I manage a bar and restaurant in Jersey and recently ordered a keg of Flower Power from my distributor. After receiving it, i noticed the born on date was last march. I called my rep and he apologized and did some checking, but said the newest kegs they had were from may. Anyone in the restaurant/bar industry have any experience with this? Is it just my shitty distributor not checking their inventory? Or is the problem with ithaca? I have a hard time believing that a really solid beer like flower power just wouldn't sell, and sit in the warehouse for 8 months. Any thoughts?
I don't know much about the bar business but that does not sound right at all. There should definitely be something fresh around.
I believe the lastest batch of bottles that I drank had a Feb or March '14 date. Maybe that's what's going on? Maybe it's just crazy fresh?
I think most kegs are marked with a kegging date, not a best by date. That's insane, I think your distributor is yanking your chain or doing a shitty job of selling a really excellent IPA to have kegs that old laying around. FYI here in SEPA my one distributor has a constant inventory of Flower Power in kegs and it's not near that old.
Depends on where in Jersey you are, but I have a hard time finding fresh Flower Power in south Jerz. When it pops up in stores around me, it's usually at the best by date notched on the label and the store just got it in. I don't get it. The only fresh Flower power I ever got was from the Box of Hops that was released more recently.
I am not in the NJ beer business but it seems to me that your local wholesale distributor who has the Ithaca account hoisted an old keg on you. Why that keg has been sitting around so long is quite a mystery to me. Can you return that keg to your distributor? If so, that is exactly what you should do. It would be irresponsible of you to serve an 8-9 month old IPA. While we are on this topic let’s discuss beer freshness and kegs. I have on multiple occasions have had draft beers at bars which tasted old/tired; beers like Pliny the Elder, Sculpin, etc. I used to have the mindset that if a beer was available on draft at a beer bar that it would be fresh. After my numerous bad experiences (and the details of this thread) I am convinced that just because the beer is on draft does not ensure that the beer is fresh. The last guardian of ensuring beer freshness is the beer bar person. jnardone235, please do not serve old beer to your customers! Cheers!
Drinking a Flower Power at Deep Ellum in boston right now and it's definitely not fresh. This place is usually reliable but this beer is a boring pale ale at the moment, not the floral hoppy goodness I expect
I'm up in north jersey. The flower power around here right now has a best by notch on January and ithaca says flower power has a 3 month shelf life so it was bottled in october. Still pretty fresh at less than 2 months on the shelf
Same here picked up some flower power and it said best by Nov date ??? Wth ? Same with sculpin which was worst as it had a drink by Sept 30 date on it for $16 no thanks.
If the distributor is Hunterdon, they suck. They never know what they have and if you order something, it takes an eternity to get it in. I thought with the new owners, it would get better, but no.
I get my Ithaca from Highgrade (central jersey) and they are absolutely worthless, I have refused multiple kegs and bottles for being out of date. North Jersey has better luck with fresh Ithaca.
Oh it's already been returned. I just find it hard to believe that I can't get a fresh keg of it in. Really it's just that distributor that I have problems with. I wouldn't be too cynical about freshness of draft beer. Any bar that really cares about putting good beer on tap will usually take care of it. I have occasionally lost money by pulling kegs off that weren't empty because the beer didn't quite taste the way it should. My main curiosity was if this is an isolated incident with FP around me (central jersey), or whether it happens elsewhere.
Thanks for the input, I'm central jersey as well. I've come to understand over the last year that i've been ordering that high grade is useless.
North NJ here, too- and I am seeing the January notches lately. I just got some today, actually, and am looking forward to cracking a few!
Same here! I picked up a sixer to throw a few in a trade and I have a couple left. Can't wait to see how it goes down fresh. I always find it 3+ months old this is the first time getting it fresh.
I just opened one- it's quite nice but not the best (or freshest) I've had. You will enjoy these but definitely keep an eye out for when the next batch hits.
Ah darn...I bet it is still great but yea I'll be on the lookout for that next batch. I need to taste that stuff at it's full potential
