BS: Craft beer for Thanksgiving

Subject: BS: Craft beer for Thanksgiving
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 19 Nov 17 - 08:45 PM

Well I've had very good luck here with my coffee question, and I figure if any folks were experts on this subject, it would be found right here. This time, I 'm wondering how to store cans of craft beer. One of my hosts for Thanksgiving is always eager to try a new craft beer and has dropped subtle hints🙄that s what he'd like (like if they're giving me a ride home from some event, pointing out the directions to the craft beer outlet that is still half a mile away from where we are😄)

Well, they really are wonderful hosts, kind, fun and always sending me home with a doggie bag with a half weeks supply of goodies; so I d really like to get him that beer.But I m never near that store by my own free will, and I don't have 'beer radar' so I usually bring dessert. But today, on my way to a concert, I happened to find a store totally devoted to selling craft beer, ale and the like. So I got him some apricot beer. (Don t be alarmed at the flavor, he s already served us chocolate beer)

But I never got the taste for beer.Amazing but true. So I know nothing about storing beer and want to store it the best way til Thansgiving. On the shelf? In the cabinet? Fridge? Freezer? Your advice, suggestions and beer-lore stories are welcomed here.

Subject: RE: BS: Craft beer for Thanksgiving
From: gillymor
Date: 19 Nov 17 - 09:11 PM

In the stomach.

Subject: RE: BS: Craft beer for Thanksgiving
From: Stanron
Date: 19 Nov 17 - 09:55 PM

I've just checked some cans I've got in the kitchen. Their best before date is 31st August 2018. Over nine months. Next time you vist the craft beer place ask about best before dates.

Subject: RE: BS: Craft beer for Thanksgiving
From: gillymor
Date: 19 Nov 17 - 10:22 PM

That's a good point, the beers in the singles section at my Total Wine are sometimes past their best by dates. Sadly they're probably products of broken six packs.☺
Most beers nowadays seem to have it marked on their labels.

Subject: RE: BS: Craft beer for Thanksgiving
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Nov 17 - 02:58 AM

I certainly wouldn't turn down a beer that's a couple years past the "best by" date. Beer that's two years past peak, is still usually pretty darn good.

At San Francisco's Camp New Harmony (the week after Christmas every year), the most popular event is the John Barleycorn Workshop, where we play beer snobs for an afternoon and sample the annual Christmas Ales from legendary Anchor Brewing Company. Camp Chairman Charlie Fenton hoards the stuff, and opens three bottles for every year he still has in stock - usually 15 years or so. Everyone has a plastic cup for tasting. We pass each year's bottles around in succession, taking time between years to study the labels and share beer snob comments on the year's batch.

Beer that's over ten years old starts tasting a little "elderly," but it's still drinkable. When we've finished all the Anchor beer rationed for us for the session, we have a free-for-all beer potluck, tasting varieties that people have brought to share. At the end of the hour, we all proclaim in unison:

It's all good shit!

After that, we have pub song and sea song workshops, and the beer sampling continues. The happy revelers then head off for dinner.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Craft beer for Thanksgiving
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Nov 17 - 08:44 AM

Beer bought anytime this Fall will still be fine by Thanksgiving. The only real question is whether it will be consumed right at Thanksgiving... thus, the temperature is important. Some like their beer very cold, some merely room temperature. Plan accordingly.

re:Joe Offer's remarks... certain beers last 'almost' forever, and some only for a year or so. I have a Thomas Hardy's ale that is almost 25 years old, which I plan to drink on my birthday in 2019, when I will be 80. However, lagers and such have much shorter shelf life. Sadly, the US **requirement** for a 'use by' date in no longer in effect. Good breweries still put it on, but you sort of have to trust the store for those which don't.

Subject: RE: BS: Craft beer for Thanksgiving
From: gillymor
Date: 20 Nov 17 - 08:48 AM

My weekly music session doubles as an informal beer-sampling session and when we notice that one of our favorite beers is not up to scratch it almost always means that someone didn't check the sell buy date. We've also noticed that canned beers tend to be fresher and more drinkable than bottled beers from the same brewery. Fortunately, some good breweries like Sierra Nevada, Boulevard and Cigar City offer some of their beers in cans but having said that most of the beer I drink is out of bottles because bottling is far more prevalent with the better breweries.
When I visit the Florida Keys I stop at Islamorada Beer Co. and sample some of their wares and bring back some of their freshly brewed Channel Marker IPA which is far superior to the Channel Marker I get that has been sitting on the shelves at Total Wine.
Here is an article on freshness in beer with buying advice:

Click here

In addition to the above mentioned breweries I'd also number Dogfish Head, Ommegang and Brooklyn among my favorites.

Subject: RE: BS: Craft beer for Thanksgiving
From: gillymor
Date: 20 Nov 17 - 08:58 AM

Yeah, Bill I receive a bottle of Fuller Vintage Ale from one of my buddies every Xmas and they recommend laying it up 3-4 years. With us it rarely makes it 3-4 weeks.

Subject: RE: BS: Craft beer for Thanksgiving
From: JHW
Date: 20 Nov 17 - 11:00 AM

This craft beer stuff does baffle me.
Perhaps we should have thanksgiving every day over here for our handpumps.
I've never found a canned beer worth drinking!

Subject: RE: BS: Craft beer for Thanksgiving
From: leeneia
Date: 20 Nov 17 - 01:35 PM

Lefthanded guitar: where i've lived, beer is served at 40 degrees F. Keep it in your refrigerator, which should be about 37.   Don't freeze it; it might expand and break the cans or bottles.

I find some craft beers a bit nicer than mainline beers, but I drink Budweiser because I love the Clydesdales.

Subject: RE: BS: Craft beer for Thanksgiving
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Nov 17 - 08:20 PM

I know the experts say that canned beer is better, but I prefer a bottle. I think beer looses something when it's poured, so I drink it straight from the bottle. It warms up too fast when it's in a can, and drinking from a can doesn't have the same tactile satisfaction that a bottle gives.
I'll stick with bottles.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Craft beer for Thanksgiving
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 20 Nov 17 - 09:54 PM

Thank you leeneia! You know, it s not that I didn't enjoy all the beer lore - in fact, all these stories make me wish I liked the brew just to join in one of those beer jam parties- but leeneia; you are the first to actually tell me how to store the beer 😛

So the fridge it is!

And have a brew on me , cats, while I hoist a glass of cherry coke.
Happy holiday!