Buying beer? Check the date code!

When I was a youth, beer was beer was beer. We didn’t talk about freshness at all. This was in the height of the Bud/Miller/Coors monopolies and beer was very much a commodity that was considered to last forever.

Imported beer started to become popular and soon we were drinking Bass Ale and Sam Smith’s. We could tell fresher beer from less fresh beer but most American beer drinkers at that time had never tasted truly fresh ale that had been professionally produced unless they’d had it overseas.  We also started homebrewing and were surprised our beer was as good as Bass Ale! In retrospect it was obviously the freshness that gave us the edge, not brewing technique.

Here in the early 21st century things are different. In taprooms, like in Minnesota, patrons get to drink beer that is days old and has travelled only tens of feet. This is the freshest beer you can possibly drink. Even beer in liquor stores, bars and restaurants, for local Minnesota beer, is generally under 30 days old and perhaps half that age at times.

At some point in the last 5 years or so it has become the norm to put a date code on packaged beer. Some breweries still obfuscate their date by using Julian Days (something familiar to astronomers but not many others!). Some print the date the beer was packaged (“born on”) and others use a “best buy” date. Stone Brewing went so far as to name a beer (Enjoy By) after the best buy date! Brilliant!

At Badger Hill we put the packaging date on the bottom of every can. You should always check this date before you buy our beer. If kept cold at all times, our beer is enjoyable for 75–100 days (around 3 months) after the packaging date. We test this regularly from our beer library, where we store a six-pack from every packaging run for 1 year. (After a year only the most cellarable beers are still worth drinking.)

The trouble is, if the beer is not kept cold at all times, it ages at an accelerated rate. I wrote a little paper-like thing about this for the Master Brewers Association of the Americas (A Simple, Quantitative Approach to Beer Freshness, Koppelman, 2014). The punchline is, if a brewer has determined a certain beer will taste appropriate for 120 days if kept at 3˚C (38˚F), that beer will expire in only 18 days if stored at room temperature, just 15% of the brewer-specified “best buy” date. While this is only approximate (and not peer-reviewed!), it represents the general “e-folding” characteristic of reactions: the bigger the difference between the ideal temperature and the actual temperature, the quicker the aging processes in the beer can proceed.

Even if treated impeccably, craft beer is perishable and ours is not going to taste like we intend after about 100 days. We prefer you drink the freshest Badger Hill beer you can get your hands on. Let your retailer know if you are seeing old beer on the shelves. If you have a Badger Hill that you are not satisfied with, contact us and we’ll sort it out with you. We guarantee our beer regardless of the date on the can. But avoid the hassle of old beer, if you can, and check the date first.

Cheers!

M.

Taproom Rental

Badger Hill Brewing Company
Taproom Rental Information

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During our open taproom hours– we welcome groups of any size! Bring your friends, order in some food and enjoy some cold beers. If you’re looking to rent the space privately- here is some more information.

Private Rental Hours:
Monday- 10a-11p
Tuesday- 10a-3p (occasionally available for evening rental- ask us!)
Wednesday- 10a-3p
Thursday- 10a-3p
Friday- 10a-3p
Saturday- no private rentals
Sunday- 6p-11p (earlier available upon request)

Indoor Capacity: 100 seated, 120 standing

Patio Capacity: (weather permitting): 15 seated, 35 standing

Rental Fee (does not include cost of beer):
Staring at $150/hr, email info@badgerhillbrewing.com for more details.
Be sure to include set up and take down time in your rental length!

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Provided:
Four high community tables
Three round high top tables
Seven low square tables
High top chairs (up to 45)
Regular chairs (up to 19)
28ft bar space
12 rotating taplines
Bartender(s)
Two flat-screen TVs
Non-alcoholic soda selections
Piped in music (Pandora or other)
Patio space with three picnic tables (weather permitting)
Games including Cards Against Humanity, Giant Jenga, Cribbage and more!
Public parking access

Private Rental Details:
*Access to the bar and outside beer garden area (weather permitting) for your guests only
*Ample parking in lot outside of brewery
*Cost of beer and gratuity is not included in rental fee. A selection of pints, flights and growlers (to go only) are available for purchase. We can handle payment for beer many ways- open bar, cash bar, split the tab and more. Just ask!
*If you need linens, decorations or other items you must work with an outside party. You are not allowed to hang items from the structure. You may have items for decoration on tables, please no open flames.
*Soda is available for purchase. No outside beverages allowed.
*Our license only covers service of our beer- no wine, cider or other alcohol is allowed on premise.
*We do not provide food for rentals, however you may work with a caterer of your choice. We encourage you to support local. Food Trucks are an option- please speak to the event coordinator prior to booking a Food Truck.
*We require the rental fee to be paid by check in full to secure the space rental.
*Tours given, depending on availability and brewhouse schedule

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Think of us for your:
Business/club meetings
Customer appreciation functions
Birthday party
Fundraisers
Retirement party

…and more!

We can offer customized packages to suit your needs- just ask!

To reserve the space or if you have questions-
please email info@badgerhill brewingcompany.com
Badger Hill Brewing Company * 4571 Valley Industrial Boulevard S * Shakopee, MN * 55379
www.badgerhillbrewing.com

 

Badger Hill Brewing Tour Signup

Badger Hill Brewing tours! Utilize the form below to sign up for our tours (dates updated frequently). Tour times are listed next to the date. We have enough room for 20 people and registration is first come first serve! Simply fill out the form below to reserve your spot.

Beer Geek Brewer Tour: We hold one Brewer led tour a month. These  tours are more technical in nature and are great for those that want to dive in and learn about our brewery and processes from a brewer! These sessions are noted below.

  • Tours are free!
  • Tours last around 45 minutes, give or take 15 (depending upon size of group, questions, etc..)
  • Meet at the brewery entrance near the taproom bar
  • We will sample a beer or two on the tour but it is recommended to purchase a beer prior to bring with you
  • Kid friendly, but we ask that you keep them very close due to the working environment
  • A picture ID is required on the day of the tour

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Valleyfair Amusement Park & Badger Hill- brewing up something special!

For Immediate Release, 5/5/16

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Valleyfair Amusement Park and Badger Hill Brewing have partnered to introduce a new and exclusive craft beer in honor of the amusement park’s 40th anniversary. High Roller Extra Park Ale, a brew as classic and satisfying as the ride it was named after, will be available all summer long at the upper Midwest’s largest amusement park. Badger Hill and Valleyfair are located less than a mile away from each other so this collaboration was the perfect pairing. The tap handles for High Roller Extra Park Ale are made by ReclaiMNed and fashioned out of reclaimed wood from the actual High Roller coaster, which is also celebrating it’s 40th Anniversary, giving it an extra special twist.

High Roller Extra Park Ale is modeled after an EPA style beer. It is malt-forward, easy drinking and perfect for a day at the park. At 5.2% ABV and 43 IBUs it is approachable and just what Valleyfair was looking for. The Valleyfair marketing team joined the Badger Hill team in April and tried four brews, choosing the Extra Park Ale as the winner. This beer release on Friday, May 13th and will be on tap at three locations in the park, including Atomic Beer, Chickie’s & Pete’s, Depot Refreshments as well as at the Badger Hill Taproom.

Cheers to celebrating 40 years at Valleyfair!

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Badger Hill Brewing Company was founded in 2012 and moved to Shakopee, MN in late 2014. The taproom has weekly tours on Saturdays and serves unique beers that you cannot find outside of the brewery. Growlers are for sale Tuesday through Sunday. Find them in 6-pack cans at liquor stores throughout the state and on draught at select bars and restaurants. They are nestled between Canterbury Park and Valley Fair. Taproom hours and more information can be found at www.badgerhillbrewing.com.
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Valleyfair is owned and operated by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, a publicly traded partnership that is listed for trading on The New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FUN.” In addition to Valleyfair, Cedar Fair owns and operates ten other amusement parks, three water parks, one indoor water park, and five hotels. Cedar Fair also operates the Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park in California under a management contract.

 

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Beer Mixology

Beer Mixology- Badger Hill White IPA Spritzer

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By: Britt Krekelberg, Badger Hill Co-Owner

The definition of mixology is the art or skill of preparing mixed drinks. Mixology came to life in the 1870’s when cocktail aficionados started looking for drinks that showcased a specific ingredient. Instead of throwing a little bit of anything over ice and causing sensory confusion, people were ready for a balanced drink with a dominant alcohol – think Manhattan or Old Fashioned.

Fast forward to today and you’ll see the art and skill of crafting beer cocktails. A mixology trend for wine, spirits and beer industries, beer cocktails have even appeared on the most prestigious of bar menus.

The White IPA made the most sense to us when choosing a beer for our Spring cocktail. It’s effervescent, light, somewhat complex, with hints of orange peel and coriander. When mixed with wine and Triple Sec, it provides a refreshing drink that can be enjoyed by all. Try it and let us know what you think.

White IPA Spritzer

6 oz. Badger Hill Brewing Company- White India Pale Ale
4 oz. Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio
1 oz. Triple Secf9811834-b6d1-4a17-b700-081abda00f16
1 tsp Grenadine
1 lemon wedge, squeezed

Garnish:
1 Lemon slice
1 whole Strawberry, sliced halfway through the middle

 

In a 16 oz. or larger wine glass, fill glass half with ice. First add the wine, and then slowly add the beer while tilting the glass. Add the Triple Sec and Grenadine and stir. Squeeze the lemon wedge juice into the glass and stir once again.
Garnish the wine glass with the lemon slice and strawberry. Serve immediately.

1 Serving

TIP: A 6-Pack of Badger Hill White IPA and a 1.5 Liter of Wine makes 12 White IPA Spritzers. Perfect for any party and affordable!

TIP: Serve in a champagne glass and substitute the wine for champagne for a fabulous Spritzer Mimosa.

The Vital Role of Oxygen in Craft Beer

We all know how important oxygen is to life. We are all respirating as we speak. If you are drinking a beer at the moment, as I happen to be, you are certainly experiencing the good things oxygen does in beer-making because it wouldn’t be beer otherwise. Oxygen is a vital component in yeast growth. The extent to which yeast propagates during the fermentation of beer, by budding off “daughter” cells, versus strictly metabolizing sugar with the existing yeast population, makes a dramatic difference in beer flavor and aroma. It also makes a big difference in the quantity and quality of subsequent uses of the yeast in future batches of beer. But as fermentation progresses brewers want the yeast to use up all of the oxygen. Yeast enters an anaerobic state once the oxygen is depleted. If the brewer got it right, the yeast had just enough oxygen to more than double the yeast population while creating just the right balance of flavors, esters and alcohols to (re)create the perfect beer, at least as defined by the recipe.

Having played its critical role in turning wort into beer, oxygen now because Enemy Number One™ as its presence now turns good beer into bad beer. “Shelf life” is the amount of time that packaged beer can be assumed to taste and smell as the brewery intended. For all beer, but especially unpasteurized craft beer, every day, generally speaking, makes beer worse than the day before. If the beer is kept warm, exponentially more so. Thermal age — the product of the temperature and time since packaging — gives oxidation time to erode the aroma and flavor of beer. The extent and rate and which it may do so is proportional to the total packaged oxygen (TPO) in the container. More TPO = less shelf life.

Oxygen enters the beer package (e.g. a can or bottle) in two ways. It can be dissolved in the beer or it can be trapped in headspace (air space) in the package. The sum of the dissolved oxygen (DO) and the oxygen in the headspace is the total packaged oxygen (TPO) and all of it ends up oxidizing the beer.

We spend a lot of time trying to prevent TPO in our packaged beer. We purge tanks, hoses and equipment with CO2. We eliminate all leaks; just because beer is coming out doesn’t mean air isn’t going in! We also purge our cans and have a blanket of CO2 over the can as the lid is applied. We discard any can that does not have a lid immediately and normally seamed on to it. We measure DO and TPO throughout our canning runs to insure quality and to help evaluate tweaks and upgrades to the packaging process.

I’m happy to report that our TPO numbers continue to improve. I also regret to say that some of our canned beer released in 2015 and early 2016 would not meet our current maximum TPO requirements. We can’t guarantee that our beer will taste a certain way after a certain number of days once the beer leaves our control but we do guarantee that we will replace, free of charge, any beer you purchase which does not meet your standards or ours.

Oxidation happens to all beer, even beer produced by breweries with the very best technology and process management available. If it can happen to Sierra Nevada and Summit Brewing, it can happen to your local brewery. If you do have a beer from us or any brewery that is oxidized, I’d ask that you give us all another chance. Quality is not a result, it’s a process and we are committed to ever improving both here at Badger Hill Brewing.

Cheers,
M.

Craft and Quality

Badger Hill Staff
I think it’s fair to say that most people equate craftsmanship with quality. One definition I found of the word “craftsmanship” is:

The quality of design and work shown in something made by hand; artistry.

That is not to say that the work of all craftspeople are equal (Sorry, I just can’t use antiquated words that imply all people are men!). Implied in the word is a notion of pursuing perfection. A typical manufacturing company produces many “somethings” but not necessarily in a way that evolves towards perfection. They manufacture towards a specification and attempt to do so in an efficient method. A craftsperson, on the other hand, is most often liberated from the specifications of their last work. In fact, they are satisfied only if they are improving. Consumers (another unfortunate word) can choose how important a product is to them by whom they patronize.  Most of our daily items are commodities that do not warrant the attention of craftspersons and thus the choices are made simple. However, many items hold greater meaning with people and often there is an appetite to seek out those things associated with craft work.  Wine, beer, food, art, jewelry, entertainment – these are all venues for the expression of a wide spectrum of taste and talent through craftsmanship.

Wineries have pulled this off with utmost transparency. They have good years, they have bad years and they tell you about them. They are at the mercy of terroir (a word I will avoid saying aloud at almost all cost!), the profound influence of land and the weather on their final product.  There is undoubtedly a major element of craft in wine and this is reflected, however fairly or unfairly, in the market by price and availability. The “best wine” often costs far more than the “average wine”.

I put “best wine” in quotes because most of us aren’t willing to completely proxy our judgment to the notion that higher price means higher quality. Perhaps this is true, on average. But we are all human beings, and to each individual, quality is truly in the mouth of the beholder. We all get to ultimately decide who to reward with our patronage.

Our craft beer world is chock full of craftspeople. I’ve never met anyone from any brewery who wasn’t committed to making the best beer they could. We are all working as hard as we can, often with less resources than generally known, to vector towards perfection. The awesomeness of the taproom experience here in Minnesota means that beer lovers can taste the freshest beer they’ve ever had, drinking beer often days old, which traveled only tens of feet. If you want to judge the quality of a brewery in a best-case scenario, go to their tasting room – you just can’t do better.

The reality for packaging craft brewers, however, is that quality becomes more complicated once the beer leaves the brewery. In the case of Badger Hill, our craft beer is picked up by one of seven distribution partners, is shipped to and stored in their warehouses and is ultimately delivered to liquor stores and tap handles around the state. Father Time, the main enemy of beer quality, begins beating away at the beer and the idiosyncrasies of each distributor and retailer will also directly affect beer quality. Craft beer is like milk – it is a living, perishable product. Unlike milk, beer will never get so bad it will make you sick, and it will often be enjoyable, to some degree, regardless of the thermal abuse it has been subjected to. But it is a proven fact that beer, unless specifically designed for cellaring in the package, will degrade as time and temperature impact it. Think of a bakery – everything tastes fantastic the day it comes out of the oven, but how will it taste 14 days later?  In some ways, beer is similar.

For you, this means that when you open a beer and it is skunky or oxidized, it is hard to know with any certainty how it happened. Every brewer I know works hard to make the most shelf-stable product they can.  Distributors work hard keeping the beer cold and getting it to the retailer fresh. Retailers work hard rotating stock and presenting the beer to the customer. Yet some practices that work with the big macros, beers like Bud and Miller, do not work with craft beer. Craft beer should not be stored warm, above 60 degrees, except for an extremely short duration (like a special promotion at a liquor store). We store our finished beer at Badger Hill between 36˚F and 38˚F (~3˚C). Generally speaking, craft beers which sit on the warm shelf at liquor stores are beer being damaged by heat and aging at an accelerated rate. It is a practice that must end. Please urge your liquor store to keep all of its craft beer cold all of the time.

Badger Hill, and craft breweries all over, want to be held accountable for the quality of our beer.  It’s part of the craft – sharing our work and passion with people but also being open and truly listening when critics have their say. Then we go back to the workshop and get even better.  The joy of the craft is not limited to what is produced at the end, its what goes into the effort – people you admire working together to do great work. Constant, never-ending improvement. That is what truly drives us here at Badger Hill Brewing. We welcome your input as we continue to explore what is possible in the wide world of craft beer. We are not perfect, but that is the vector, Victor.

Cheers,

M.