Market Saturation & Product Shelf Date

This is a huge issue and I wonder why it's not taken a little more seriously by folks anywhere in the chain. But like some folks have said how many people really know that an IPA is typically much better fresh? I check dates and notice some others do (and I see more people doing this than I used to) but most do not and it is grab and go.

A very recent story: usually I mind my own business but I noticed a girl putting together a mixed sixer and she was clearly new to beer and was grabbing all IPAs. She picked one that I knew was bottled in January and I just had to say something. She asked me a few more questions and thanked me over and over for the assistance. When she left I couldn't help but think that she would have had a terrible experience with an otherwise great beer. Thinking bigger what if she never touched aanything from that particular brewery again because of that experience?

Some of us in our community do take freshness to the extreme, though, and that isn't helping either. I am mindful of dates but won't turn a good one down within reason. But...

...this is partially why I am starting to drink IPAs a little less than I used to. It gets to be annoying sifting through everything and I don't want to let them sit in my fridge for too long because I drink less than I used to so it gets tricky because an IPA that is already 30 days old at purchase can become 45+ in my fridge if I let it...so then the other styles take a back seat as I drink the IPAs and then they get older...

 

Yep, too many IPAs and they do tend to get old and stale in spots. Actually it's to many mediocre efforts, if it's great beer it will sell quickly, it's the brewery that throws up one or two just to represent that is a problem. Again check dates, there's a growing trend to providing local, fresher hoppy offerings, you don't need to spend on 8 month old Knee Deep, that's a retailers problem.

 

It would be interesting to look at some distro contracts. I'm not seeing the advantage of selling to a wholesaler at a bulk discount, especially if they can't move the product of the shelves in time. It could be, but that's over my head. The perilous aspect is when a small brewery, with little to no legal representation, writes contracts with a large distributor who has a room full of lawyers.

 

The brewery needs the tank, and storage, space for the next batch of beer. If it means selling product at a discount to open up that space, it's a bitter pill that sometimes need to be swallowed.

 

About a year or two ago I made a post listing all the IPAs/IIPAs on the shelf at a given time and it was about 40. I would guess that number is much higher today. Not going to sell through 40 different brands in 30 days. Not gonna buy them either.

 

When a friend asked about ordering craft beer for her store, I told her to first get 1 kind of each style at a time. She only carries all day, two hearted, dirty bastard and I think dirty blonde. I believe her beer stays pretty fresh due to the low amount of stocked beer. The two hearted I got last month was maybe 3-4 weeks old. She can expand selection a little, but carefully as to prevent old beers. (especially IPAs)

 

If you keep solid beers for each of those styles you cannot go wrong. I can't tell you how many times I rolled into a place that had about 8 or 9 of each and they were all dated. Plus I wouldn't have to spend 10 minutes flipping cans and bottles checking all the dates

 

Ooohh, I think I may have given you a few likes in the past, sorry, no offense intended, will not make mistake going forward.

I'm an old fuck who has drank crap beer when there was almost no other kind available, have drank beer that is old and didn't know it because back in the day there was no date on most products.

I too like to save money, and will gladly purchase older stouts, porters, wild ales, and saisons from the discount shelf, but give me the freshest IPA every time. Now that most of them are dated, and I have the choice of buying the freshest ones possible, any aging they do will be in my house. It is good for the stores there are people less concerned than me about how fresh they enjoy to get their hoppy beers, since around here the shelves are crammed with ones that you would probably like, and which I won't buy ever.

 

That only works if the wholesale distributor has fresher beer to deliver. If they've got one pallet of a particular beer and the retailer orders a case, sells it and 2 months later re-orders the same beer, the distributor is simply going to pull it off that same pallet if it's a slow moving product.

Most all retailers and their employees (and many beer buyers) have seen out-of-code beer stacked on the distributor's handtruck being delivered.

"It just came in!" does not insure fresh beer.

 

Here is a sample contract between Sierra Nevada and unnamed Michigan distributor(s).

Not much on the topic of quantity ordering, etc., other than:

1. Company agrees, during the term of this Agreement, to supply the Products to Distributor at such times, and in such reasonable quantities as Distributor may order; provided, however, if at any time Company’s supplies of the Products available for sale are insufficient to fill the order to all its Distributors, Company may, in a reasonable manner, restrict the amount to be supplied to Distributor under this Agreement.

So, except for the vague term of "reasonable quantities" the contract is more concerned with the distributor not getting enough beer, rather than too much.

_________
Contrary to belief of many people in this and countless other threads on the topic, it is not the retailers' responsibility to pull old out-of-code stock, reduce it in price, sell it for under their cost (illegal in some states), or absorb the expense of paying for/disposing of old beer.

9. Distributor agrees not to sell ineligible brands to retail accounts. Ineligible brands include brands that are out-of-code date at the time of sale to a retail account...

12. Distributor shall sell product to retail accounts on a first in first out basis and shall monitor retail accounts to ensure that no out of date product is offered for sale at retail. Distributor shall, at its expense, remove out-of-date product from retail locations and exchange the product on a one for one basis, or as allowed by the Michigan Liquor Control Code.

This is not some unusual aspect of business that is unique to brewing. Lots of other products with short shelf lives are also returned/picked up by the wholesaler or manufacturer and replaced with fresh stock or credit - milk/dairy, bread and other baked goods, newspapers, magazines, etc.

Now, there is no question that lots of distributors don't fulfill this aspect of their contractual responsibilities, especially in this modern market in which there are now more brewers than distributors, distributors carry many more (too many?) brands and distributors are often larger than the brewers they distribute.

 

I had many a days when a distributor would not take back out of date beer. Sometimes, they would replace it with beer removed from another store, making it look like he's retrieved a new case for me. Not so fast, young man!

If a distro did that too many times, it not only hurts that particular brewery (cuz I wouldn't order them anymore), but other breweries under that distro, too. I've asked some distros to send different reps, or just ban them from our account for a time. Shady stuff goes on out there

 

I can see that, and I'm guessing that's rare. If it isn't, then that brewery maybe ought to rethink its portfolio

 

That's why she orders what she does, proven sellers. Two hearted and all day aren't exciting for tickers, but they sell enough that I believe the warehouses aren't holding much old stock in that. There's large stores ordering pallets of beer in the same distribution footprint, but she's out in the country where she isn't competing with them. So they help eat up the old stock.

Not to say she doesn't have an old beer or two. Theres a couple sixers of mad hatter ipa dying on the shelf. She already knows not to reorder that though, it was from when she purchased the shop a few months ago. I think she threw it out last week in fact

 

I think the bigger issue is sales and logistics. As you grow, you eventually reach a point where the cost of warehousing, vehicles, drivers, insurance, etc, becomes greater than the roughly 26-30% margin you're giving up by selling the beer to a distributor.

Plus, they have access to a lot more accounts than an individual brewer would. For example, the distributor I used to work for covered the Portland metro area, and we had over 4,000 licensed accounts in our territory. Even if you wanted to, there's no way for one single brewery to work with even a portion of those accounts unless you have a massive team of sales and delivery people.

 

Oh sure, but for a lot of smaller breweries , onsite cold storage is a big issue. If your cold room is full, and you've got another 10 pallets worth of cans ready to be packaged, something has to give.

But, there's a lot of moving parts in these things, and rarely a single answer to those problems.

 

I do not search out old beer. I won't buy any old beer. There are some IPA that do not really lose much with time, a long time yes but not a few months.

Trust me, a case of Ale Smith IPA that is a month past date is still far better than many fresh IPA and at $26 it's 50% off. Would I have bought this at full $, no.

End of the day it really depends on the beer. Some hops last better, dry hopping seems to fade quicker, more tropical hops seem to fade faster. Some breweries have IPA that stays fresh much longer based on my taste. SN is one of those. My limited run at Deschutes inversion and Alesmith seem to show a longer lasting great tasting IPA. On the other side shape of hops to come does not last.

Enjoy

 

I agree with OP. Almost every brewery is making 2-10+ variants of IPA. I would rather there be less options, albeit always fresh and higher quality.

 

It happens everywhere too. I'm able to spend about two weeks in mid to southern VT each year and dates on their ever growing selection of DIPAs/IPAs is getting worse (since 2016, selection of local IPAs has more than tripled. But old beer is likely in the same 3x range). Two places in particular get the new fresh good stuff, and I know they care/post stuff online. Some of the more hyped can sellout within 2-3 days. But the others can linger for months.

You dont really hear of breweries slowing down on their production or growth. Everyone wants as much beer out there into as many accounts and just wants to see what sticks. That mantra is bad for consumers long term. Do breweries not do test runs anymore? Make a tiny bit and see how it sells.. Make more the next time around? There is no reason an account should have 10 cases of 2 month old DIPA that is getting passed over every day as 3-4 new releases come out every 3 days.

I know there are some beer buyers here. I'm a numbers and stats guy. But I would NOT want to be a buyer and predictor right now.

Would you rather have:
15 DIPAs with 13 of them old as an option. or 2 super fresh DIPAs? Im part of the problem I'm sure. I love looking at the variety. Seeing Frost bombers sit saddens me though. I still tend to take chances on slightly old DIPAs when I am out visiting places. Variety over no variety is sort of where I stand at the moment.

I liken a lot of this to sports analogies. All these supposed qualified players yet only a set amount of playing time. Either you get better, or you get benched. There's one area VT brewery that is pretty new and canning. Well, 7 months later, and they arent so new anymore. 2-3 others want in on the can and shelf space. Get better or fall flat. For the most part, a lot of these local products are getting to shelf within 2 weeks of canning. That's not the issue. It's how well or how badly they sell. The larger breweries who use the 3 tier system have older and larger quantity from the get go. If little guys can struggling with 2 week old product, I can't imagine anything good coming out of the larger regional players.

TL;DR I guess what I'm trying to say is, just because it's local and brewed within 200 miles of you, doesn't make it fresher. Tides are turning

 

You don't? Bart Watson (Chief Economist for the Brewers Association) wrote in his blog post about the recently released Mid-Year results:

so, 40% are down or flat.

2017 barrelage figures from the B.A. show that 4 of the top 5 of their defined "Craft" brewers (Yuengling, BBC, SN and Spoetzl/Gambrinus) were down for the year, with the fifth, #4 New Belgium, flat.