Double Crooked Tree. Last Years Vintage?

This is why you only buy things from beer stores and wine shops that you have a personal relationship with the beer buyer. It helps to avoid these kinds of mishaps.

 

If the bottles and cases aren't date, how would the liquor store know how old it is? Sure, it might have sat on their shelf for a year, but it could just as easily have been delivered to them last week. Blame the brewery that doesn't code and/or the distributor that didn't keep track of the beer, either in their warehouse or in the retailer's (who is their customer) stock.

I've never had a "personal relationship" with a liquor store clerk in many decades of beer buying. I remain anonymous to the sales help, read the date code (and not buy beer that lacks it), rather than trust their all too frequent "Oh, we just got that in!" answer.

 

Luckily Dark Horse bottle dates as of late 2012, so the future should not be a problem now for fresh Dark Horse brew. If you find some without a Julian date on the middle of the neck(DDD-YY), it is older than November 2012.

 

I was joking about that. The OP is my co-worker at the shop in which I'm the beer buyer (not the store that sold the beer in question!)

 

When you go into a liquor store you should always inquire as to when they got that shipment of beer in. If you are a regular and they are friendly they will almost always be upfront with you. Especially considering you are spending a premium to have a premium beer. Also if it wasn't up to your taste you should contact the brewery and tell them you had a subpar batch of their beer. If they are a standup brewery they will usually send you a check for a bottle of their beer.

 

Really? Most liquor stores with good beer selections that I frequent have several hundred of different beers- an employee is supposed to know and remember when every one of them was delivered? Not to mention that delivery date is worthless - the bottling date is the important factor. There's no standard for how a long a beer might spend at the brewery, and then in transit to the wholesaler or how long it might sit in the distributor's warehouse before hitting the retailer's shelves.

There's a brand new liquor store opened in late October in a nearby town. On the shelf they've got several Pyramid beers with a "Best Before" date of August, 2012 stamped on the neck label. If I had walked into that store on opening day and, instead of reading the label, asked when the Pyramid was delivered they could have honestly replied "Just last week!" Yet the beer was probably brewed last spring and was already months beyond the brewer's own freshness recommendation.

 

Actually, it's very possible a good beer guy would know how old particular brands are, just as most BA's will know how long something has been sitting in their cellar. It's just as easy for an employee to say, "We just got that IPA in, but I tried it and I think it's old," as it is to say, "Oh, we just got that in!"

Your opinion is noted because it is what you're used to, but you can't speak from experience in establishing relationships with those you buy beer from, as you mentioned, so I wouldn't be so quick to discount the belief of establishing relationships with retailers/employees. You can glean a lot more info than you might think, you should try it some time.

 

FWIW, fresh Double-Crooked Tree = amazingness (esp. on tap) but I've enjoyed bottles at several years old as well...sorry you didn't get what you were planning to, though :/

 

And how would he know that? If by "how old" one means when it was bottled, the employee read the date code on the bottle/case. Why would I ask someone to do that when I can do it myself? I've owned a beer store and have worked other retail - believe me, such "stupid questions" get tiring. OTOH, if (as several posters have said in this thread) "how old" means when the beer was delivered to the retailer - again, that's worthless info in many cases as I've noted above.

If they "think it's old" why is it still on the shelf? Return it to the distributor for credit/exchange rather than sell it to the unsuspecting customers who choose not to or are unable to check with the salesclerk for "inside" freshness info. That doesn't sound like my idea of a "good beer guy".

During my legal beer buying period over 5 different decades (when I was under 18, I tended not to ask too many questions in hopes that they'd do the same ) I've talked to countless liquor store owners, retail employees, bartenders, distributor sales- and delivery people, brewery reps, and brewers and other brewery employees, but I don't consider those "personal relationships" (which turned out to be an inside joke) but maybe that is just a generational/"Facebook" kinda thing.

Yes, I've gotten much good information from talking to those people (and lots of mis-info, beer mythology and worthless opinions). But, back to the point of the OP, in the case of how old a particular beer is since bottling, I still depend on my own reading of the date code - that's why they are there.

 

By "how old" I meant "how long it was sitting on the shelf," that's why I predicated it with the BA cellar reference, but I guess I could have made that more clear. Regardless, if it was a dateless bottle, as was the case with the OP, knowing if it was on the shelf for awhile could still be useful information, you have to admit that. And let's face it, beer sits on shelves whether we like it or not. 9 out of 10 customers won't notice the difference anyway, the other 10% are BeerAdvocates.

Ultimately, you make it sound like the clerks are worthless to talk to, I'm simply saying that is not true. Be it beer age, inside information, or even preferential treatment, knowing a beer guy might be worthless but it might also be incredibly useful, whereas not talking to them at all is just worthless; I'm on a first name basis with the guy at my local beer shoppe and we talk shop whenever I stop in and even see each other out at other pubs. Recently he saved two bottles of Black Note specifically for me. I'd say that's better than not knowing him at all, wouldn't you agree?

 

But, I don't ask them for, or expect them to know, bottling dates. I read the labels/cases.

 

I have heard several people that normally enjoy this brew say that it seems to be more malty than last year. They think that its just not the same, even though it is fresh. Maybe this is what you are experiencing, not an old bottle. I have not tried this years yet, so I don't have my own opinion on the subject.

 

You keep saying that; the OP said multiple times there wasn't a date on the bottle or packaging.

 

To which I replied (above):

"If the bottles and cases aren't dated, how would the liquor store know how old it is? ...(I don't) buy beer that lacks it (a date code)..."​

 

On the Fresh Beer Only site, it says Dark Horse puts Julian dates of when they were bottled on the bottles. So, Dark Horse dates some of their beers but not all of them? Kind of ridiculous, imho.

 

Fortunately Double Crooked Tree ages well. It is amazing fresh but also amazing in a different way with some age on it.

 

They just started dating their bottles.