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What is considered to be a standard shelf life for craft beer? Our stated shelf life is and has always been 90 days. We are getting a lot of pressure from the distributors to raise that shelf life to 120 days. I am told this is where all the other craft brewers are. My issue is sometimes our beer tastes great at 90 and other times it is showing singes of oxidation.
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Tell them they need to sell your beer faster. I think 90 days is respectable for a craft product, However the distros are putting you up against the likes of Sierra Nevada, DFH, New Belgium. I've had some cases from other well known breweries at the 90 day mark and was disappointed in the amount they had decade. Shelf life is always a work in progress.Originally posted by squiggy -
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Your shelf life should be determined by the stability of your product, not by a distributor arbitrarily pulling a number off of another product's bottle. Why the pressure? Are they having to pull back a lot of product? The other side of selling it faster is ordering smaller quantities more often.
CheersTravis Hixon
Blackstone Brewing Co.
Nashville, TN
travis@blackstonebrewery.comComment
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we are a west coast brewery and they are looking to sell our beer on the east coast....Comment
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Well, that explains that...
In my humble opinion, if you think 90 days is an accurate shelf life for your beer, you probably should not be selling on the east coast anyway. Compromising quality standards for increased sales is not a sustainable path to success. The gains will be short lived if the beer is not up to snuff. Will you have anyone, other than the distributor, representing your brewery in these markets, promoting your brand and checking that the beer is in fact within the freshness date? At least a quarterly?
Cheers,
TravisTravis Hixon
Blackstone Brewing Co.
Nashville, TN
travis@blackstonebrewery.comComment
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Tell them if they'll guarantee it's refrigerated the whole time, you'll bump up the shelf life. Better 120 days cold than 90 days warm!Comment
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shelf life
I agree with Travis!Originally posted by TNbrewer
Now, keep in mind that BEER comes from the Latin word BIBERE, which means to drink, not to store
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shelf life
I agree with Travis!Originally posted by TNbrewer
Now, keep in mind that BEER comes from the Latin word BIBERE, which means to drink, not to store
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Also remember that beer is liquid bread.
If I lived on the east coast, I wouldn't be buying my bread from the west coast. Let alone Germany, China, Japan, UK, Ireland, Jamaica, Brazil or really anywhere other than the east coast. Especially with so many fine products available locally.
With the exception of some very large, often alcoholic examples, I have never met a beer that is not a faded image of itself after three months in the bottle. This includes beer from large, industrial breweries with the latest technology.
As with actual bread, fresher is always better.
Pax.
LiamLiam McKenna
www.yellowbellybrewery.comComment
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