Taking personal responsibility for old beer purchases

Well yes, it's not magic it's true. And I'm sure where you live and your milk source plays a massive role. But yes, if you want consistent results you need to control the microbial culture. But I've never had any of our local milk, especially raw, turn putrid. It just turns into a sort of thin sour cream/yogurt type thing.

Absolutely, I wouldn't buy raw milk from a random person. We stopped drinking raw milk when my lady got pregnant the first time because it was just an unnecessary risk that was easy to eliminate.

But when you've got access to a clean and quality local dairy it sure is nice stuff

 

And probably best to save some for the baby…

 

This is getting way off-topic. Stale or (inappropriately) soured beer can be annoying, as can out-of-date packaged goods. No big deal. I drank my 40 year old bottled homebrew that tasted OK and had no ill effects. We just finished up some panko bread crumbs with an expiration date of 2016 that seemed fine.

 

40 years! How big of a batch did you make!

 

My favorite "out of code" beer story happened years back when a new Total Wine was opening near me. I was excited to check it out and went the week they opened. There was out of code beer on the shelves when they opened. That's pretty bad.

 

"To buy or not to buy. That is the question." It's a conscious decision. Mmm hmm. And maybe some beverage industry beer police in the distribution warehouses giving out citations (yellow card/red card) for sending old beer to retail outlets. I'll be a monkey's uncle if I can ever find fresh SNPA. The freshest beer I can ever get from them is Celebration Ale.

 

Stores like that will get new beers in that are expired. Im not sure how common it is and I dont think its the norm but it does indeed happen. A new beer will show up that they never sold there before and its a year old. Havent seen it a ton but it happens.

 

Me too and in years past Celebration was the only brand I purchased from Sierra Nevada since it was the only fresh version of Sierra Nevada I could find at my local beer retailers.

The good news is that 2024 Celebration IPA should be arriving soon (a month or so from now).

Cheers!

 

That right there is reason to celebrate!

 

I was beer shopping yesterday and I saw a Victory Tart Ten 750ml from 2016. Reading the above, I feel really fortunate that I didn't buy that beer because it seems like it would have led to a huge work commitment.

 

In my area, there's a chain of stores with a fantastic reputation, and I had the suspicion that when a new store opened, they moved old stock from an existing store to the new one.

I realize that the above wasn't exactly honest or thorough of the retailer in that case, but it's still funny to me when people here state that they hate "best by" dates and say "Let me decide if the beer is fresh." Well, subjectivity has its downsides. Do people want retailers to decide for themselves too? I remember one time being at a store and the damn date stamp on every can of a certain beer was smudged from poor printing. I made a joke to the store employee standing next to me, and he said (without joking), "It doesn't matter, Kolsch doesn't go bad."

All this reminds me of times when I'd find bottles that had the date stamp deliberately rubbed off. Is that really worth the time?

 

I made 5 gallon batches of about 5% abv ale, primarily malt extract. In the mid '80s I was busy with kids and work, and I stopped brewing. The leftover beer sat in a dark corner of the basement only dimly remembered. Now I can share the throwback beer with my grown up kids and reference the stuff on BA. Mostly I can remind people that beer refermented on live yeast in the bottle stands up well if not exposed to light or heat.

 

See @bubseymour‘s post above about BS. What you were subjected to at that TW was a classic case of bullshit.

 

What was removed first? The out of code beer or the stock rotation sign itself? I know what my money is on.

 

OK, since the topic of BS has been broached…

I will recycle an old story I posted several years ago:

“For a significant period of time (over a year) I was unable to find any Firestone Walker beers in any of the multiple beer stores in my area that were less than 5-6 months old. One of my local beer stores conducted a Firestone Walker beer tasting which was hosted by the Philadelphia area sales rep for Firestone Walker (she was/is a Firestone Walker employee). I reshuffled my schedule to make sure I could attend this event. While I was there, I sampled the beers she poured and chit-chatted with her for a while. After about 5 minutes I started asking pointed/detailed questions about Firestone Walker Brewing Co. She pleasantly entertained my questioning for about 5 minutes and then she blurted out in an unpleasant tone "Are you a beer industry person?" I responded with the truthful answer that I was just a beer customer and I was just trying to learn about Firestone Walker and their distribution system (which absolutely sucked in Philly at that time). At this point she would not answer any more questions from me. 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."

Cheers!

 

We don't have TW near me, but we do have a Bevmo. It is conveniently located near Big 5 sports, so, a few times a year I need new sneakers or hiking boots, Big 5 it is. And, since I'm right here....

I can sometimes find some 'Vintage' Belgian styles that I might grab, or Fremont BA stuff. But I sometimes laugh out loud at the age of some of the beers there at Bevmo. Decent prices on spirits though (which I don't much drink at home, so never buy there).

 

If you’d had the inclination, you could have offered to take a job at that Total Wine and help them out with their commitment to maintaining fresh inventory. Somehow I doubt you’d have done that or the manager would have taken you up on the offer if you did.