Props to Williamsburg Alewerks: A brewery is a sanitation business that dabbles in brewing beer

I had a wonderful exchange of emails with Charles Haines of Williamsburg Alewerks. I wrote to notify him that a bottle of his Washington's Porter had an off, sour, acidic flavor. He replied that the beer was bottled in July and was unstable and he graciously offered to reimburse me for the bottle. I then asked how a retailer could sell a beer that was "out of code". His reply is educational.

"Very few microbreweries either microfilter, sterile filter or pasteurize their beer. Most microbreweries do filter (remove residual yeast) from some of their beers. Wheats, big beers that are cellared and some other styles are usually not filtered at all. We do not filter our Tavern Ale, Porter, Wheat and any of our big beers.

"It has beer said that a brewery is a sanitation business that dabbles in brewing beer. There is a lot of truth in that. Each brew is a challenge, and some brews are cleaner than others. Generally speaking, microbreweries figure their beer is good for three months. If it is really clean, it will last a year plus, maybe not taste fresh, but not be infected at all. If the beer has some alcohol in it (8% ABV or more) it will last longer. Same thing for hops as both alcohol and hops are preservatives.

"Generally speaking, the wholesaler is going to sell it if he has it in the warehouse, same thing for the retailer if he has it on the shelf. If have no problem taking back beer that is kind of in the cycle, particularly if I think the batch was not going to last much beyond three month (that is the case of porter #27, I will swap out the remaining Corks & Kegs six-packs). When I find beer in the wholesalers warehouse that is five months old, or has been on the retailers shelf for a year, I do not think it should be my problem. It is however my beer, so I would rather buy it back than have it sold."