Packaging Date Or Expiration Date. Which Do You Prefer For your Beer?

I've seen this a few times and am all for it!

 

Love it!

 

There's a tab right there that you can click to view the results without voting. Not to mention you can change your vote if you so desire.

@AlcahueteJ -- did I tell you?

 

Now there's TWO of us!

On a related note, I've been looking for Bofferding Brune. A store in Kenosha, WI had a six pack. The date was AUG 2024. I don't care if that was packed on or expired by, either way I passed it up!

 

Can I refer you to HopSlam?

 

You're using logic there; we don't do that around here. But it's a good point.

 

Coaster are for people who set down their beer.

Expiration dates are for people who don't drink their beer fast enough?

 

18 month expiration dates scare me.

 

I can see the best by date coming in handy for somebody that isn't sure about how long a beer will be good for. It's good to know when a beer is expected to no longer be good by as a reference for not buying a beer that is too old if there isn't much time left until the best by date. The problem is when the best by date is too far away and longer than maybe it should be, so when you buy a beer that is a few months away from being "best by", it still tastes past it's prime like a light pale style several months old that may have a 6-9 month best by date perhaps. I think both at the same time would be preferable, and although I see why the best by could be advisable for some people, I prefer and chose the packaged on date option, so I can determine myself when I would prefer to drink it by with my gained beer experience and aging knowledge over time.

 

For hoppy beer and most pale beers it does me too.

 

Warum, mein herr?

 

Packaging date

 

Without any date, hard pass on the purchase for me.

 

A year and a half sitting on a shelf can only deteriorate a beer -- in my experience and opinion.

And any brewery putting that length of "best by" on their product sort of scares me, too.

 

It doesnt matter in a world where there are no dates and coded dates you cant read. As long as its legible I dont care if its born on or best by.

 

About the only good thing left concerning the, "Dumcrapped" app since the Ekos 'drink' changeover, when there's no packaged/bottled/canned date or any 'best by' date nor anything else intelligible (lookin' at YOU Drekker), I'll pull up the 'drink' listing and if there's very limited check-ins (a couple hundred) then it's a pretty safe assumption that the beer, er, I mean 'drink' is relatively fresh.

If there's a few thousand check-ins, then roll the dice & take yer chances, especially when a lot of the check-ins stretch back years.

 

For the strong dark beers I drink, I rarely look. When I do, it doesn't influence my purchase negatively.

 

...which I'm sure took several years to get there, along with a lot of research and advice from various sources (such as on BA), not necessarily what most beer drinkers may have gained. I think for most casual beer lovers, a best by date would be very helpful (assuming the brewer has made their best judgement and not tried to "stretch" the date for sales).

 

I suspect that 90% of purchasers who know nothing about how long beer is at peak quality/ flavor are not even aware that many beers are dated with any date at all. They are not even looking for a date.

 

I think it would be a hoot to see BOTH dates just to see what the brewers are claiming is the relationship between the two dates. It could be comedic relief.