UK bottle dates

Beers bottled in the UK are 90% of the time given an expiry date of one year since bottling. I don't know the reasoning, but that's certainly the way it is.

 

Less work for the distributors checking for old stock? That might be tongue in cheek but who knows...

 

Yeah, as mentioned above a one year BB date is typical. Sometimes more for really strong brews, and occasionally less. I suspect that it is simply convention (the fact that variation exists suggests that it isn't legally mandatory to be set at one year).

If you look at Belgian beers you will notice that the vast majority have a 2-year BB date, and sometimes longer.

As the US seems to have no specific requirements for dating, I guess each brewer can do whatever he/she likes. And while I appreciate that really hoppy brews fade, I do find the American obsession with bottle age to be a tad extreme.....

 

of more a worry is the Poms tendency to send their beers half way round the world in clear bottles.... irrespective of BB, don't wait too long to drink (!)

 

the main reason is that British Brewers do not use highly aromatic hops in the majority of beers. British hops are used more for bittering rather than aroma and it is the degradation of hop aroma that gets beer geeks knickers in a twist. We also have a tradition of letting a beer mature, or condition, before release, unlike, say, Bud who 'flash' age for 10 minutes.
And it's mainly falling for advertising guff that has led us down the path of 'fresh' beers. A good 50% of the beers in my stash are over 5 years old, 25% over 10 and that's nothing compared with Belgian friends who have beers dating back 25 years or more.
Beer doesn't suddenly change flavour over night, the best before date is a guideline, it doesn't mean that you'll die a horrible death if you drink the beer.

 

Yeah be nice you silly kangaroo fuc... *ahem*

 

Not sure they would bust a vein if they knew it was a generic year in 99.5% of cases!

Akin to sticking a year on a bottle of Pliny or an imperial stout!

Yes - it gives you a good idea (well certainly more so than a lot of US stuff) but as touched on above it's a generic year. Some beers will hold up fine, others will fade in that period, especially stuff brewed with new world hops.

Kernel have it bang on in this respect and should be applauded. They provide the consumer with all the information they require to make an informed judgement. Bottling date and drink fresh by date - nominally 4 months after bottling for maxium freshness on their hoppy numbers.

As in the USA where brewers don't have to state any date, brewers in the UK only have to state the best before, not the bottled on. Hopefully more brewers will follow the Kernel's lead and give us, the consumers, the best information possible for us to make our own judgements.

 

Tempest gives a BB Date of about 4 months or so from bottling and the same is pretty much the case for Cromarty.

 

I agree we are a bit crazy with freshness here, but how do you explain that every time I post about UK beers purchased here, I am told by English BA's I am getting the wrong impression of it, and should better try it fresh?

 

Because they are thinking of the beer served fresh. The beer will often come in a cask from less that a hundred miles away from where it is served. It will still be "live" in the sense that it is still in the process of maturation. It will be stored in a cellar and pumped up from that cellar but only after it has been judged to be "ready" by an experienced cellarman who knows his beer. It will be put in the glass before your eyes without having been bottled and then shaken (but not stirred ) as it gets put in a case (shaken again), loaded on a pallet (shaken again), loaded on a truck driven to the sea port (vibrated and shaken), loaded on into a cotainer and sent across the ocean (vibrated and shaken for days on end) where it goes through a reverse process of unloading to eventually get to the place where you buy it. (It might have even been refrigerated.) So think of the difference between your own homebrew served at the peak of its readiness to be enjoyed for what it is. Now imagine that you ship yourself several bottles of that homebrew by truck to someone in Georgia who holds on to it for a month or so and then ships it back for you to drink.

That’s why.

 

I was referring to the 1 year from bottling best by date on bottles, as I referenced in my post. I understand better than most how a fresh beer from the fermenter, or a week or two after bottling or from a keg, or even a cask is different. If a best by date is a year after bottling, and I get it two months after bottling, I guess I am getting a representation of bottled beer as the brewer in UK intended, not some old and non representative beer. And apparently, judging by this thread, plenty of folks drink and enjoy beer in bottles in UK. Why is my bottle experience not representative of the beer folks in UK drink in bottles, enjoy in bottles, rate highly in bottles, and continue to produce in bottles is my question, put in a longer but more accurate way. I now am assuming it is. Am I wrong?

 

I bet its between the hazards of shipping and difference in tastes. Seems like a lot of what gets to the consumer over there is very old which I'm afraid is no different from what we get hear with American craft.
That all being said, I had a Samuel Smith Imperial Stout last night that was downright flat & dull despite bring fresh. Either the never's been dumbed down or my beer memory was having a very rare moment of doubt

 

Fine take out of my description the shipping and serving of cask locally and substitute the shipping and serving of bottles that are consumed within 2-200 miles of where they were brewed. The folks at Sierra Nevada have reported and are convinced that even flying a bottle from CA to NY handled by one of their own begins to introduce changes because of the vibration, etc. I personally have found a detectable difference between bottles of Victory beers purchased at the brewery and those purchased 500 or so miles away even though the bottling dates are identical. I'm a firm believer that the hazards of shipping Zimbo mentions create a difference between beer consumed locally and at long distance from the brewery. You might not notice it on an occasional bottle or one not part of your regular line up, but for ones you are very familiar with the difference can show, and not to the benefit of the beer that has been shipped.

 

Sorry about the typos folks which came about with thanks to my S3's bloody prescriptive texting. Just to repeat:

That being said, I had a Samuel Smith Imperial Stout last night which was downright flat and dull despite being fresh. Either the brew's been dumbed down or my beer memory was having a very rare moment of doubt.

 

It might just be that Shipyard IPA isn't a very good beer regardless of how fresh it is.

 

If we take away one lesson from this thread, it should be: Don't drink Shipyard.