’s beginning to look like the selection at a convenience store.
The average person never even looks at the dates on the packaging. This has to result in people forming opinions on many beers and many breweries that are undeservedly harsh.
If you think I am merely whining because my beer selection isn’t as varied and fresh as I’d like, you’re wrong. The real reason this is a travesty: The average person never even looks at the dates on the packaging. This has to result in people forming opinions on many beers and many breweries that are undeservedly harsh. I once assumed the blurry year of the date on a pack was current when it was not; the beer tasted like metal, and I spat it out immediately. Knowing what happened, I returned the beer on principle—the first time and only time I’ve ever done so, and I didn’t hold the brewery responsible. This is all something breweries need to take into account when they make distribution deals.
I’ve noticed less and less of certain breweries’ beers on local shelves, and I think it’s wise, even as I bemoan their absence. Breweries like Green Cheek Brewing and Burgeon Beer Company are extremely wise—they don’t try to overreach, and almost everywhere you’ll find their beers, you’re guaranteed to get the experience the brewers intended.
Be vigilant. Check the dates—and live and drink, friend.
Brett Newton is a certified cicerone (like a sommelier for beer) and homebrewer who has mostly lived in the Coachella Valley since 1988. He can be reached at caesarcervisia@gmail.com.
