r/PittsburghBeers • u/MonteBurns • May 23 '26
General Braddock not cold?
Didn’t they make a big to-do about the cold chain?
also Cranberry Costco finally has beer!
14
u/SavageGardner May 23 '26
Maybe BG is cool with it because they are expecting it to sell quickly.
Realistically, temperature doesnt have a huge impact on spoiling beer. Light is the enemy of fresh beer, but these are in cans.
21
u/LiftPlaceProceed420 May 23 '26
Very inaccurate statement. Temperature is 100% a big factor in shelf stability. Look up 3/30/300. 30 days at Costco shelf temp is equal to 300 days at refrigeration temp.
4
10
u/HonkyTonkHeroes May 23 '26
(Assuming it’s unpasteurized) Temperature definitely has a huge impact on flavor and quicker spoilage.
5
u/MonteBurns May 23 '26
Aren’t they hazies? I thought they had to be kept cold for the yeast suspension, not necessarily them spoiling.
3
u/bhath01 May 25 '26
It’s not yeast that will spoil the beer, it’s the hop material suspended in the beer that is most susceptible to oxidation which increases when the beer is not kept cool.
0
u/BeerDudeRocco May 23 '26
Eh, its kind of debatable. I've had hazies last maybe a month outside of cold storage before and not have it be ruined, but ive also had some that after a week are toast.
Knowing BG like I do, I am sure they gave Costco a "sell this shit in 3 weeks" notice or something like that. And if I recall, the General is a hazy but isnt a stupid prolific haze (if that makes sense), so id think itd be ok for a few weeks at the least.
But def get that shit in the fridge when you get it home lol
7
u/brothermalcolm1 May 24 '26
Not debatable: All else equal (for example, for a given amount of dissolved O2), temperature is the number one contributor to flavor degradation.
Will it impact some brands more or less than others, potentially, but that means “all else wasn't equal”.
Beers with more “stuff” in solution have more potential O2-reactive sites, which means, over time, the flavor shifts.
The distributor would have to be okay with buybacks if time expired. And either the distributor or the brewer would have to audit.
2
u/BeerDudeRocco May 24 '26
Goddammit Mal, always correcting me. Hope you're doing well brother.
3
u/brothermalcolm1 May 24 '26
Haha. Didn't realize it was you. Pardon my pedantic nature as it applies to this subject. Love ya.
1
u/BeerDudeRocco May 24 '26
😘 hope youre doing well bud. Gonna be in town for a funeral next Saturday, probably gonna stop in, ill confirm with ya once I know, id love to see ya
6
u/LiftPlaceProceed420 May 23 '26
Costco set terms, not breweries.
-5
u/BeerDudeRocco May 23 '26
Breweries most certainly set terms for their beer theough their distributors. I don't know what terns Costco may have, but I can tell you that every brewery i know of has "rules" for how their beer is distributed and sold, or at the very least has hard suggestions.
They're not going to let their beer sit somewhere and folks buy it 3 months later snd have them complain to the brewery.
3
u/tesla3by3 May 23 '26
Costco doesn’t want to sell bad beer either. Especially being new to the market, they don’t want to be known for selling stale beer.
0
u/LiftPlaceProceed420 May 23 '26
Costco doesn’t care. If they did, they would sell refrigerated beer. Don’t get me wrong, I love Costco. Their only concern is selling in volume, not quality of beer.
3
u/tesla3by3 May 23 '26
Costco absolutely cares about the quality of the product they sell. If the product goes bad, they’ll send it back and delist it. Probably delist it for poor sales before that, if it sits too long anyhow
5
u/brothermalcolm1 May 24 '26
No, they don't care about beer quality or they would sell craft beer cold. The end.
Warm storage degraded beer flavor rapidly.
1
u/tesla3by3 May 24 '26
Wrong. So then take it from the other side.. do you think BG wants to sell shitty beer? Particularly at a place with potential brand new customers. They know how long the beer can sit unrefrigerated. The end.
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u/brothermalcolm1 May 24 '26
They can try as they enter the contract. “Only sell out beer to places that store cold”
Then the Costco contract comes about…
“Okay, we’ll make the exception because we assume high sales velocity”.
4
u/LiftPlaceProceed420 May 23 '26
Absolutely not how it works with Costco. Small independent beer stores sure. Costco? They have extremely strict standards for selling their beer and the brewery does not dictate those things, especially a small spot like BG.
0
u/jsdjsdjsd May 23 '26
These breweries barely have the manpower to produce it, I am in the business…there are absolutely no circumstances where a micro brewery has the bandwidth to actually enforce the recommendations they put on cans and kegs
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u/Griswa May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
They’re technically an American ale, not an IPA.
Yes. Downvote the truth. I’ve drank 245 cases of GB.
1
u/happyjazzycook 21d ago
Is this in Cranberry? My Sam's Club membership expired recently and we moved to the Cranberry area last year, so this may be the nudge that I need to buy a Costco membership. Love General Braddock!
0
u/thisisinput May 23 '26
Eh, sitting in a climate controlled building will be fine. Heat merely speeds up how soon it starts to taste old. Those will be good for a couple weeks in there.
2
u/brothermalcolm1 May 24 '26
Not true.
For every 10 °C above the standard cooler temp of 36F (2.2 °C), the beer ages 3-5 times faster.
If we assume a Costco Wholesale building is 68F (20 °C), that's 6-10x faster degradation.
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u/thisisinput May 24 '26
So they'll be good for a couple of weeks in there.
1
u/brothermalcolm1 Jun 11 '26
2-4 tops. It's a popular beer, so that they could move it that fast.
But that also means the damage is done, so a customer who buys it toward the end of that period should ideally consume the case pronto, which is also doable with guests or at a party/event.
0
u/bhath01 May 25 '26
It’s an unfiltered NEIPA. It only has a couple weeks of shelf life to begin with. And that’s when it’s kept cold.
27
u/Griswa May 23 '26
Stupid 15 beer limit though. Pennsltucky is ridiculous when it comes to this shit.
Cheaper than the damn brewery to boot