Local beer store has been trying to unload HU since January. I have not found any at any location fresher than 10/25/16. Yesterday I found it stacked up for $3.99/6. I love this beer but haven't had it since probably January because it seems to fall off quickly. I couldn't turn down $3.99 though. Had one last night, it wasn't bad but I can't help wondering why we aren't getting reasonably fresh HU in Maine. Anyone?
"...I can't help wondering why we aren't getting reasonably fresh HU in Maine. Anyone?" - Because you're not drinking it fast enough! Seriously, it seems like it's a distribution issue. If it's sitting there's a reason, and that could be for any number of reasons but it basically comes down to two: #1 it's just not selling (again, blame yourself!), #2 the distributor is buying it in larger portions than they can handle in a short period, or not pushing it enough to spread it out and get it moving. The bad side is that no one wins in this situation (not you, not the store, not the distributor, not the brewer) and the distributor is probably going to be shy about handling it in the future. Maybe they'll bring it in in smaller lots, which might help, but keep in mind it's not just them, it's their buyers as well. Hope it all works out!
Suggest telling the store that by trying to sell older Hoponious, the end up selling none, and offering to buy any fresher stuff if they have it. Some store are clueless, with cases of beer in the back getting old, while old beer out front sits. Other times the distributor isn't giving them anything fresh.
That price sounds like a special one of the stores near me offers, not for Jack's Abby but for distributor closeouts, usually seasonals. $4.50 a 6 pack, or $15.99 a case. As long as you know what you're getting it can be a good deal. Sometimes it's the only way to find a seasonal when the weather turns to that season - I often take them up on whatever winter seasonals they have come February when everything on the shelves is Spring seasonals. A nice malty seasonal stout hell yeah, HU on the other hand, no, just no, I don't want that old.
Codes on Hoponious Union are not bad usually, current batch of 12 packs is late February canned. There's been a 10/25 batch, a December canned batch and now February canned batch, at least on the 12 packs, which is all we buy, and ring six packs off of that.
Sometimes you can't help dumb people. One of my shops seems to be scaling back their beer purchases, realizing it's better to run out of stuff, than to have beer (IPAs in particular) become so old you can't sell them. BA type folks will stop coming in if the beer they find is always out of date.
