Brewers and their distributors need to stop saturating markets, brewers need to date stamp their packaged beers, stores need to get control of their inventory and consumers need to look for dates and buy accordingly.
When a beer is labeled “best by,” the brewery makes a judgment weighing freshness against shelf life, and, presumably, the brewery’s bottom line. With “bottled on” dates, buyers must decide for themselves.
The Julian system is but one of many tricks that craft brewers employ to confuse unsuspecting consumers into buying old and often lifeless beer. Lacking in simple clarity, it requires customers to come equipped with additional computational skills just to find a relatively fresh bottle.
At a time when our beer culture is increasingly dominated by consumer proclivities toward promiscuity, the watchword is more. But when the industry chases new beers in the absence of the smart curation, the resulting expansion of bottle and tap selections leads to bloat and a lot of stale beer.
Best-by dating is the kind of amorphous, arbitrary tactic that only a manufacturer could love. Masquerading as an effort to help consumers, such dating of beer results in the illusion of honesty, leaving drinkers with no actual tangible information on which to base purchasing decisions.
