Hello. I only occasionally peruse this NG and have never posted. Hope
I am not rehashing old topics.

More often than not, when I buy a craft beer (micro US domestic or
imported), it is totally skunky. There are a lot of great beers out
there, but it is so hard to find them fresh. They just sit so long on
the shelf that they are sometimes beyond drinkable.


Case in point, Sierra Nevada ... in my neck of the world, it is almost
always skunky (I live in the western burbs of Chicago). Same goes for
a lot of great European beers like Pilsner Urquell. I
have heard a lot of great things about PU, but every time I buy the
stuff, it tastes skunky.


I recently travelled to Slovenia (just south of Austria) and visited
their main breweries (Union Pivo and Lasko Pivo). At both locations,
there were thousands of crates of filled beer bottles sitting outside
baking in the sun. That is fine when served locally but does not make
for good export. Coming to my area, they probably sit outside at some
train depot waiting to go to port, then they sit at the export port,
then in some musty boat hold, then outside at the import port, then at
some train/truck depot before they finally get deposited at my local
liquor store. How could that beer ever be fresh once sitting upon the
shelves of my local store.


Say what you want about Bud, but their 'freshness matters' campaign
opened my eyes to the importance of freshness with beer. I think they
did a service to brewing in general. Now a lot of micro brews will
list a date when the beer was brewed. I won't buy old beer and I won't

buy a beer that won't list a brewing date or at least a 'drink by'
date.

Just wanted to share those thoughts. Thank you for your support.

Patrick