Beer load and reefer

The beer distributor I worked for all the kegs were kept in a big walk in cooler and everything else was just regular room temp warehouse and shipped in regular plain jane dry van trailers.

 

Mike is right. Kegged beer isn't pasteurized unless it is being shipped overseas. Most domestically produced beer in kegs is unpasteurized and not allowed to get over 50 degrees which is when bacteria can grow. With the growing trend of craft beers, a number of them are bottling and canning unpasteurized beers which must be kept cold and have short shelf lives.

My son works for Lagunitas brewery and they do it both ways. We always have a few cases around.

 

Yep yep I used to work for a big time beer distributor and the only beer they would refrigerate was kegs and Great Lakes Christmas Ale, the other beer was all dry van freight the company only had 3 refer trailers and they were older refers at that and one was for kegs at events and the other 2 were for just transporting Christmas Ale other then that they were just dry van trailers.

The only reason beer is put in a cooler at the store is because people like cold beer to drink. But it doesn't have to be stored that way and plenty of places leave beer and stuff out in the regular room temperature.

 

Up here in Canada it’s only temperature controlled in winter for obvious reasons... most times it’s 50 or higher required .. what I do Is hit product with a temp gun and set it 4 or 5 degrees below.. reason being is why cool a hot product for no reason . This way it only starts up on cycle every hour or so

 

Canned or bottled beer can be hauled in a dry van. Kegs can also be hauled in a dry van but must be delivered within 48 hours of loading. Any longer and they usually request reefer service for kegs.

 

I would have ran it at 70 cycle, too in summer across the desert southwest, no matter what the bills said. But I might shut it off at night. Even just 1 busted from heat expansion the whole load could potentially be suspect

Turn it on after you leave and off before you arrive at receiver if there is no call for temperature control. They just don't want to pay temp control premium rates, but if there is a problem with one or 2 bottles and the heat does it's thing, you'll be smelling it for a while and may potentially be dealing with OSD issues.

 

If one thinks canned beer best-by taste is not affected by a few days in extreme high temps while in transit, good luck with that. This is one of the chief reasons I'm very particular about the beer I buy. I hate old or otherwise skunky beer.

Yes, the pasteurized mass produced beers today are not as affected but 130 degree temps can't be good for the end product, no matter.

 

The amazing thing to me is that Miller plant loaded a reefer. They like to put on just a bit too much every time and worry about the reworks later. That extra 1,000 lbs or so the reefer looses I expected to be a no-go.

 

The last load I hauled out of there had to be re-worked 3 times. They would pull off a couple hundred pounds at a time and I was pulling a dry van. It was a joke. They want the maximum possible load.