Burleigh Brewing Co.

There's some scuttlebutt doing the rounds, suggesting you shouldn't buy Duke from bottleshops that don't store Duke cold. Not true!

Any beer, no matter who brews it or what's in it, will stay fresh longer if it's kept cold from the day it's brewed to the day you drink it. Unfortunately in the modern world, that doesn't often happen. (But at BBC, we go close!)

Yes, we know our cartons say, "Store Cold". Don't tell them this, but that's mainly to remind our Brewers that newly packaged cartons don't go in their car - they go straight in the cold room.

The truth is, after any beer is packaged, its appearance and flavour can deteriorate - and with certain factors in combination, this can happen rapidly.

There are four main 'enemies' of fresh beer. They all negatively affect beer's flavour or appearance. When 2 or more of them team up in combination, the beer is on a premature-aging-fast-track! It is best to minimise the exposure of any beer to:

1. Light
2. Oxygen
3. Age (long time periods between packaging and consumption)
4. Heat (including pasteurisation, which heats beer to an extreme temperature)

By storing Duke cold at the Brewery, we're doing our bit to stave off one of these enemies for as long as possible. But our brown bottles, our natural, oxygen absorbing liners in our bottle caps, our controls over distribution and our non-pasteurised product all do a great job of virtually eliminating the other risks. The bottom line is that Duke is so well protected, a bit of time spent out of the fridge won't harm it at all. Given all the other protections we put in place, it will still be the freshest beer in your bottle shop - even if it's on an un-refrigerated shelf or stacked on the floor!

The pH and alcohol levels in beer mean that it can't go 'off' in a way that can make you sick.

However, when exposed to the enemies of beer (see Q1 above), a beer's flavour and appearance can deteriorate. Think stale. Or stewed.

Our 'Flavour and Appearance Best Before' date, stamped on the back of each bottle and carton, is a recognition that there's not always enough room in bottle shop fridges for our beer to spend its entire life cold. The date is a guide for how long the flavour and appearance of our beer will be close to optimal, given all the precautions and protections we put in place, even if it's not stored cold the entire time. And even once the date has passed, there's a good chance it'll be a darn good drink.

To the contrary! Please read FAQ's 1 and 2 - and just to clear up any remaining confusion, pasteurising beer isn't a 'magic cure' to maintain its flavour for longer. Pasteurising does not protect against any of the 4 enemies. In fact, it is a high dose shot of one of them, which in our view, has an immediate negative impact on freshness and flavour.

So why do other breweries pasteurise, you might ask? Basically, to kill any unwanted, 'beer-spoiling' bacteria. But we'd prefer to make sure it's not in there in the first place.

The ideal serving and drinking temperature for a well-made beer is six degrees.

Drinking your favourite Duke at 6 degrees ensures the flavours of the beer are more pronounced. Flavours are masked when the beer is too cold - and when your beer is as flavour-filled as Duke, you want to be sure you appreciate all it has to offer.