rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) (08/20/85)
> ...Re beers, exotic and imported or regional bought elsewhere -- my first > thought on reading the posting of the person who disliked the Anchor > beer he bought at a "local liquor store" away from the Bay area was that > he got an overpriced but spoiled pack of beer. Would not that explain > his antagonistic reaction?... Quite possible. Anchor is very careful, and they try to pick their dis- tributors carefully, but beer spoils MUCH more readily than wine, and some of the types of spoilage can make it REALLY rank. > Are there some generic rules about bottled or canned beers, in terms of > age? Is any beer over "n" months old likely to be undrinkable, especially > if it spent 3 months of that in a ship and sitting on a dock in the sun? There are a few rules. I'll address only what happens to bottled beer, since most of the better beers are not canned. (You can ponder that one for yourself.) The worst problem for beer is light--sunlight is worst; fluorescent light is a close second (particularly for the few airheaded brewers who use clear glass bottles). The "n" for rendering beer undrinkable is somewhere in 0.1- 0.5; however, the units are hours, not months! Yes, if you leave a clear glass of beer in direct sun, it will acquire a distinct off-taste in a matter of minutes. (Try it; do an A/B comparison. The taste of light- struck beer is generally described as "skunky". If you give a glass a half hour in direct sun, you'll have something which will give you an unmistakeable standard, tho it will be undrinkable.) Heat can do various odd things, depending on the amount of time and the temperature. You can get a caramely taste (but don't mistake it for the taste which is intended in some beers, such as Scotch ales), or any number of odd nuances. Age tends to allow oxidation. Old beer tastes "cardboardy"--go chew on the back of a tablet of paper if you don't get the idea. Incidentally, age is only good for lagers and only during brewing; almost without exception beer once bottled goes downhill slowly but monotonically. You just don't age it the way you do wine. The few exceptions are some of the stronger Belgian Trappist ales, some of the special highly-hopped Christmas ales (e.g., Anchor and Sierra Nevada), and some barleywines. Homebrew with problems will age to a smoother taste, but that's more a matter of aging out bad tastes than aging in good ones. -- Dick Dunn {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303)444-5710 x3086 ...Cerebus for dictator!
riddle@im4u.UUCP (08/20/85)
>> There are few rules.
Okay, I can understand that. So how about a specific recommendation for a
specific case? I am about to move from Austin to Galveston and would like
to take along some of our local brew, Shiner Bock. (Shiner is the last
locally owned brewery left in Texas; furthermore, while Shiner Bock may not
rank with some of the fancy imports that cost twice as much as it does, it
is head and shoulders above the yellow fizz-water that most people around
here drink. It's definitely a very good beer, if not a great beer. I've
located Shiner in Galveston, but only in cans (yech!).)
So my question is: if I buy a case of longnecks, keep them out of the sun
and try not to let them overheat, how long can I expect their contents to
remain drinkable?
--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech}!ut-sally!riddle riddle@ut-sally.UUCP
--- riddle@ut-sally.ARPA, riddle%zotz@ut-sally, riddle%im4u@ut-sally