2016 New Glarus releases

We were at the brewery last weekend, and the pallet was empty. You might want to call to be sure. They did have it on tap though.

 

New glarus doing best by dates now?
Bubbler has this stamp:
J296
22:18
I'm guessing that's a best by Sept 29, 2016..
Apparently Julian dating is too confusing for some people so might as well make a more confusing code

 

They had it on tap at the brewery Tuesday.

 

Is it a 1296? It still looks to be a bottling date to me, given the 22:18 code.

 

I think it is 1296 or May 8, 2016 bottling date.

 

The new codes are pull codes. Not bottling or best buy dates.

 

So how we gunna know how fresh it is?

 

You're not supposed to. Not sure why they're doing that but it's more for retailers and less for the consumer. I've already forgotten how to decipher it and I was told about 4 days ago.

 

Welp, looks like I'm never buying Scream again if I can't have a meaningful date code.

 

Lousy move in NG's part. No doubt distributors/retailers were seeing Scream pile up and noticing that "saavy" customers weren't buying the older bottles because, well, they're older bottles.

As a retailer, why would you ever conceal freshness?

 

I'm guessing because of the reasons you stated above. On the bright side, as long as retailers pay attention to the pull code and actually pull the product when its time is up, you should never have to worry about having "old" beer. Everyone trusts their local retailer, right?

 

We're getting better at it, as a city. Even the big distributors seem to be catching on.

Maybe we could ship old Scream to Chicago?

 

So what is done with old beer that is pulled from shelves?

 

This is a terrible move from an enthusiast perspective. I get that it's a good business move, but it's also intentionally obfuscating, which I find pretty slimy and surprising from NG, whom I usually respect greatly.

 

If anything, this helps retailers keep New Glarus' beer in code to the brewery's specifications, and doesn't leave the guesswork to the average consumer or lesser informed retailer who may have no idea what a julian code even is. If the beer goes past date, it's typically the distributor's responsibility to pull the beer and buy it back. So ideally, they're not just buying a bunch of NG and selling in as much beer as they can to retailers to let it sit beyond it's shelf life (though it's pretty hard for any store with a decent reputation to sit on New Glarus). And FWIW since the beginning of 2016, the Madison distributor has ran out multiple times when I've tried to order and a fresh batch is always on the way, so that's being managed much better than it had been. The ret

 

Any word on what the first R&D release is going to be?

 

Vintage 2015

 

Do they stop the R&D sales at 5:00 p.m. each day? I'm going to be working in Rockford, IL this Saturday but won't get off until 3:30. Don't really want to make the drive for nothing and then have to turn around and drive back to Indiana.