How To Buy Beer pt. 1
"Fresh Beer Is Like Live Music..."
No one has shaped my perspective on beer—or the beer industry—more than Brian Hunt, founder of Moonlight Brewing Company.
I vividly remember the first time I tasted one of his beers. It was 2003, at a now-shuttered bar in Penngrove called The Black Cat. The beer was Death and Taxes, a jet-black lager with a dense, wood-ash-colored head. Just a few sips in, I knew I was drinking something extraordinary: notes of Vietnamese coffee, cocoa powder, and tamari—all in a beer I was tossing back like a Lite Lager. I grilled the bartender, studied the tap handle, and took mental notes.
Back in Santa Cruz, where I was bartending at the time, I told my boss we had to order this beer. The next day, he told me that as far as he could tell, it didn’t exist. Determined to solve the mystery, I asked another legendary brewery, Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing, if he’d ever heard of Death and Taxes. He laughed and said, “Yeah, a friend of mine brews it… but you’ll never get it.”
Maybe to soften the blow, Vinnie tipped me off to a nearby restaurant, Flavor, whose draft list was entirely Moonlight beers. After trying five more of Brian’s creations, I was so exuberant that the owner came out to talk with me. I didn’t let him leave until I had Brian Hunt’s personal cell number in hand.
That was over 20 years ago. Today, I’m proud to still call Brian a friend. Just last week, he emailed me in response to a piece I wrote suggesting ways breweries might reignite consumer enthusiasm. Brian had a suggestion of his own: someone should write a guide to buying beer in the spirit of Eric Asimov’s How To Buy Wine and How To Pick A Wine Store columns in the New York Times.
Naturally, I got right to work.
How to Shop for Beer
If you care about beer tasting good (why else would you be reading this?) two things matter more than anything else:
Always check the date.
Never, ever, ever buy conventional beer stored outside of a cooler.
That’s the beginning and end of my most essential advice. But if you want to understand why those rules matter so much, how they relate to different styles of beer, and a few other helpful strategies, read on.
Freshness Isn’t a Preference. It’s a Quality Standard.
Years ago, when I was taking my first BJCP course, I remember reading that a beer should not be given a perfect score unless it was in “brewery-fresh condition.”
I also recall reading in Stan Hieronymus’s seminal work, For The Love of Hops, that Firestone Walker—one of the most technically proficient breweries in the country—has reported detecting damascenone (a compound linked to hop degradation) in their Pale Ales as soon as five to six weeks after packaging, even under proper storage conditions. At HenHouse, we observed flavor degradation within days if hoppy beer was stored at elevated temperatures.
A recent study found that beer stored at room temperature aged twenty times faster than beer kept at 32°F. In other words, a beer sitting out warm for three weeks may be as stale as one kept cold for a year.
Yes, packaging matters, as do high-quality ingredients and proper brewing techniques. However, even the most meticulous brewery can’t protect beer from the effects of time and temperature. A well-packaged, properly stored, six-week-old beer should still retain its brewery-fresh flavor. But let that same beer sit warm on a shelf for just a few days? You'll be listening from the parking lot.
How to Shop For Fresh Beer
Check the date before you buy. It’s the only indicator of beer quality available to you before opening the can or bottle.
Buy only cold-stored beer. Never buy beer that is not refrigerated. If your local shop doesn’t keep beer cold, find another retailer.
Ask about backstock. Backstock refers to inventory that is not yet on the public-facing shelf. Most grocers do not refrigerate their beer backstock, but a handful of dedicated breweries insist on keeping theirs in dairy or floral fridges. These are the breweries fighting on behalf of the beer in your glass.
Store your beer cold at home. No matter how much you love a particular beer, don’t buy more than you can fit in the fridge.
Shopping by Style: Best Practices for Different Beers
1. Hop-Forward Beers
Think: Hazy IPAs, West Coast IPAs, American Pale Ales, Double IPAs, Cold IPAs, West Coast Pilsners
These beers are all about vivid, volatile hop aroma. They are not perishable in the traditional sense; they won’t make you sick if they fall out of brewery-fresh condition. But, like bread and pastry, they can become bland, flabby shadows of themselves in a hurry. Shop for these the way you shop for bread: buy just enough to last you until your next shopping trip. Trust the brewery and retailer to have refreshed the shelf with a new batch by the time you return.
2. Most Other Beers
Think: Classic lager styles, dark beers, Hefeweizens
These beers are more stable than the aggressively dry-hopped styles, but freshness still matters. A well-made lager or wheat beer can retain its quality for months when stored cold. Shop for these styles the way you’re used to shopping for, well… beer. If you find one you love, feel free to stock up on as much as you are able to fit in your fridge.
3. Bottle-Conditioned and Ageable Beers
Think: Certain Belgian styles, Wild Ales, Doppelbocks, Imperial Stouts, Barrel-Aged Beers
This is a special category—and a small one. Less than 1% of beer styles truly benefit from aging. Unfortunately, that truth is often distorted by breweries or retailers trying to justify lax freshness standards or subpar storage conditions. The truth is, for the vast majority of beer, freshness isn’t optional; it’s essential.
That said, certain styles have the ability to develop and become even more delicious as they age, provided they are appropriately stored and packaged in bottles. Aging beer in cans is a different story. The interior linings of aluminum cans, designed to protect flavor integrity, will break down over time due to the acidity of the liquid inside. For beer, a one-year shelf life is generally the upper limit. More acidic beverages like soda, canned wine, and RTD cocktails can cause liner breakdown even faster.
When shopping for bottle-conditioned Abbey ales, wild ales like Lambic or Gueuze, Imperial Stouts, and other barrel-aged beers, feel free to treat these ageable styles like fine red wine. Select a bottle that catches your eye, store it in a cool (ideally 45-60°F) and dark place, and wait for the right occasion to open it.
I was extremely fortunate to have had access to people like Brian and Vinnie at the very start of my career. They taught me that caring about beer and serving your customers meant more than knowing the BJCP guidelines for every style or chasing after every limited release. It means ensuring your beer is well-kept from tank to glass. That mindset has guided me ever since—and I hope this guide helps you adopt it as well. Freshness isn’t a trend or a quirk. It’s the difference between hearing the full spectrum of a brewer’s intent and listening from the parking lot.
Great article Sayre! One time when Arne and I were traveling in Portland OR, we saw a beer of his on a beer store shelf (not cold) and he hadn’t brewed that style for over two years. Store your inventory cold please!
Please keep on this path of notable craft brewery histories. This is a good example of it.