A Beer Tasting

I would like to take issue with Robert Lawrence Balzer and his panel of beer tasters (“The Times’ End-of-Summer Beer Tasting,” Sept. 6). I cannot understand how they can make an honest evaluation of beers produced at different times and stored under dubious conditions. Unlike some wines, beers do not improve with age. The elements of temperature, time and storing conditions affect the quality of all brewed products. Beer is very perishable and begins to deteriorate the day after it is brewed. It is therefore unfair to make these tastings unless all the beers tasted are subjected to the same elements.

Al C. Leader

Sherman Oaks