I recently found a trove of 3 Floyds beers in a Chicago-area shop, and picked up six packs of Gumballhead and Alpha King, and bombers of Dreadnaught and Arctic Panzer Wolf. I passed on the other bombers they had there--Rabid Rabbit, Munsterfest, and Blackheart. But when I got home and checked online, I saw that the ones I didn't buy are all seasonal releases--March, May, and...September! So now I've realized the ones I bought may also be many months (or years??) old. Is there any way to determine how fresh these are? And is it normal for a shop to still be selling seasonal releases like Munsterfest from (at the latest) September 2011? I've been excited to try Gumballhead, AK, etc., but now I suspect I am not getting the full experience if they are not fresh...
here comes the rants and raves pointing people's dismay that 3 Floyd's does not use bottling dates. No way to tell, as far as I know.
If only there was some way to tell if they were any good.. How about opening a bottle and tasting it? That will give you an idea as to whether or not the beer is still good
Rabbid Rabbit, Munsterfest, and Blackheart should all be fine right now anyway. Blackheart is still in Indianapolis. Munsterfest and Gorch Fock seem to be the two seasonals that stick around for awhile.
The seasonal bombers (Rabbid Rabbit, Blackheart, etc.) do tend to move slower than the year round beer. I've seen several shops that have some of those seasonal bombers still sitting on the shelves. There is no way of knowing how old your brews except for asking the folks that work at the store you bought it from, and who knows if they would know. I usually buy all of my FFF from the brewpub, but, especially with their "hoppier" offerings, I would buy from a place that I'm familiar. That being said, I'm also in the camp, that the "freshness" craze is more than a little overblown. Yes, you want to drink those brews somewhat fresh, but Dreadnaught that is a month old still drinks fine.
Never had 3 floyds beer but from reading these posts, I get the feeling they don't stay on the shelves too long. Doesn't mean it wasn't the distributor that had it hiding in the warehouse or the store that just happen to find it buried behind some other beer. Try going back to the store and ask - since you already paid, perhaps you'll get an honest answer.
They do sit around a little longer in Chicago, at least compared to Indianapolis. Each delivery of Three Floyd's gets swallowed up instantly in Indy.
I wouldn't be worried about the seasonals, but rather the Panzer, Dreadnaught, and Alpha King. There is a chance those have been there a few months and all three fall off tremendously after around 3 months. Nothing to do now but try them and hope for the best.
Gumballhead is the same in Chicago. I haven't physically seen it at the Lincoln Park Binny's in at least two years.
Yeah, if you find Gumballhead in Chicago it's probably fresh. But that beer is so good I'll drink it without question after 90 days. It's still a very good beer, and one of my all-time favs.
They don't bother putting FFF on the shelves there...the beer manager told me that once when I asked for a 6 pack of Zombie Dust...you have to ask for it EDIT: meant to reply to clubberlang
