"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:TSSsb.195700$e01.713989@attbi_s02...
You know, this puzzles me immensely. We home-brew, although we're
far from experts. We don't pasteurize our product before bottling
it *shudder*, yet it keeps for months. Actually we usually keep
a few bottles back to see how it ages, and it sometimes improves
with age!

Interesting. The reason we were told that Sprecher was limited in their
distribution area was because they didn't pasteurize their beer.

Is it possible this is some Federal or State health regulation?
For example I know some states strictly regulate the sale of
unpasteurized milk and fruit juice. Others don't allow it at all,
much to the dismay of "health nuts" who don't wish to drink that
nasty unhealthful pasteurized stuff (ouch! got my tongue wedged
in my cheek there).

I don't have any idea how you could make beer last months.

Well, at least in our case and the case of some other friends
who homebrew, you don't seem to have to do anything. We do the
primary and 2ndary fermentation, we make sure the bottles are
clean and free from soap, we bottle, we cap, we make sure they're
capped tightly, and that's it.

I can't comment on why the Sprecher tastes icky after its date.
Maybe a more knowledgeable brewmeister could. My SWAG is that
it has to do with specifics of the yeast (and other ingredients--
hops for example). The observation is that some of our brews
improve with age, some don't change much, some deteriorate.
The principle variables for us were the type of yeast used and
the ingredients. I know that some hops which we tried to store
for a while picked up an icky taste which transferred to the
beer.

I laugh when I
see Miller doing it now, like it's a new invention! (Especially when you
can keep a case of "Genuine Draft" in your garage for years, in hot or cold
weather, chill it -- and have it taste EXACTLY the same.)

Yeah, Budweiser too. What a joke!

Cheers,
Sydney