Keepin' It Fresh

Be sure to thank TJ next time you see him.

We at The House are not perfect.  This business was started from the ground up & has grown very organically.  We weren’t always the House of 1000 Beers – years ago, it was a thrill to tout that we carried 200 different beers.  Over time, good beer has grown & expanded incrementally, steadily.  We have somehow been able to keep pace with it for the most part, & now carry a pretty massive stock.  Actually very massive, & we’ve gone through innumerable transformations, trying to flex our space to accommodate the ever-larger number of brands & bottles in our shelves & coolers.  It ain’t easy, especially while also trying to maintain space for the bodies.  Few establishments in the area struggle with the combined challenges of being both a bottleshop & a functioning bar within the same space, both with their own needs & swell.  It amazes me sometimes, how seldom the sound of busting glass echoes through our humble House. 

We’re big on beer, but are still a small business.  While other noteworthy local beer joints – themselves small businesses – have opened second, third, or fifth locations, we’re still here in New Ken.  We’ve got a small staff, barely in the double-digits, & rarely are more than four people max on shift at one time.  We work our asses off, & pride ourselves on things running as smoothly as they do.  The coolers get stocked, the trash gets taken out, the customers get served, the floor gets mopped at the end of the night.  But occasionally…

We feel fortunate to make a living selling & celebrating one of mankind’s most beloved creations.  That creation needs care, however, & is sometimes high maintenance.  Beer can be downright fussy.  The wrong lighting, or too much lighting, & it skunks.  The wrong temperature & it oxidizes, aging too quickly & tasting like cardboard.  Too long on the shelf & the flavors fade & muddle.  As craft beer grows, so does the concern over proper handling & serving.  The issue of freshness dating has gotten a lot of traction lately, with more & more companies putting either “Bottled on” or “Enjoy by” on the label.  Stone took a huge step in releasing a series of beers with “Enjoy By” right in the name, leaving no room for doubt or oversight as to its freshness.  The Brewer’s Association is calling for freshness dating to be industry standard, for the benefit of both the producers & consumers.

Again…we’re not perfect.  With a huge inventory & small staff, it’s no mystery how bottles can fall through the cracks & remain on the shelves weeks, sometimes months after their recommended consumption date.  It’s egg on our face when someone buys a bottle only to return it (or, more embarrassingly, complain about it on-line) because it’s old.  It happens.  Beer does not “spoil” in the same way that milk does – nothing harmful that can grow in the low pH, ethanol-rich environment of beer.  It won’t make you sick.  But it can taste off, even gross, sometimes when it’s gone over the cliff.  IPAs are notoriously short-lived, along with most lagers, wheats, or any style that’s light or hop-forward.  Pliny the Elder’s label explicitly says “Does not improve with time!  Do not save for a rainy day!”  Many other IPAs’ branding has followed suit.

We care about beer, & we realize that we need to constantly be improving our own quality control to keep up with the expectations of our customers & give that liquid the respect it deserves.  Again, we’re not perfect, & there have been enough fouls in the past that we’re taking some action.  Our “House Viking”, TJ, is undertaking a massive overhaul of our stock room, combing through the rows upon stacks upon aisles to ensure that any old stuff is weeded out.  Beers found out of date are being discounted & sold either in our Mix 6 section or $1 shelves.  Take note that any beers with crossed-off pricetags have been “relocated” to this area because of their age, & make an informed buying decision.  Sometimes age turns a beer crappy, sometimes it just turns it into a different beer.  One customer was happy to find some discounted Brooklyn Monster on the Mix 6 shelves; this beer’s been discontinued by the brewery &, being a barleywine, should not suffer at all from sitting out for a while. 

We’re doing what we can for the good of the brew, & ask the same from others in the chain.  We’d like to see more breweries putting “Best by” dates on the labels, clearly, sans inscrutable coding or laser etching that smears or wasn’t legible to begin with.  We’d like our distributors to be mindful of product that’s been collecting dust & please not bring it to us in the first place.  And we ask you, the customer, for your patience & cooperation.  It wouldn’t hurt for the shopper to check for dates themselves – try as we might, it’s much harder for us to scan thousands of bottles than it is for a customer to check the dozen or so they’re grabbing.  And if you do notice something past its prime, please tell an employee so we can do something about it.  We’ll be forever grateful.

It’s a good sign that concerns like this are rising to the surface, a sign that more people are becoming aware of beer & how to do it right.  Together, we can make it happen.  And yeah, if you see TJ, tell him “Thanks”.  Maybe buy him a pint.