Do you Seek the Seal?

Agreed, and many times they donate to the poor and run food kitchens.

A plus for the Trappist minded!

 

I honestly didn't know about the seal. After this post I will be on the lookout and try to buy "within the seal". However that said, I also agree that local doesn't necessarily mean better. I've had quite a few macros that I prefer to local brewers in many styles.

 

I strongly agree, brewed on date is far more important than marketing slogans.

 

https://m.facebook.com/VintageWestV...e-union-label-1978-ilgwu-ad/2692386934193626/

 

Never heard of it. Seals like this on edible product don't have much meaning in life. Look at all the "natural" foods out there.

And if you want to see a real cluster, search up olive oil seals and see what they mean or do not mean. Meaningless in my book, just another way for some group to profit. Wanna buy some stickers

 

Sometimes, I travel, a lot. My beer buying varies depending on where I am.
Currently in a small town in Western NC I'm not likely to see The Seal. There's two breweries in town and I do most of my drinking there.
But, when I am in a big city? As I sometimes am for months, when shopping in a grocery store, then The Seal could definitely have a basis in my buying.
Cheers!

 

Do I make a point to look for the seal, no. But a lot of the beers I buy end up having it anyway.

 

there is no seal for "natural", and thus the word is meaningless on labels. Product label seals can only mean what they mean, its up to each of us to decide if the meaning conveyed by the seal is of value to us

 

.
Seal art is free.

"Brewed on" date?
What good is that without knowing fermentation length and aging/lagering time?

What breweries even use it (other than Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg for Samichlaus)?

 

I have noticed it but never really knew what it was until this post-so thanks for the education. I believe I already am aware in most cases whether a beer is an independent versus one of the conglomerates pretending to be.

 

Oh, I agree, brewed on and bottled on do not mean exactly the same thing. The larger point I was making, on which I believe we both can agree, is clear, legible, understandable dating information (brewed on, born on, bottled on, best by) is more useful than marketing slogans.

 

I've seen the seal on numerous beers, but have never actually searched for it. I like alot of Founders and Lagunitas and they're owned by big companies. I just looked at my loose cans/bottles in the fridge 19 of the 24 have the seal, but it means poop to me.
I don't try as many new beers as I used to so I stick to my tried and true favorites.

 

Ever since you wrote this, a song - with revised lyrics - has been going through my head. (Well, some of the time, anyway).
Finally figured out what song it was.
(Replace "Fishin' for the whales" with "Searchin' for the seals").

 

Agree 100%. There's nothing more irritating than an admonition to "drink fresh - do not cellar" on a can with no indication of the production date. (This is pretty common, unfortunately.) In my particular purchasing calculations, I'd assign much more weight to some useful date-stamping than an association's logo.

 

craft 40s when

 

Can't say I remember ever seeing it - got a few examples? With thousands of US breweries in standard distribution (i.e., not just at the brewery itself), there are few absolutes when it comes to just about any aspect of the industry, but if it's "pretty common" they should be called out.

2009 - DOGFISH HEAD LIQUOR DE MALT

 

I've seen "drink fresh" on a label but with no date on the package quite a bit (but it's obviously not the norm)... can't remember which breweries though. I find the practice more annoying than the opposite (like Maytag not wanting his beer judged on age but putting the coded date on the label).
@dbl_delta

 

Yeah, not doubting it has happened (again, "With 8k breweries in the US...") just don't recall ever seeing it. Maybe I check for a date code first and stuck those beers back in the cooler before I read any of the label's "fine print"? (Gotta say every day there are more otherwise unidentifiable cartoon/"artistic" cans I don't even both to pick up for a closer look - in part, because of the price sign below them.)

I suppose if a brewer's lone/primary retail source is it's own brewery or they are very diligent self-distributors they could try to justify it with "Well, it was fresh when we sold it to you" but that's still a cop-out.

Just thought if it was "common" I'd have read more bitchin' about those brands more often in the frequent complaint threads about freshness, etc.

Yeah, well, that's was pretty much the industry standard attitude into the 1990s with a few notable exceptions. Brewers kinda felt that was a topic between them and their distributors. Maytag stating it (to the Wall Street Journal, IIRC) probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, in retrospect - OTOH, he did publish his code in his FAQ early in the internet era.

 

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