Freshness is as important to beer as it is to bread. That’s why Neil Witte was concerned. On recent visits to his local liquor shop he started to notice a disturbing trend in the beer aisle.
“I look closely at the date codes on a regular basis, and I wouldn’t touch the vast majority of it,” says Witte, a draft beer expert and the associate director of exams for the Cicerone Certification Program. “So much of [the beer] is warm and dusty. If there is a date code, it’s often several months old or past the best by date.”
Beer is a product best consumed fresh. For professional brewers who spend their careers creating and releasing recipes, few things are more important than making sure the consumer gets a quality pint that tastes like it should.
Experts like Witte can easily spot suboptimal offerings. The rest of us, however, likely need a crash course in making sure we buy a winner, not a dud.
How to Identify the Freshest Beer
The best place for fresh beer is at the source. There are nearly 10,000 breweries in the country today and the ability to have just-released beer is best in a brewery’s taproom or beer garden. Of course, beer is also meant to travel, and larger breweries have perfected distribution networks to make their beer available to customers in all 50 states and beyond. From store shelves to the corner bar, there is a seemingly endless choice on what to
This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
