Small gripe with Golden Road

to be honest i don't think most people really know or care, except for people here

i'm curious how their can sales are going. they have definitely marketed the shit out of it.

 

According to WF's departments website, they say this about their beer department, "Our beer departments are stocked by a group of merry revolutionaries dedicated to liberating civilization from the clutches of boring beer.
They operate independently but share a common goal; to procure the finest beers imaginable."


I interpret this to mean that corporate pretty much keeps a hands off policy as long as they feel their department manager is doing a good job for the customer base. So I guess it's safe to assume that individual stores will vary with what their policy is ordering/stocking/removing beer for their shelves.

If you have a suggestion, it seems like the best idea would just be getting the contact information of your local store's buyer and offering your two cents to them (for all beer freshness issues, not simply spotlighting a single brewery) and seeing what they have to say to you.

 

I'm not so sure you can do this. I tried it once with a 12 pack of Mirror Pond at Bevmo and they said it was against California law to accept returns on alcohol.

 

How old are the 4-packs at this point? Golden Road just started distributing to NorCal, and while Point The Way is available in both 4- and 12-pack formats, I believe the Wolf Among Weeds is all 4-packs.

 

I have returned alcohol to WF and Gelsons without issues.

I just spoke to WF and they brought up the "old" IPA that are on the shelves to GR rep and supposedly they are swapping it out for fresh. The loose cans from last April disappeared but the 4 packs from last July are still there.

These old beers are an issue of whole foods buying pallets of beer (corporate) and not thinking about the issues at hand.
Anyone wanna wager on how long all that getup off brown is going to to take up floor space?

 

I agree with the OP's complaint. ...But the new Point the Way isn't very good anyways, so I guess it doesn't really matter to me since I won't be buying it either way. I do really like the new Wolf Among Weeds recipe though. And the Berliner Weisse is great. I'd love to see it in cans!

On a separate note, Golden Road has Bourbon County Stout on tap right now!

 

are you shitting me?

 

The only reason you are legally allowed to return alcohol in CA is if the packaging or product is defective, ie a corked bottle of wine or a bomber that only got filled half way. Sometimes you'll get a cashier who doesn't know this and will accept the return anyway, but "this beer is old" isn't technically acceptable.

As far as beer getting old in a warehouse due to overpurchasing, almost all of the beer buying at Whole Foods happens at the store level. Sometimes there will be a lot of product left after a sale ends or what have you, but most of the time if you see old beer on the shelf at a WF, it was probably old when it got to the store. I have been sent cases of spring seasonal beer in October, for instance.

 

well i guess you weren't shitting. thanks for the tip. went there last night and enjoyed this brew for the first time.

think i'll be going back this week for seconds

please don't tell anyone else

 

I'm wondering the same thing. I created a post specifically about a bottle and package date discrepancy from the PTW I picked up today.

 

Are YOU serious? Breweries do this all the time. They obviously prefer not to, but freshness is a huge priority for craft breweries. The integrity of their product is of utmost importance to them. Ever heard of Enjoy By IPA? Swapping out of code (old) beer is the responsibility of their distributor so you can't dump all of this on Golden Road. So maybe this is what happens when you pick Budweiser to handle these things.

That is incorrect. I don't want to get into the details about how a packaging change affects the rules but if a beer goes 'out of code' it is the distributors responsibility to replace it. The question should be, does Golden Road code date their cans? And even if they don't, all distributors ask their suppliers to give them a 'shelf life' of their beer. If its out of code then their distributor (Budweiser) needs to replace the product. Some distributors are better about adhering to this than others.

I remember when Golden Road opened up and their distributor dumped huge amounts of beer on Whole Foods, Bevmo, Total wine, etc. I think that was late 2011. If the beer is indeed from the original shipment then it's well over a year old. Most craft breweries have 6 month code dates (Bear Republic, Sierra Nevada, etc.). Some have 3 month code dates (Stone). Stone even has the Enjoy By, which is a 35 day code date. I guarantee that these breweries take this stuff very seriously. If Golden Road knew that they had an IPA on shelves that was 18 months old, I hope they would do something about it.

 

A distributor buying back old beer from a retail store is not the same as a consumer returning alcohol to the place where they purchased it.

 

True. Though, the problem is not at the retail level. I don't think the concerns people have are whether or not Whole Foods will allow a customer to return out of code Point the Way (knowledgeable BAs wouldn't buy it in the first place). It is a problem with the distributor not doing what they're paid to do and a brewery seemingly not being concerned with the freshness of their product.

Also, just to clear up any potential misinformation, the distributor should replace the beer with the same product if it is out of code (not buy it back).

And lastly, if the beer is 'expired', or past its 'best by' date (i.e. out of code) and a customer unknowingly purchased it, Whole Foods wouldn't accept the return? I find that hard to believe knowing the type of service I've grown accustomed to at WF.

 

No, they don't. I've had this discussion with a few different guys from breweries in California and Oregon (including a sales rep for Sierra Nevada and two brewers). Also spoke with a bottle shop owner locally who confirmed that it's up to the distributor - breweries don't usually get involved with retail issues.

Your optimism is based upon an exception, or an ideal. Not facts. "Enjoy By" can happen because Stone does their own distro. It's an exception.

To test this theory for yourself, head to your nearest BevMo, find the first three beers from three separate breweries that you think are "no longer fresh." Call up the brewery and tell them. Wait 90 days, and realize that nothing has been done. Because nobody cares, or they'll try and tell you that the beer is fine.

If your wildly inaccurate theory were true, we wouldn't see nearly the number of old IPAs sitting on shelves that we do now. But the fact is, old beer is everywhere, and a lot of times you can't tell because the containers aren't dated.