Will Stone's "Enjoy By' Series influence other brewers re: freshness dating?

Agree. And lets not forget they are sending this beer to selected cities where they know it will sell. Try sending to des moine or bismark and see what happens. Pretty sure EVERY brewery that sells beer offsite wants it consumed at optimal freshness but once it leaves the brewery they have no control.

 

I live in SW Michigan and I can find anything Stone--- besides the Enjoy Bys. This says something about the beer's limited distro to ensure freshness and I think that's just awesome.

But I really wanna taste it!

As for the main question, I think it's certainly a possibility. Stone is one of the giants in the craft beer world and has proven to have much influence in the past, even claiming to have the "first full-time brewed and bottled double IPA on the planet" with the nascence of Ruination in June 2002. (According to the writing on the Ruination Tenth Ann'y bottles) If they can explode a category like that, who's to say they can't up awareness of the importance of freshness to hoppy beer enjoyment by naming their beer after a future date, and slapping it wide across the bomber label? It is certainly clever marketing, if nothing else.

 

We got the 12/12/12 in St. Louis but doesn't look like we're getting the new one. Must mean it didn't sell well enough here. Too bad cause it's fantastic

 

No, each batch only goes to a handful of markets. See their website http://www.stonebrewing.com/enjoyby/

 

This. And even more to that point, it seems they're actually poking fun (in Stone's still-completely-relevant "we're so cool" manner) at how some people are very concerned with beer freshness. Which is especially "funny" within the context of the MA market, where Stone is well known for letting things sit on shelves for months gathering dust, not doing anything unless there's a public callout.

Believe me, I'd LOVE to see more bottle dating, and clearer bottle dating, on ALL craft beers.

But a brief gimmick by Stone isn't going to impact that.

 

A quick point you have made that screams values: those that are bold are challenged by those who are timid. It is not weak to be timid, but it seems that one someone is confident and strong in their convictions, the negative is also implied first.

I applaud Stone for their bold approach...

 

We want "bottled on" dates not "enjoy by" dates. Stones Enjoy By beers are excellant, but I would not pay full price for one anywhere near the enjoy by date. It's over-extended. The beer is faded a month prior to that date.

Why not just tell us when it was bottled? They can go on from there to make their reccomendations about age, but then ultimately it is up to the consumer to make the choice based on his own preferences. Frankly "Drink by" dates are worlthless when you don't know the formula used to produce them. Breweries don't use the same formulas so It's deceptive in my opinion.

 

They do - "Bottled On: 01.11.13 Enjoy By Date: 02.15.13"

 

I agree completely with you outside of when you said not to drink Enjoy By near its besy by date. The beer life cycle here is 35 days....are you telling me even that is too long to wait to drink it?

 

That's excellant.

I'm not ragging on Stone specifically, just making the general statement that drink by dates don't mean jack squat. IIPAs often put thoise out 6 months or more. Bottled on dates are unambiguous.

BTW, Texas received Enjoy By 12/21/12 in mid November. I bought it on 11/24 (there was no "bottled on" date on my bottle.) Also, Stone must be shortening the time-span between bottled on and Enjoy by, because you're indicating to me there's a 35 day time-span posted on the Enjoy by 02.15.13 .... there's no way that my 12/21/12 had that short a span. We just don't get Stone beers that quickly in Texas.

 

"Bottled On: 11.16.12 - Enjoy By Date: 12.21.12"

...according to Stone's website - http://www.stonebrewing.com/enjoyby/default_r3_results.asp​

(Don't know why the link in my post above, though in light blue, doesn't work for me. Should have directed to http://www.stonebrewing.com/enjoyby/ ).

 

No I'm not. 35 days is excellant! If that is indeed the span now I was speaking out of my ASS.

However, the only "Enjoy By" release that we received in N. Texas was 12.21.12. I bought it in Texas on 11/24/12. If that was brewed a week prior to when I received it.... that would make it the fastest delivery time to North Texas in history! I was assuming, like most other CA beers (including Stone), that we received it a minimum of 6 weeks after it's bottled on. My 12.21.12 had no bottled on date BTW. Which really illustrates my point. Enjoy by dates SUCK. Bottled on dates are what we need because they are unambiguous.

 

Okay, egg's on my face. But it also explains why 12.21.12 was the only "Enjoy By" release we have received. Just goes to show you how much old crap we USUALLY must be getting. See what I mean? All the Stone stuff has a "drink by" date. But Without any indication of a "bottled on" date it's pretty useless. This high-profile age-sensitive release aint coming to us anymore. We got only one of them. How much other time sensitive stuff should never hit the shelves?

 

Id love to see an "Enjoy By" series for Nugget Nectar and Flower Power

 

Stone has historically taken beer freshness very seriously. This isn't a gimmick. I mean, what other brewery cares enough about freshness to put up a page like this:
http://www.stonebrew.com/freshbeer/

(and they act on it too)

 

Both those beers are date coded - when I find Flower Power (difficult the last year or so), it's usually 2 weeks or less from bottling. Nugget Nectar is similar - we'll see within the week which bottling date(s) NJ gets this year.

 

My experience differs, albiet only in a couple specific circumstance.

I will give them that they at least date their bottles.

That said- I still think this specific beer/series is a gimmick poking fun at beer geeks' obsession with fresh IPAs. Whatever- I rarely buy Stone anyway.

Still doubt it will have any overall impact on bottle dating. Would be nice if it did- heck, if a bunch of brewers came out and said "Ya know what, this Enjoy by brew from Stone made us think, and we'll now be dating our bottles", I'd go out and blow the whole next beer run on Stone brews just based on principle.

Maybe.

If they were fresh.

 

Flower Power is only dated on the case, correct? Or are they doing bottle dates now?

Dating by stamping the case... better than nothing, but if you don't have the cardboard case for reference... not quite as useful.

 

There's only been one other "vintage" (edition?) of Enjoy By since then - 2/15/13. They only ship each one to a limited number of markets at one time, and I don't think many markets have gotten more than one (NJ did- but both times they disappeared fast. I only got one bottle of the last one - also 12/21/12 - and that was only because I walked in the store when the case was still sitting on the distributor's handtruck).