Best by date vs born on date

Born on date is the answer to this question. You be the judge of too old. Some brewers put 6 months or even a year on the best by dates, that's crap. Other put far too short. Enjoy By is still enjoyable a few days or weeks past the date. That goes for OAB and SSR too. Tell me what day it went in the package.

 

Born-on FTW.

 

What about best by dates for high abv stouts? Does the best by date imply to drink it before this date or does it mean to cellar until the best by date? For example I bought a boulevard dark truth stout that has a best by date of 2016, not sure if it's recommending that I put it on hold or consume it before that date. Thanks everyone!

 

What you're thinking of is a "best after" date, which Deschuttes uses quite a bit. Best by means what it says..drink by that day!

 

Good friggin arghgh... I hate those dang CRYPYTIC dating code formulas n'stuff,,, arrggh drives me nuts, I immediately put the beer back on the shelf when I pick it up after seeing those (unless I knew when it came in). Just put a dang logical date stamp on the bottle... grrrr

 

You are one hell of an angry beer loving pirate....matey

 

I feel your pain.

A couple of months ago I was on Long Island and at a beer store they had Ithaca Flower Power. I looked at the crptic bottling date code on the bottle and I scratched my head trying to figure it out. I took the 6-pack to the counter and asked the store employee whether he knew how to decipher the bottling date; between the two of use we concluded the beer was bottled a few weeks prior to my purchase date so I bought that 6-pack. I am sad to report that while contemporary Flower Power is 'good' it is not nearly as good as it was in the recent past (e.g., a year or so ago). I more recently had a pint of Flower Power on draft (hoping that the draft product would be very, very good); to my disappointment the draft Flower Power was 'consistent' to the bottled product - just 'good'.

Yup, cryptic bottling dates stink!

Cheers!

 

Oh Jack. I am dismayed to hear this and I have to admit that I have watched Ithaca tackle their own beers over the last few months. I always buy a bottle of sixteen when I go to the brewery. I have seen it good, better and best but it's not consistent. I gave one of our BA's a sixer of green trail that was NOT the beer I thought I had bought. And I recently had flower power and thought that while it smelled a bit like the original it certainly tasted way more dank and not like what I expected. I remember thinking literally "did you use the right kind of hops in this?"

THier country pumpkin was lovely this year.

 

Maria, inconsistency that Ithaca is exhibiting right now represents a non-quality brewery IMO.

I will no longer be buying Ithaca beer in the near (and far?) future.

I sincerely hope that Ithaca can 'recover' and make quality beer like they did in the recent past.

Cheers!

Jack

 

I am not sure I feel the Flower Power pain that has been much discussed on the boards here, not to say it isn't warranted or anything like that. Ithaca hasn't been widely distributed down here, until recently, and only in drips in dribbles. In the past up around my travels I would grab a Cascazilla (really dug that) and a Flower Power, even lucked out grabbing some up in rural PA.

I guess Flower Power has always been the same to me every time I've had it (on tap also), it's hard to gauge whether I missed it's mark now, or if I just missed out on the past, or hadn't missed anything to begin with.

So goes beer life... Although the pack I bought up in PA quite sometime ago I was told was only received about 2 weeks ago as told to me by the beer rep working there. I had to ask cause I couldn't figure out what the dating meant of course to not derail this thread and stick to them finiky coding dates or absence of discussion.

 

Oh ok I see where I was getting confused, thank you!

 

Have you purchased Flower Power in the last 2-3 months?

Cheers!

 

Neither, I prefer "bottled on" dates.

 

So glad I didn't start a new thread and I ran a search on this, I was actually just thinking about this recently since Midnight Sun puts no bottle date best by or born on dates on any of their beers and I've tried this Pleasure town IPA by them and it just plain tastes stale without barely any flavoring, weird for even being in a can too. But if anything, I might have to jump on @Providence 's style, no date whatsoever no buy from this guy. I like that!

 

It's likely the only way to change this situation.

 

I don't care which it has. As long as it has one or the other! And I don't mean those stupid, indecipherable codes either. I realize there's a website who explains the codes, but obviously not every brewery is listed on these sites. I'm sick of having to risk buying a beer that for all I know could be 5 years past its shelf life (of course I'm referring to beer which doesn't age well obviously)

 

My personal analysis and determination about best by vs. born on dates:

Born on date - with experience you can make you own decision about how much a certain beer might fade with time and the dates become more of a guideline.

Best by date - since every beer is different and each determination of 'best by' is up to the individual or individuals who determine those dates, this is a little more problematic since you don't know when it was bottled or canned. But again with experience [such as drinking a certain beer on the best by date and the same beer well before the best by date] you can make you own decision.

After all, we're all supposed to be professional beer drinkers, aren't we?

 

I think that at a minimum brewers should all have a bottled on date. Given the proliferation of craft breweries and large number of beers on the shelves I find that many beer stores both large and small are having a difficult time managing the turns on their inventory as I see more beers 3+ months old on the shelf than not. This is not a bad thing for all styles of beers as many age well but there are too many IPA's that are well outside the freshness window. Even some of the largest craft beer companies have old product on the shelf. I find this extremely frustrating and always look for the bottled on date regardless. A casualty of this great fast growing industry I suppose but there has to be a better way to manage this.

 

Any date would be just peachy, though I personally prefer a "born on" date so I can make up my own mind as to freshness.

 

It has to be a bottled on date. A brewer has a great idea of when their beer would be declining. The problem is they have no control over storage once it has left the brewery. The same lot could have lots of different best by dates depending on how it is kept. Even seasonal variations in warehouse temperature could affect freshness.

I also will not buy the undated ipa that I would love to purchase that is sitting right next to the dated ipa from February.