Picked up some 2012 SN Southern Hemi. Havest tonight with a code of 2016218:xx on it. Anyone know how to read this? Is this produced one time or ongoing for a period? Thanks.
Sierra Nevada has always had Julian dating, so the first 4 numbers are what matter. 2016 = Jan 16th 2012 What I always do for my reviews is type in "xxx day of the year" and the first result will be a wikipedia article with the exact date. Also when you buy it is easy to get a ballpark date by using 30's. So if I see a SN with 2120 then I know it was bottled end of April or so.
This pisses me right the fuck off. If you have the resources to stamp a date on bottles/cans why not just put a "bottled on" date on your product and be done with it?
Sierra Nevada recently switched from printing the date code on the label to putting it on the neck of the bottle. The code is still the same as what is printed in this PDF - http://www.sierranevada.com/images/bottlecode2011.pdf I also think you may be misreading the code, my bottle reads 2116213:27 indicating April 26, 2012 bottling line 2 at 1:27pm. Your code would indicate January 16, 2012. Given the limited release I don't think the product was being produced at that time.
While I agree with you in principle, I'm concerned with the current obsession, with up-to-the-minute freshness, i.e., the guy that picks through cases of Flower Power (and others) and has to split hairs over the various production dates. Inevitably you end up with perfectly good beer getting picked over and going stale. If I were a brewer, I'd hate that.
Julian dating codes really aren't that hard to interpret once you know how they work. I'm no math whiz, but when I see a SN bottle whose first four numbers reads 2180, within a few seconds I know that it was bottled in June. I know it takes a bit more brain power, but look on the bright side: the added thinking can aide in the prevention of Alzheimer's. Hooray beer!
As a brewer wouldn't you also cringe at the thought of someone that is new to your product picking up a 6 month old IPA and hating it?
Maybe, but I think you'd be surprised at the amount of consumers that drink IPA, but don't truly know what it's supposed to taste like anyway.
Good info, but I'd rather have the ability to pick up a beer and see a bottled on dated clearly marked on the product. Thank you Schlafly!
For the record: I freaking love Sierra Nevada! Also I never really check the dates, living in Oklahoma I know that it will be a couple of months old at best which I have to consider fresh! Still waiting on Southern Hemisphere to show up here. Just picked up a 4pk of Hoptimum dated: 209010511 and I'll be enjoying every moment of it! I really need to move…Cheers ~
Julian dating is pretty simple. All it requires is doing a little math in your head. Or maybe there's an app for that??
You are correct that it just takes a little research to decode it, but I definitely see what FTowne is saying. When you have the capabilities to date stamp, why use a somewhat esoteric code? I'm sure most beer drinkers haven't even heard of Julian dating. It just makes more sense to use a code that would be easily read by 100% of the population as opposed to one that only 20% know (that's a completely made up number, BTW).
I wouldn't pretend to speak for SN, but I consider the numbers on the bottle (with the production line, bottling time, etc.) to be essentially an internal code so they can make necessary adjustments, pull a bad batch or the result from a bottling line that gets screwed up or whatever. That it can be read by humans at all and that they choose to tell you how is a bonus. The 12 packs are all dated with a human readable number.
