Fellow Hopheads –
Hopefully you know by now that the most perishable component of your favorite beer is its hops. Its two greatest killers are oxygen and warmth. When we talk specifically about styles like India Pale Ales, Imperial IPAs, etc, we should keep in mind that the fridge can be our best friend. I’ve started this FRIDGE THE HOPS! campaign because I’ve visited way too many liquor stores that leave these styles sitting out at room temperature. I want them to know (as should you) that these beers will certainly die a quick death on those shelves. Why not keep them in the fridge so they’ll last longer and have a much better flavor when you are able to purchase them?
What can you do? There are three very simple FREE things:
1. Ask to speak to your favorite liquor store’s beer manager. Ask that he or she dedicate some fridge space strictly for these hop-forward beers. Let them know how this will not only save them money by preserving the beer, but that their customers will see an obvious difference in their quality. And you’re also surely going to form a good relationship with this person now, too.
2. The second thing you can do is equally important and just as easy. Save and post the below image to your website or blog (either as an article or constant fixture) and help spread the word about the FRIDGE THE HOPS! campaign. Word of mouth is a very great tool and this is your chance to bring it.
3. Share your story with the rest of us by leaving comments below. What did you do to get your store to adopt this philosophy? What hurdles did you have to overcome to see this change occur?
Thank you for listening and participating…
Mark Starr
The Hopry
“FRIDGE THE HOPS!”
Posted by theReaper16 on January 23, 2010 at 5:29 PM
/Change We Can Believe In
Posted by thehopry on January 23, 2010 at 8:17 PM
Absolutely. And you and I can start right here in Kansas City.
Posted by Mike on January 24, 2010 at 8:34 PM
I’m on board bro!
Posted by Scott on January 27, 2010 at 9:11 PM
I frequent two local liquer stores that specialize in beer and they refridgerate their hoppy beers. Of course knowing the importance of this step, I will keep this in mind anytime I see it being neglected.
Posted by thehopry on January 27, 2010 at 9:25 PM
Hello Hopheads –
I wanted to let you all know that I had a great conversation today with one of my local beer store managers about this campaign. As suspected there are some hurdles that will need to be worked through to make something like this work. Below are two items I am determined to help resolve to help get this underway:
1. Store is concerned that most customers shop on the non-refrigerated aisles and might not look for these hop-driven beers in the refrigerator section.
2. There is a very limited amount of refrigerated space due to the requirements from brands (i.e. the big boys and other craft breweries). The store currently has some bottles that are not required to be cold (Stouts, Doppelbocks, etc), but like to have refrigerated options for some of the more popular craft beers.
I have a few thoughts that I’d like to mull over in my head for a couple days, but if you have some ideas or thoughts on how to overcome one or both of these, please post a comment in this section. This will certainly help others as they attempt to talk to their beer stores.
Thanks,
Mark Starr
Posted by thehopry on June 25, 2010 at 8:18 AM
Update on this. The store that I worked with this on now has every single bottle of IPAs in their refrigerated section. In the aisles, where they keep the rest of their beer, they have hung signs every three or four feet that say “IPAs in the Cooler.”
Just wanted to show you that with a little persistence you can make this happen in your area. And now when I have to choose between which stores to buy my hops from, I always come to this place.
Posted by Todd on January 28, 2010 at 12:05 AM
I worked at a brewpub where the general manager (who was the former head brewer there) told me that I could not store our hops in the cold box and had to store them at room temp. I found another place to store them cold. I have since left that place.
Posted by Big Mike on January 28, 2010 at 9:20 AM
I was in a store yesterday and they had their Nugget Nectar Sixers stacked on the floor and Founders Breakfast Stout in the refrigerated case? I think they have it bass ackwards.
Posted by thehopry on January 28, 2010 at 9:27 AM
And I’ve run into that a lot myself. You should definitely ask them what it would take to switch those out.
Posted by Jon Rogers on February 16, 2010 at 6:16 PM
Port Brewing’s bottle shop refrigerates 100% of their beer. BevMo on the other hand…I was in their Oceanside store today and saw Sierra Nevada Wet Hop and Estate still on the shelf. Both those beers was release around 6 months ago. I can only imagine how dead it has become.
Posted by Hopslam: Part 2, “The Experience” | Snobby Hops on March 9, 2010 at 7:03 AM
[...] in Fulton we finally arrive at the homestead. Since the beer was warm when we bought it – check out Mark Starr’s FRIDGE THE HOPS! campaign – I just set the box on the back porch and let the snow do its [...]
Posted by Big Mike on June 18, 2010 at 4:16 PM
I saw Founders Double Trouble sitting out on the shelf today out of refrigeration. Bottled on date of 1/20/10 so we’re talking 5 months out of the cold. Hats off to Founders for actually putting bottled on dates on the bottles. Everyone should follow this practice. But these stores need to put these beers in the fridge. If it wasn’t for the bottled on date I might have picked up a
4 pack thinking it was a fairly recent release only to buy a 5 month old DIPA that’s hasn’t been kept cold since right after the new year.
Posted by thehopry on June 19, 2010 at 9:13 AM
Doesn’t it drive you crazy?
Posted by tturaiders on July 3, 2010 at 4:04 AM
I was at a store this evening that had the 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA from Stone sitting on a shelf. I asked someone why they didn’t store them in the cooler and he told me because they didn’t sell them very often but he’d get a manager. The manager told me they just got them in about a week ago and weren’t sure how well they would sell. He told me that they were transported in a refrigerated truck and were stored in a big refrigerator. The only time they weren’t refrigerated were when they were placed on the shelf. I was baffled at the reasoning behind this…
After talking with him, they removed the room temperature bottles and put Stone Porter on shelves and moved the IPA to the refrigerator.
Posted by thehopry on July 3, 2010 at 7:27 AM
Very nicely done! Great job following up with the manager and voicing your concern. It really does help to just have the conversation. And I think most of these managers are very open to discussion if you just take them time. Thank you for sharing this experience with the rest of us…