"Born on" or "Best before"

When I am out in stores near beer sections I check out what people are buying, just out of curiosity, and in the years of doing this I honestly don't recall the last time I saw someone grab beer off the shelf and hunt around for dates. I still think the amount of people that check this kind of thing is extremely small (probably just us).

As for the guy telling me the brewer should set the best by date because consumers are stupid, well that may be true, your average consumer is stupid, but for those of us that aren't, I want to know when you put the beer in the bottle, and I don't really give a damn when you think it is best by, I'll decide that.

 

Last night I picked up a leftover single smutty pumpkin w/ a best before March 11th,2013.
That tells me that it was bottled on Sept. 11th.As already said,smutty gives 6 months from time of bottling.

And the pumpkin ale was still nice and tasty........

Cheers

 

I prefer both and I prefer them to be placed on the bottle in standard format ex. 1/16/13. Not a bunch of random numbers.

 

Personally I love the "best after" dating. Nothing like buying a beer and being told to hold on to it for a year!

 

Orval has a "bottled on" date and "best buy" date, which I think is pretty ingenious and great for the knowledgeable beer consumer. They add Brett to the beer at bottling, so it chews away at it over the course of a few years. Too fresh a bottle of Orval, and it's a somewhat bland Belgian Single. Too old a bottle, and it's a complete funk bomb and, in my opinion, kills a lot of the subtle and delicate elements of the beer. Either way, you could gauge the level of funkiness from where the present dates sits on the printed spectrum.

 

You mean the brewers who use the term "Best by:" because they figure they can't fit "Gets even worse after:" on the date stamp?

 

“Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout is my favorite Imperial Stout. Not sure what you mean by boozy but suspect that it's why i like BBCS fresh and think it loses a bit of flavor after 6 months.”

I perceive a fresh Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout as being “hot”; in other words I can taste/perceive the alcohol of that beer (which is 10% ABV). A similar beer of Old Rasputin (9% ABV) does not taste “hot” to me whatsoever and I enjoy drinking that beer fresh.

When I age a Black Chocolate Stout a year it tastes significantly different to me. The “hot” is gone and I enjoy the complex flavors that result from a year of aging. I have never aged this beer longer (e.g., 2 years or more) but I suspect that this beer would get even better with additional aging.

Everybody has a different plate and different sensitivity to varying flavors.

Cheers!

 

I have a friend who ages BBCS and has for years. I've drank some of his that was 6 years old. He claims it mellows out . I claim it fades. As you said everyone plate is different. That's a good thing, otherwise these forums would be boring.

 

Which is why I'm not too excited anymore about trading quality beer for IPA's with no date (Heady.... to name a big one)

 

Its crazy how people think all brewers are hippies who just want every body to have the best time of their lives. They are businesses, period. And they have to rely on wholesales and retailers to help keep beer fresh. They want you to spend money on the stuff they make. duh. Its in every one's interest to extend the dates as far as reasonably possible. Its up to you to decide if you want to buy fresh beer or old beer.

 

That can not be. On 01/03/13 i was drinking a Smuttynose Fineskind with a best by date of 06/06/13. I posted a thread and it was deleted. It did not taste fresh to me either. Why do these dates need to be rocket science?

 

Both dates and the brewery decides. There is the Bells example with the bottle date and the A,B,C code.

In Germany Uerige has the filled and best by date on the bottle, 8 weeks for the beer to be good.

 

When the cap leaves the womb and goes on the bottle.

 

I think the "Best By" dates are for the benefit of the brewer, distributor, and retailer.

 

Oh it can be.....trust me,e-mail the brewery if you doubt it.They are gonna tell you the same.
That finestkind was bottled on December 6,2012.

Maybe you got a bad bottle?

Cheers

 

Logistics aside, the best option is both. Bottled on and best by.

 

Then you, sir, are a rube. Another victim of A-B's marketing ploy. Why can't you just call the brewer and ask when it was brewed? (Unless, of course, it's a Washington brewer. It's unlikely he'll get your call, as he is out elk hunting and/or toking some killer nugs).