Palestine Magazine Holiday Edition 2022 | Page 18

18 | PALESTINE MAGAZINE | HOLIDAY EDITION 2022
FEATURE | BEER

Always check the dates

CHRIS KELLER

A

few months ago a keg rolled into the Pint and Barrel that I ’ d been working for months to have shipped . The particular vendor that carried it had been giving me the run around and I pressured them consistently until they finally managed to get two kegs to ship to me . As the delivery driver wheeled one in ( the other one was “ out of stock ,” go figure ), I announced to everyone around that this was the first time in six years that a keg from this brewery had graced our cooler . At that point I took a closer look at the label on the keg . The packaging date was over a year and a half old . I promptly sent back the keg and I made my displeasure so well known to the parties concerned that , by the end of the day , the brewery was switched to a different vendor .
Beer is a living thing and , just like all living things , beer has a limited lifetime . Old beer won ’ t hurt you or make you sick but it can and does go stale with very few exceptions . Just about every package of beer , be it bottle , can , or keg , is stamped with a date . If you ever run into me in the beer aisle , you ’ ll see me checking these dates before putting them into my cart . Most of the time they ’ ll be stamped with the date of packaging but some breweries have switched to the more consumer-friendly “ best by ” date . Imported beers get to us rather aged already and have a tendency to be coded with a cryptic version of the Julian dating system or worse so those can be harder to read . You ’ ll find these dates stamped on the bottoms of cans , on the sides of the bottles , or on the labels . If your beer is boxed ( like a 12-pack or a boxed 6-pack ) the date should be on the box . A few breweries don ’ t date their packages , making it a crapshoot . Thankfully they ’ re few and far between .
Let ’ s talk about what makes beer go stale . One thing that can cause it to stale is light , UV light is particularly damaging . Light reacts with the hops in the beer making a skunky-type flavor . Most breweries use packaging that protects the beer from light . Cans and ceramic bottles are the best in this regard as they let zero light in . Amber-colored bottles work great and with help from the six-pack holder ( and with proper storage ) are pretty foolproof . Green and clear bottles allow that light through and unless the brewers who package in these bottles are using a special hop extract that was chemically altered to be less sensitive to what we call “ light strike ” ( which some breweries are known to do ) then I would bet that there ’ s some skunky flavor going on there . Hey , oddly enough ,
there ’ s more than a few people who actually like and expect that flavor in their beer !
While skunkyness can be a definite staling factor , the main culprit for stale beer is oxygen . When beer starts to oxidize , it can develop many different flavors . Lighter beers will start to develop a “ wet cardboard ” flavor . Hoppier beers like IPAs will start to lose their hop flavors and aromas . Darker beers have an extra barrier against the wet cardboard flavor as the dark caramelized sugars oxidize first and produce sherry-like flavors . While a small amount of this can improve the flavor , adding some complexity , too much and you ’ ll get a sherry-bomb as the malt flavors drop out ( leaving a hole where those flavors used to be ) and then the wet cardboard comes in . As the beer ages , metallic and sour flavors take over , truly spoiling any enjoyment that could be had from your beverage .
While being detrimental to beer ’ s shelf life , oxygen is absolutely necessary for fermentation . The yeast need it to perform their noble beer-making duties . All brewers use some form of aeration or oxygenation at the start of fermentation . If a fermentation stalls , a fresh dose of oxygen is usually given . After fermentation has finished , and the yeast have used up all of the oxygen in the beer , this is when beer is sensitive to the effects
18 | PALESTINE MAGAZINE | HOLIDAY EDITION 2022