12 Red Flags To Look For When Shopping For Beer

Back in our college days, shopping for beer was a breeze. As long as we had a valid ID and a way to get the beer to wherever you were going, we didn't have to think very hard about our buying decision. All we had to do was grab whatever was cheap (and preferably cold), shell out the necessary cash, and go. We knew nobody would be all that picky about how it tasted — most of it would end up splashed on the floor following several rounds of beer pong anyways, so it was unlikely anyone would spend a lot of time critiquing our choice.

But the more mature our palates get, the harder it can be to find beer that's truly satisfying. And while the popularity of craft beer has made shopping for beer more fun, it's also made it more complicated — which of the unfamiliar new brands or brewing styles are keepers, and which are duds? A lot of this is a matter of personal taste, but there are certain things no beer lover appreciates, such as flat, stale, or skunky beer. To help you avoid disappointing beer, we've enlisted four experts: Mark Tumarkin, a retired liquor distributor; Grant Wood, head brewer at BERO, Chris Michener, director of sales at WeldWerks Brewing Company, and Jennifer Glanville-Love, director of marketing for Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream.

If you discover a beer you like, it can be tempting to stock up on multiple cases of it, especially if you have to go out of your way to get it. But unless you plan to go through it all within a few weeks, this can be a mistake. While sealed bottles of distilled spirits and some wines can be kept around for months or years and still maintain their quality, the same can't be said for beer. While some high-alcohol varieties of beer such as barleywines and imperial stouts can age well, many of the more quaffable varieties are more perishable than most people realize.

"When shopping for beer, consider freshness, especially for styles like IPAs, which have a shorter shelf life than other types," Jennifer Glanville-Love said. "My recommendation is to purchase beer with shorter shelf lives, such as light beers, lagers, wheat beers, and IPAs, when you know you'll be consuming them within a week or two." Mark Tumarkin agreed, adding that hoppy beers in particular lose their distinctive flavors quickly, and should be enjoyed well before the best-by date on the packaging.

We all know that seasonality makes a big difference for produce – spring and summer strawberries will almost always be sweeter and more flavorful than imported or hothouse-grown winter berries, for instance. To a certain extent, the same holds true for beer. Because the flavor of many beer varieties starts to degrade after a few months — for instance, Chris Michener said WeldWerks strives to serve its IPAs within three months of production — be wary of seasonal beers lingering on shelves long after their season has passed.

For this reason, he advised shoppers to check the dates on packages before buying. "The first thing I'll do when I'm considering a purchase is to check the package dates," Michener said. "If there is no can date, there is no purchase from me. However, each style of beer will have a different timeframe in what is considered fresh." For instance, he shared that while IPAs should be enjoyed very young, sours and lagers can maintain their quality for 6 to 8 months, while barrel-aged stouts could potentially last indefinitely.

Another factor that can impact the quality of beer is how it's stored — big swings in temperature or movement that can damage cans or bottles can compromise the flavor of beer, even if it's fresh from the brewery. For Chris Michener, the sight of aisles of beer sitting in warm storage is a red flag — it could indicate either beer that's been exposed to unstable conditions, beer that's been sitting around for months, or both.

Mark Tumarkin takes a more nuanced view of warm storage for beer, explaining that it can be more of a problem in some contexts than others. "I wouldn't worry about it as much in Costco, because it's going to come in [and] just move through," he said. "If it's in some smaller place, then you start worrying." In addition, he said, warm storage in itself is less of a problem for beer than big temperature fluctuations. "Cold storage is obviously great, but there's, there's issues with that, too. Beer is better kept at an even temperature. It's those wide swings that can cause flavor [problems]," he said.

If you're shopping for beer and spot a Christmas ale in July, this is a potential red flag not just for the beer, but for the store itself — it indicates that the store is not moving its beer very quickly, and thus there's a possibility much of their other beer may be old, too. This is why it's important to check dates on beer packages before you commit to buying. "If you see a lot of beer that is out of code, that may be a sign that the shop isn't rotating its selection or stocking what interests its customers, so beers sit on the shelves," Jennifer Glanville-Love said. "You can ask them to order a beer you might be interested in or find another shop that keeps their stock fresh."

And if you find yourself overwhelmed by a large selection and don't have the energy to check the dates on every single bottle or case, Glanville-Love has a recommendation. "I also recommend getting to know the people who work at the shop, as they can direct you to the freshest and newest options in the store," she said. "So please take a moment to get to know your shop proprietor, as they will ensure you get the beers you're interested in trying."

When shopping for food, we know to steer clear of bulging cans or bottles or jars that don't seem to be fully sealed — as most of us learned early on, these are big red flags for contamination. When shopping for beer, the integrity of the packaging also matters. As Grant Wood noted, dusty or faded packaging could be a sign the beer's been sitting around for too long. While a cardboard case with a few tears or that's a bit soft from condensation may be okay, funky-looking cans or bottles are not.

Above all, if you see any sign of beer or beer residue on beer packaging (the bottle, can, or case itself), consider it a sign of trouble. This could mean the bottles or cans were improperly sealed, which would leave the beer inside vulnerable to contamination or oxidation, which can result in bad-tasting and potentially unsafe beer. Cans with small dents are generally safe to drink, especially if the dent was recently made. But if you drop a can and dent it, put it in the fridge to settle for around 15 minutes before you open it to avoid a beer explosion.

When you're at a bar or restaurant and craving a beer, many places will offer a choice of options either in bottles or cans or on draft. You might think a just-pulled pint will be fresher and tastier than a bottle that's been in the cooler for a few weeks -– and it can be. But if you're in a sketchy dive bar or a place where beer service isn't a priority (such as a bowling alley snack bar), you might be better off if you steer clear of draft beer.

The problem is not the beer itself, but the maintenance of the delivery system. Professionally run breweries and bars understand that to deliver beer that tastes fresh, they must ensure their taps and tap lines are cleaned regularly — dirty or shoddily cleaned tap lines can lead to funky-tasting beer. According to Mark Tumarkin, clean tap lines are so mission-critical that the distributor he worked for would have clients' tap lines professionally cleaned when delivering beer to ensure that beer would taste its best. But some places with less-knowledgeable staff don't bother with regular tap maintenance — and you'll know this from your first sip. So, if you're in doubt, order a can or bottle.

Most bottle shops keep their beer in a combination of warm and cold storage, with most bottles and cases of cans on shelves and a smaller assortment in refrigerated cases. This is not only more convenient for the shop, since multiple aisles of refrigerated cases can be unwieldy and expensive, but for shoppers, who can see their options more easily when browsing through open shelves. And as long as the beer supply rotates quickly so that only fresh beer is on the shelves, shoppers should be assured of getting respectable-tasting beer.

But while a stack of fresh cases in the middle of a fluorescent-lit, climate-controlled shop floor is fine, beware of any beer that's sitting in direct sunlight, or worse, on display in the shop's front window. While sunny days can make us crave a cold beer, sunlight is in fact one of beer's worst enemies. Heat can ruin the flavor of beer, and even on cool days, the sun's ultraviolet rays can penetrate cans and bottles and accelerate oxidation. And if you see beer stored in direct sunlight, it's also a sign you need to find a better place to shop for beer, since the store's management either doesn't know how to keep beer fresh, or doesn't care.

Many of us have happy memories of quaffing an ice-cold beer out of a just-from-the-freezer mug at a sports bar or casual restaurant. Not only are the frosty mugs fun to look at, but satisfying to hold and drink from, especially at the end of a hot day. What they're not great for, however, is showcasing the flavors of good beer — and frozen glasses are a red flag if you're in a brewery that wants its beer taken seriously. For one, most beer varieties are not meant to be drunk icy cold. While mass market light lagers are fine just above freezing temperature, European craft lagers taste best when chilled to between 40 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit, and sweeter, high-proof beers such as doppelbocks are best just below room temperature, between 55 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Frozen glasses are problematic for other reasons as well. Very often, they contribute a freezer-burn flavor to beer, which you definitely don't want. In addition, ice crystals on a frosty mug can cause beer to foam over and ultimately grow flat. So, if you see frozen mugs in a restaurant, opt for an inexpensive light lager — or maybe switch to wine or soda instead.

One of the most fun things about visiting craft breweries is the opportunity to taste beer varieties not found in stores — many breweries regularly rotate their offerings and introduce new or seasonal brews to keep things interesting for both their brewers and for their regular patrons. And while a good-sized brewery with only three or four varieties on offer may appear to be phoning it in, even more problematic is a brewery with dozens of its own beers on tap.

A suspiciously long tap list can be a red flag for several reasons. For one, if a brewery is pumping out dozens of varieties every week, not all of them are going to be good — the brewers may be spread too thin to give each the attention it deserves. Second, it makes ordering a chore — which of the half-dozen IPAs is worth ordering? (And even if you know what you want, the line of people in front of you may not, so you'll have to endure their indecisive dithering to get your beer.) In contrast, a brewery with just a few options may turn out to be a better choice — it could mean the brewery sticks to the few things it knows it does well, so it delivers a consistent product every time.

It's never completely possible to predict the quality of beer just by looking at the can or bottle -– even if you buy a favorite variety well before its expiration date, there's an outside possibility of getting a bad batch. So, the only way to be truly sure you've purchased good beer is to crack one open and check it out.

And when you do, you should take a close look at your beer as well as smell and taste it. Serious beer nerds do this to ensure the beer's color, head texture, and clarity are consistent with the style of beer they're drinking, and admiring the appearance of a good beer is part of the sensory experience of enjoying it. But even if you don't feel like taking your beer that seriously, take a look for sediment or haziness in your glass. While this is normal and expected for some styles (such as hazy IPAs and hefeweizens), it can be a sign of contamination or poor brewing technique in beers that are meant to be clear.

The explosion of non-alcoholic beer options in recent years has been a godsend to drinkers and non-drinkers alike. Those who don't consume alcohol now have a more grown-up-tasting option than fruit juice and soda to enjoy when hanging with friends, and those who enjoy regular beer may welcome non-alcoholic alternatives when they've already had a couple of beers or aren't in the mood for drinking.

And while most nonalcoholic beer is only available in cans, in the off chance you should encounter some on draft, Mark Tumarkin advises you to steer clear. The problem, again, is the risk of a contaminated tap line. "I would not buy a non-alcoholic beer on draft, for that very reason, there's no alcohol in that beer to protect [against] a dirty line," he said. "It's going to have a much bigger impact than it would otherwise be." So, while a regular beer from a dirty line can be a disappointment, a non-alcoholic beer through the same line can make you sick -– it's not worth the risk.

Craft beer fans love to look for the next new thing, be it a sample from a new or unfamiliar brewery or a special seasonal release they can only enjoy a few weeks out of the year. So, for many, the sight of beer from an unfamiliar, faraway brewery can be too enticing to ignore. "I think they go in and they go, 'oh, that's a small brewery, that's an out-of-town brewery, that's a brewery I've never had.' I'm more likely to try that just because of curiosity," Mark Tumarkin said.

But while sampling these brews can lead to rewarding discoveries, it can also lead to trouble. A potential problem, Tumarkin explained, is freshness. "A small out-of-town brewery would be less likely to sell through the beer in a short period of time, whereas a larger brewery or someone local would be more likely to move things," he explained. How do you know if you're looking at trash or a potential treasure? While all beer lovers know that hunting for beer is by nature a hit-or-miss enterprise, the savvy ones make a point to educate themselves about the craft beer landscape. Check expiration dates and reviews of the brewery (the Untapped app, for example, allows users to both give and read reviews of the craft beers they sample.) And honor your own tastes — if you hate sour beers, even a sour that's gotten rave reviews will likely be a disappointment for you.