I bought a crowler of beer a few days before Thanksgiving to take to my friends’ house for the feast. I actually bought quite a few crowlers, but this crowler of Mexican Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout is the one we didn’t get around to drinking that day. They returned it to me later (they’re not big fans of big stouts) and then it sat in my fridge through the holiday season while I was out of town. I brought it to a couple of January softball games, but it was never the right time to break it open, and, well, time passes and then it was past St. Patrick’s Day and that crowler was still on the bottom shelf of the fridge. The question was whether it would still be any good.
For those that aren’t familiar with crowlers, a crowler is a can version of a growler which, like a growler, can be filled at the tap with fresh beer and then carried home. But where a growler just has a twist-on cap, a crowler has the can top sealed with a crimping tool. And while growlers need to be cleaned and returned for refills, the aluminum crowler is recycled. Additionally, the aluminum crowler can go to the beach or stadium where a glass growler can’t go.
Information on the web indicates that beer in a crowler stays good slightly longer than a growler, but guidance is anywhere from 1-2 weeks to a month, depending upon the type of beer. Kate Bernot at The Takeout has a good breakdown on crowlers and growlers here: https://thetakeout.com/how-long-do-growlers-and-crowlers-stay-fresh-beer-1829868109. A stout, with its higher alcohol content and strong malt flavors should be on the long end of the spectrum, especially as it was kept cold. But four months is way outside of any visible spectrum and deep on down into the infrared.
To see if I could tell if the beer had changed, I did a blind taste test with the assistance of a couple friends. I picked up a fresh crowler of Belching Beaver Brewery Mexican Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30923/235819/ at the brewery, just like the one I bought four months ago. I had my friend pour parts of the two crowlers into identical glasses while I wasn’t watching and note which crowler went into which glass. The crowlers were differentiated by different pens used to mark them at the brewery, but my friend didn’t know which was which, so the test was properly double-blinded.
Immediately, the amount of foam was noticeably different. This may have been due to the pouring being different, but a taste indicated that the beer on the right had a little less carbonation. Neither beer was flat, but the one on the left retained more foam. Importantly, there weren’t any odd lumps in either glass, which would have put an end to the test right there.
Next, the smells were also clearly different. The beer on the right had a strong peanut butter smell, where it was much more muted in the beer on the left. Neither smelled bad. At this point, I wouldn’t have been able to guess which beer was older.
On tasting, the difference in quality became clear. The beer on the left had a better, balanced flavor. The peanut butter and malt all smoothly blended together with no dominant taste. The beer had a creamy mouthfeel of a stout, and a mild aftertaste of chocolate. The beer on the right had something off about it. It had a taste I can only describe as chemical-ish, with a sort of astringent bite. I’ve had good hoppy or sour beers with a bite before, but this wasn’t pleasurable and it’s not what I’d expect in a stout. The beer had an odd aftertaste, as well. It didn’t have the same smooth chocolate taste of the beer on the left, but instead tasted as if someone had dumped a spoonful of Quick into the glass.
Still, I nearly finished both glasses. The truth is, if I had been served only the four-month old beer, I wouldn’t have known it had gone bad. I would have just thought that it wasn’t a well-brewed beer. I’ve had other craft beers with weird flavors that just seemed to be out of balance, and I don’t have the trained palate of a cicerone that can identify certain flavors as indicative of a spoiled batch. I probably would have finished the glass and then bought something else. So, yes, crowler beer doesn’t keep for months at a time. But this beer changed slowly enough that my urge not to waste beer was still tested. I did end up dumping the rest of the crowler down the sink, but only because I had the much better fresher crowler still to finish.
The Moral: Drink your crowler beer before it gets to be four months old, or else take it to a party at a friend of a friend’s house, and leave it out in the kitchen to see if someone else will drink it.
Das Fressen 