A New Problem Is Brewing in the Beer Industry: One Million Kegs Are Going Stale

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-new-problem-is-brewing-in-the-beer-industry-one-million-kegs-are-going-stale-11587733224

by prostoalex • 6 years ago

89 117 6 years ago

wsj.com

anguswithgusto• 6 years ago

Hey, I'll drink it?

wyxuan• 6 years ago

My liver is indestructible!

vaxman• 6 years ago

Covid-19 is linked to AKF (search). As an older hacker (not a Boomer), I can tell you that the kids who setup microbreweries back in the day first tried to escape into project management and then wound up...not-in-tech.

yellowapple7• 6 years ago

My liver ain't, but my brain doesn't care.

themark• 6 years ago

“Executives say draft beer typically stays fresh for between two and six months.”

Need to work on this.

Janinda3• 6 years ago

It’s a science problem. More specifically, chemistry.

i386• 6 years ago

I own a brewery and distillery. All of our beer is refrigerated to keep it fresh.

synaesthesisx2• 6 years ago

Most craft beers, especially those high in terpenes (dry-hopped IPAs come to mind) have flavor drop-off relatively rapidly and are best consumed fresh. Monkish, Fieldwork, Other Half, Tree House etc are some of my favorites but they’re usually bursting with flavor the first two weeks or so. “Drink Fresh”

robochat• 6 years ago

I thought that the whole point of Indian Pale Ale was that it would last longer, as in it would survive a sea voyage from England to India in the 1800s (6 months)

ac292• 6 years ago

This is true, but unfortunately most breweries still dont give a bottled/canned on date, so it can be difficult to figure this out (unless there's some secret I'm unaware of). There's at least a couple beers I buy regularly that are great within a month or so, but will be pretty nasty after being on the shelves after a few months.

The only reasonably reliable way I've found to get around this is to buy refrigerated whenever possible, and to look for "what wasnt here last week". Or buy from one of the handful of breweries that does print dates.

grovellogic• 6 years ago

Funny you mention Tree House. The beer seems almost impossible to get these days.

sjwright2• 6 years ago

Need to work on this.

For what possible reason? During normal times there would be no reason to maintain beer stockpiles. During "challenging" times, those who would benefit from a long life supply of alcohol should look at wine, spirits etc.

Or they can get used to stale beer.

Or they can learn to homebrew.

brailsafe• 6 years ago

For the reason that beer could be like wine. If you don't like wine, I imagine beer could be a decent option to have a neat collection of

seibelj• 6 years ago

People in my office (well, formerly) have been buying kegs straight from the breweries. They were intended for commercial and now are sold to consumer and delivered by the same trucks.

boomboomsubban2• 6 years ago

Unless it's a local beer, they were buying straight from the local distributor. The major breweries do not ship their product to bars.

rawoke083600• 6 years ago

We here in South Africa, we have actually banned the sale of alcohol and cigarettes while in lock-down for almost a month now.

tempsy• 6 years ago

That sounds like a terrible decision

sjwright2• 6 years ago

Though the social results will be fascinating... I'm sure there are researchers salivating over this opportunity.

wolco2• 6 years ago

That seems like a bad idea. Many people will die without any alcohol. Forcing people inside and then stopping the sales of cigarettes seems like it would create more agression in the short term.

aprdm• 6 years ago

Out of curiosity how exactly would people die without any alcohol?

alknemeyer• 6 years ago

Part of the idea is to curb domestic violence and reduce the strain on emergency services [0]. I personally think that it will also help people budget, as most expected a three week lockdown but the reality is that many could be with reduced income for far longer

[0] https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/why-alcohol-sale-banned...

bunje• 6 years ago

I've heard this can cause methanol blindness and increase in black market but who knows. Soon we will learn.

pugworthy2• 6 years ago

Here is a prohibition against learning history.

jotm2• 6 years ago

Bold move... I've resorted to smoking because I can't buy eliquid for vaping heh.

On that note there was a whole thread on Reddit with people saying they might kill themselves if lockdowns go on for months.

That would be hilarious, "cause of death: Covid-19"

grecy• 6 years ago

The only thing stopping Americans from seriously protesting is cheap beer & cigarettes & sports on TV.

One is already gone, there is no way they'll take away the others.

yellowapple7• 6 years ago

Yep. Thankfully I've got enough booze stocked up that even if the liquor stores shut down I'd be good for awhile, and I don't smoke so that's a non-factor for me. The lack of hockey and NASCAR is annoying but manageable.

rudiv• 6 years ago

Same in a lot of parts of India, sale of liquor is prohibited in the union COVID guidelines, although I'm told there are some states where liquor stores have been reopened.

dluan• 6 years ago

And suddenly grocery stores are setting up displays of pineapples, sugar, and yeast.

veggieburglar2• 6 years ago

Everything old is new again!

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ingenious-brick-he...

ashtonkem2• 6 years ago

I’ve heard some of the arguments against alcohol consumption during the pandemic, and I don’t buy it.

Sure, it’s true that alcohol lowers your immune system and requires trips to stores. But a big portion of whether or not we’ll make it out of this with lower fatalities will be about our ability to maintain quarantine. And honestly, people are bored and freaked out, recreational substances give them one more thing to do that’ll keep them inside and safe-ish.

yellowapple7• 6 years ago

Yep. If anything alcohol has helped me maintain quarantine, since if I'm too drunk or high to drive then I'm that much more inclined to stay home.

yellowapple7• 6 years ago

You'd think that other countries would learn from America's historical mistakes.

On the other hand, I look forward to someday watching the South African version of NASCAR this will surely spawn.

robk• 6 years ago

Try and pry me out of my Shabeen

Janinda3• 6 years ago

I can’t read the article due to the paywall, but I hope it went into the science around heat and oxidation as well as the regulations preventing breweries and distributors from buying back the kegs. Maybe it even offered a glimpse of hope from post-processing via distillation

XiS• 6 years ago

Archival version https://archive.fo/poekb

wiredone• 6 years ago

Time for the US to get into the vegemite business

civilian• 6 years ago

lol, can you elaborate?

dbcooper• 6 years ago

It's based on brewers yeast extract.

userbinator• 6 years ago

They are also sending beer that is expired or can’t be distributed to a nearby craft distiller to be turned into hand sanitizer.

That's an excellent solution, as the demand for the latter has definitely been going up rapidly in the past little while.

Scoundreller• 6 years ago

There’s really no shortage of ethanol. Gasoline is usually 5-10% ethanol. And with demand on that in disarray...

URSpider942• 6 years ago

There have been issues in that many ethanol producers are not licensed to produce medical-grade ethanol, which is what’s required for hand sanitizer. So it hasn’t been entirely straightforward to convert biofuel or drinking alcohol production over.

jessaustin3• 6 years ago

I can see why sanitizer used in a hospital would have to be "medical-grade", whatever that means. Why would any other sanitizer need this? If the fluid was safe to drink (most alcoholic beverages are sold for this purpose), why wouldn't it be safe to rub on hands?

nimbius2• 6 years ago

simple solution: convert it to malt vinegar. this is a natural process caused by introducing a vinegar culture into the beer. then, sell it to the food industry or divert it to your food holdings (hot sauces or snacks.)

this can also be distilled into acetic acid which is used in everything from solvents to cervical cancer screens and the production of precursors for polyvinyl acetate.

pugworthy2• 6 years ago

I appreciate your second paragraph. That said I couldn’t help think, “A New Problem Sours the Malt Vinegar Industry: One Million Kegs Are Sitting Idle“

toyg• 6 years ago

Vinegar can actually get better with age.

nimbius2• 6 years ago

It is also trivially easy to turn your old beer into gourmet vinegar :)

https://preserveandpickle.com/how-to-make-a-vinegar-mother/

onion2k• 6 years ago

That would ruin all the beer barrels though, which would be an expensive mistake.

ac292• 6 years ago

Kegs of beer are stainless steel, is vinegar strong enough to ruin that?

milleramp• 6 years ago

Or lager whiskey?

jacknews• 6 years ago

Beer baths? Good for the skin.

gumby3• 6 years ago

My son in college (well in his apt with his gf, taking classes online) could easily take care of one before it expired. Hell, we could too.

In Germany we had the “beer man” who would drop off beer weekly and collect the empties. This should be adopted in the USA.

welder• 6 years ago

Germany is mostly pils, heff, and radler. The USA has more beer variety, maybe it's more difficult logistically? Companies in the USA do have a beer man, never heard of individual houses hiring one.

sl1ck731• 6 years ago

I think there are a few varieties of regulations across different states regarding the shipment of alcohol. I'm not sure how far they go with respect to "last mile" delivery but it could be an inhibitor in something like this.

For example, I can't purchase wine to be delivered to my home over the internet in my state.

jbigelow76• 6 years ago

The USA has more beer variety, maybe it's more difficult logistically?

No, it's just that for as much that has changed in America since its founding, being a bunch of Puritanical tight asses is still kind of encoded into our societal DNA.

gumby3• 6 years ago

We had beer, dairy and bread delivery subscriptions, plus the organic veg delivery -— all pretty nice! In Palo Alto I have subscriptions for dairy, butcher and organic veg. So not that different.

As for beer selection, as in the US the major brands are of a limited nature but there are many small breweries. All subject to the Reinheitsgebot but I doubt it really cramps their style.

boomboomsubban2• 6 years ago

In Germany we had the “beer man” who would drop off beer weekly and collect the empties. This should be adopted in the USA.

This is standard practice in the US, empty kegs end up back at a brewery where they are sanitized and refilled. Part of the problem reported here is that kegs aren't being used, leading to a lack of kegs available to be refilled.

subpixel• 6 years ago

No, the beer man in Germany comes to your house and delivers a crate of .5l bottles of beer, and picks them all up the next week with your next delivery. The bottles are washed and are reused (not melted down and recycled).

That - along with the bierautomat - ranks up there with the things I miss most about Germany.

joezydeco• 6 years ago

The commenter is talking about weekly scheduled home delivery of cases of beer and soft drinks.

Many communities in the US had similar deliveries for milk back in the day.

Falkon1313• 6 years ago

The local beer store here is doing daily deliveries now, including kegs. They don't say whether they pick up the empty kegs, but if they're bringing a new one they might.

Of course it's geared toward craft brew snobs, so not really a general thing. But it's one step closer than we had before.

ashtonkem2• 6 years ago

Most of us don’t have the equipment to tap a keg at home, and I seriously doubt that the rental services for hand pump sankey taps could keep up with the spike in demand.

Ericson2314• 6 years ago

Growlers

tonyarkles• 6 years ago

I’ve been chuckling a fair bit at the changes around here. Alcohol delivery very rapidly became a thing here as the lockdown was looming; local breweries teamed up to put together a website and the logistics to deliver their products together (Want craft brew from these 3 companies? You can get it all in one order!). Other companies are also delivering “mainstream” beer and wine as well. In-person liquor stores are still open as well, with one-way aisles set up and checkout distancing requirements, etc, because they were deemed to be “essential services”.

That’s not what makes me laugh the most though; pot is! Less than two years ago, marijuana was illegal in Canada. Now? The stores themselves are not open, but the local gov’t relaxed restrictions and there’s now a number of same-day delivery services! From illegal to essential in under two years!

thebean112• 6 years ago

It would be pretty ironic if it became harder to buy pot in legal states than non-legal states because the only sellers left were the ones following the law.

As funny as that would be, I think allowing pot delivery is the right call. No reason to shut down businesses that don't pose much of an infection risk, it's more economic strain we can't afford.

cosmodisk• 6 years ago

Sounds so much better than milkman tbh!;) That's brilliant concept, definitely need to look into this,maybe one day I could open a microbrewery and become a beer man delivering your weekly dose of foamy nectar.

baron816• 6 years ago

My son in college...could easily take care of one before it expired. Hell, we could too.

I'm calling bullshit. Went through this in college. There's 165 12oz beers in a standard keg. If you don't refrigerate it (which you probably can't), that beer is going to go bad well within a week once it's tapped. That means to finish a keg between 2 people you're drinking 11+ beers per person every day. I mean, yeah that's doable, but if you're a normal human being, it's not that fun.

xendo• 6 years ago

11 small beers is not something I would recommend, but its fairly easy if you start in the morning. After a couple or weeks it will probably ruin your immune system which is not a great idea considering current circumstance.

donogh• 6 years ago

Irishman here. Not to further a cultural stereotype but.. I know plenty of binge drinkers who could put away 20-30 pints[1] over the course of a day-long drinking session. Get a couple of them together and they'd finish a keg that size in 2-3 days.

[1] Imperial pints: 568 ml / 19.2 US fl oz

lsllc• 6 years ago

Not if you use CO2! For less than $100 you can get a regulator, keg tap and pouring spigot -- it'll last for several weeks.

... so I've been told by a "friend".

ilamont• 6 years ago

When I lived in Taiwan there was a Belgian guy who did this, driving around his VW microbus with mixed cases of Belgian beer to deliver all over the island. It was awesome.

thebean112• 6 years ago

I think beer delivery like this is tricky here because someone 21+ needs to sign for it. The poor beer guy would end up needing to wait for everyone, and skip houses where nobody was home.

loeg• 6 years ago

The local breweries in the Seattle area have been collaborating with the restaurants doing delivery for weeks to offload their keg stock. We've been getting growlers basically at-cost. (WA relaxed liquor laws during the SAH order so regular food deliveries can also bring you alcohol.)

mirimir• 6 years ago

Free beer? Maybe structured to generate tax credit.

bryanbuckley• 6 years ago

"I volunteer!" I gasp. “I volunteer as tribute!”

(AL located currently)

yellowapple7• 6 years ago

Yeah, if any breweries or restaurants or what have you here in Reno are facing this issue, I'd be happy to help "store" some of it. Know quite a few buddies here in town who'd likely feel the same.

mister_hn• 6 years ago

Why don't they give the for free to charities?

erikig• 6 years ago

I will instantly register as a beer accepting charity if this happens :)

skilesare• 6 years ago

Together we can solve this problem.

ClikeX• 6 years ago

The beer supplier for my local pub actually came by to empty the kegs. They're taking it all back to get get converted into hand sanitizer. Which is a great solution.

As for the pub, they're offering takeout of their normal menu. As well as sell craft beer packages.

A New Problem Is Brewing in the Beer Industry: One Million Kegs Are Going Stale

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