Ask a Bartender: Why are The Seasonal Beers Changing so Soon?

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Pam Martin, GoLocalWorcester Ask A Bartender Columnist

All good things must come to an end—and that rings especially true this month. First we had to say goodbye to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and now, perhaps before we’ve had our last good cry about that, we have to say goodbye to summer brews. Unlike Jon Stewart, no one gave us a final date to prepare us for this slow and painful change. You just sat down at your favorite bar this week and there, staring you in the face was a beady-eyed pumpkin with a devilish grin. Why, in the first weeks of August, is the beer industry trying to pry summer from our well-tanned, sandy hands?

Seasonal brews have been hitting the market earlier and earlier every season, but normally we greet the change with a smile. Who in New England wasn’t happy to see Samuel Adams Cold Snap added to the tap as early as February? We welcome the change to warm weather and all the notions of spring and summer with open arms. Like true New Englanders, though, we have a hard time letting go.

“Despite all of the comments about it being too soon, the new seasonal beers are usually the best selling. Everyone is always looking for something they couldn’t have for the last nine months,” says beer salesman and connoisseur Christopher, of Worcester.

Being the first to offer customers something they haven’t had, and can’t get anywhere else is a key driver in seasonal beers hitting the market earlier each year. To stay competitive, many bars will risk rustling some feathers with patrons to make a spot for the next season’s tap. “Whoever gets on draft at a bar first will usually retain that spot for the rest of the season,” add Christopher. It’s a win-win for distributors, business owners, and the select few who are curious about what this fall has in store for our palettes.

It starts off as a slow trickle at first. One line on a bar’s draft system. A couple of cases at the entrance of your neighborhood liquor store. And then, they rip the Band-Aid off and before you pass the Bourne bridge for Labor Day weekend it’s Halloween decorations, and pumpkin-spiced Febreze, and “Oh my God! Is that a vanilla porter?!” But where did all the shandies go? Christopher explains, “because consumer demand is so high for the new items, current seasonal offerings get pushed aside and risk not selling.” Distributors have planned accordingly. They don’t want to get stuck with leftover stock that won’t sell. Nor do restaurant and bar owners want to store kegs of what is technically last season’s beer. A little supply and demand logic, with a lot of disappointment.

Some people may have enjoyed an Oktoberfest while watching the Patriots play this week. Keep it in the privacy of your own home, or the quiet comfort of a bar stool. Don’t be that person who shows up to the Labor Day cookout with the pumpkin beer. Save it for Columbus Day weekend when everyone is whining about their first sighting of Harpoon Winter Warmer in between bites of their double-pumpkin mocha chip pie while planning their Black Friday shopping.