Warm Beer HERE!

There is nothing worse for a beer vendor than bottles that come out of the “cooler” at about 60 degrees. Unfortunately that is what happened tonight at Target Field.

Last I checked, beer was best served ICE COLD… especially on a hot summer night.

It was a perfect night for baseball… 83 degrees at game time, and the beer, as it was handed to me out of the fridge was only about 25 degrees cooler than the air temperature.

NOT very refreshing!

This makes a beer vendor’s job 10 times harder. Sure, we carry ice 90% of the time on the beer, but usually it is only necessary to carry a small layer to drop the beer a little closer to the freezing point.

Tonight we had to pile on the ice. 10-20 pounds extra per tray. Usually a fully loaded tray before ice is about 50-60 pounds, tonight is was closer to 70 lbs. But, this does lower the temp of the beer about 20 degrees in about 10 minutes.

Proper product rotation was also important tonight. Grab the coldest ones, move the other beers over and hopefully by the time it got to the customer, it had reached a “pleasant” temp of about 40 degrees.

Tolerable on a warm day, but not providing that “aaaah” feeling that most casual beer drinkers are looking for. That temp where my customer takes their first sip, and says, “Oh yeah, that hits the spot”, and cannot wait to order the next one.

I want to sell beer that is as refreshing as that Coke was to Mean Joe Greene in the 70’s commercial where he threw his shirt to the kid (“Hey kid… Catch!)

We all did our best tonight. Everyone from management to vendors to stand managers and preps were icing the beer as early as possible to get it to cool down by the time it got to the customer. …and we succeeded, sort of.

Tomorrow, the forecast is for 91 degrees with a 70 degree dewpoint. Let’s hope the beer starts out colder so it can be ultra-refreshing in the heat of the day.