Do you #SeekTheSeal when buying beer?

See, I think that takes the concept of "fresh vs out-of-code" to an extreme (not that there aren't some extremely old beers out there ). I mean, most older beer is perfectly drinkable, potable, non-dangerous to one's health or digestion --- it is just dull and lifeless, absent fresh hop flavors and sometimes a touch sweet compared to a fresh bottle/can of the same beer. Rather than "shitty beer" effect, I think the opposite is more likely - that "WOW" factor of drinking a fresh beer.

I mean I'll only buy fresh bakery French or Italian bread and do not eat it the following day (immediately freeze it and use for garlic bread, french toast or breadcumbs, etc). I like freshly roasted/ground coffee. But I don't think ground coffee from a can or bread sold in a plastic bag is somehow so inferior that I wouldn't eat/drink it if offered or the only thing available.

(As I just noted in the other thread on this topic ) But no business wants to lose money on returns or unsold product, but they do. Bakeries, dairies, fresh fruit and vegetables sellers, even magazine, newspaper and book publishers. It's just part of the cost of doing business.

 

Well, that would be "shitty" for my palate.

The only brewery that I am aware of (along with their partner Wholesale Distributors) that consistently "do" here is AB. Do you have other examples?

While I applaud that other industries are willing to 'pay the price' to eliminate old product the vast majority of the beer industry is unwilling to do this. Do you have any ideas on how to get them to change their business practices here? As an individual I am doing my 'part' by refusing to purchase old beer at my local beer retailers and more and more of my beer budget is going to purchasing fresh beer at small, local breweries.

Cheers!

 

Oh, yeah - mine, too. But for someone who has never had the beer? Hell, how much European beer is consumed in the US (and, even among BA's) that is already past the age you and I consider "too old" ?

They all say they do but I can't say that I ever check codes on any of the other macro brewers' beer.

MillerCoors' * language, for example:

* Which still calls their codes "Pull Dates" - if they aren't "pulling" them, what's the sense of that .

 

Does Stone qualify? They are pretty open about dates and seem to pull old stock when aware its on shelf?

 

The only thing I can state here is: none by me.

Cheers!

 

I have no personal experience here so: no comment.

The good thing about AB is that old beer is removed without the need for a consumer to make a phone call. AB requires that their partner Wholesale Distributors to remove their beers when they approach their best by dates (e.g., 110 days for Bud/Bud Light).

I have posted in the past about my interactions with a Firestone Walker Sales Rep:

“I then walked her over to the retailer’s shelves to show her several cases of Firestone Walker beers that were over a year old. She looked at me with a dirty look and stated: "They shouldn't be there". I was about to ask her: "Are you personally going to remove those cases?" but at this point I had enough of her attitude and nonsense. I simply stated "It was a pleasure speaking to you" which was a lie and I walked out of the store. It was apparent to me that she had zero interest in truly recognizing and fixing this issue."

As a follow-up to the above I did revisit my local beer store a couple of weeks afterwards and those old cases of Firestone Walker beer were still there.”

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...ent-growth-in-2019.603359/page-4#post-6369640

So, I take it with a grain of salt when a craft brewery (or a craft brewery employee) states something like “They shouldn't be there". It is when they actually make the effort to remove the product when it ‘counts’.

Cheers!

 

I lost a little respect for FW hearing that. Its bad enough consumers have to do their job and educate them on where their beer is out of date, then they cannot lift a finger and remove their own product. Guess she was too important to do that lol.
So your saying your a big FW fan now?

 

FW's problems have always been with distributors not the brewery. They arrive on the shelf 2 months after bottling. I forget the name of their old now retired imperial IPA. One day I saw a case case that was magically 2 or 3 weeks old. It was expensive but so remarkably good. I would buy that again.

 

I have not purchased much FW beers in a long time. Not because of that unpleasant exchange with the local Sales Rep but because I rarely find their beers in fresh condition. And some of their brands that I previously purchased (e.g., Pivo Pils) is not longer on my local beer retailers' shelves.

I did 'luck out' a few months ago in locating fresh Mind Haze (since it was a newly introduced beer at the time):

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-sunday-week-735.609448/#post-6433128

Firestone Walker brews good beers. I just wish I could more consistently:

• Find them (e.g., packaged Pivo Pils)
• Find them fresh

Cheers!

 

I agree and drink their product. I actually am able to get a lot of it in date, I just grabbed some Mind Haze the other day and this was the date. Just sours me slightly when a rep is told something and then does zero, would not have taken a lot to place a call and have the beer pulled but I know its normal for most.

 

Heck, she could have asked Joe (the store manager) to get one of his guys to carry the cases to the trunk of her car. She simply didn't care enough to do anything.

Joe informed me later (6 months later I think) that she actually got promoted and was working at Firestone Walker in Paso Robles, CA. That piece of news really 'stuck in my craw'.

Cheers!

 

Well you gotta have a "diverse" team. Even if they suck at their job.

 

And the good news is she can take that mindset up the chain of command and really impact things lol. Amazing how things work sometimes.

 

Does SN and FW have a seal? If so, I fall into this category.

 

First I laughed because I thought it said 1913, and thought "wow an antique", then I laughed when I realized it was the time (13:25) and imagined some doofus complaining "oh my god this beer is 3 hours old".

 

No, but sometimes I make it six or so beers in before I have to "break the seal."

 

Not really, but the vast majority of bottled and canned beer I buy already has it anyways.

Eric

 

No I don't seek it since I already have my own blacklist that I carry around in my head (which includes some "independent" breweries )

 

So, according to their criteria for use of their "INDEPENDENT CRAFT" logo, you need only to "Have a valid TTB Brewer’s Notice" and don't even need to belong to the B.A. - "Brewers Association membership is not required." I guess that means you are brewing under the license of your contract brewery partner? Do you need a Federal COLA for draught beer sold only by you in SC?

While I don't often agree with the Association's decisions on these things, I do usually understand their thinking on it - but no contract brewers for the seal makes little sense, especially for an organization which, 25 years ago, had it's two largest members, Boston Beer and Pete's Brewing, having their production brewed not just at contracted facilities, but at macro breweries (Heileman and Stroh).

 

I imagine all of the macros have a program with their distributor's that will pull outdated beer. But that begs the question about their motivation. Could it be that because their beers are so delicate with their light flavor that causes staleness to show up more quickly and be more evident than it would be with beers that have flavor?