Brewers know that very Hoppy IPAs, DIPAs, Hazies and fruity beers lose their flavor within the first 30-60 days of being brewed. Very often a brewery will make a judgment call weighing freshness against shelf life and ultimately the brewery’s bottom line. When brewers think shelf life, they are generally thinking about retaining the freshness of flavor and aromatics of their beers for as long as possible. With packaged beer on the increase and competition for shelf space on the rise since COVID-19, is very important to have beer taste fresher for longer.
Beer starts changing from the day it is packaged and brewers need a tool to manage the quality of their product, the flavor profile and the unique recipes that have been developed, beyond the date of bottling. We are seeing a growing focus on beer stability and freshness.
Beers with great hop profiles, delicate balance and unique ingredients are the weapons of a top brewer. All top brewers know that the perfect balance of an outstanding recipe and beer is short lived, they know that their IPAs and other sensitive beers are already diminishing the moment they leave the brewery, hoping that the beer is sold and drunk before too much of the perfect flavors disappear.
At Brewshield, these are the stories we hear every day. We recently worked with Matt Johnson, the former Head Brewer for Karl Strauss, on his blood orange seltzer, and the joy of brewing a vibrant, fresh and loud beer fast disappeared as the beautiful natural red orange color diminished to a flat beige grey. His requirement was to have four additional weeks of remarkable color. What he got was an easy-to-dose solution that delivered his just-brewed freshness for weeks beyond what he expected.
It doesn’t stop there, Brewshield is able to assist in DO scavenging, broad flavor preservation, mitigation and delay in undesired staling flavors and much more. This has allowed brewers to increase lot sizes, reduce the frequency of changeover, meet increasing demands of co-packers but most of all, lock up at night with the confidence that their beer would retain its best quality for longer.
“We have trialed Brewshield like crazy, we dose and then beat the beer up! We put it through the most extreme conditions. 130 degrees Fahrenheit for a week, put it in a car trunk and in direct sunlight. This was done to get a determination on where the limit is to what this product can handle and so far there hasn’t been.” — Matt Johnson, former Head Brewer at Karl Strauss & a Great American Beer Festival judge
We all want to buy beer that is going to taste fresh and while craft beer is priced at a premium, it should still taste as the brewer originally intended.
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