Refusing to buy beer that doesn't have a bottling date?

I'll look for other clues, such as "I haven't seen this bottle before, so it must be new." "There's no dust on the bottle; the bottle is in refrigeration... The bottle does NOT cost more than seven dollars..." The only time I broke this rule recently was with Knee Deep Simtra. I figured fool me once... I won't get fooled again! Of course this only applies to the usual suspects of must-drink-fresh beers.

 

I don't buy year round ipas without a date. Not on principle, but cause craft beer doesn't move fast around here.

Seasonals? Ill buy. Chances are its fresh enough for me

 

I'm strongly opinionated on the freshness issue. Almost always I stick to beers that have freshness dates now. Like you, this is especially true for IPA.

My regulars with freshness dating:

Stone IPA
Bell's Two-Hearted
Ballast Point Sculpin
Ballast Point Big Eye
Firestone Union Jack
Odell IPA


To hell with brewers who put IPA's on the shelves without dating of some sort.

 

I wish every brewery would bottle date, but until then, I just stick to stores that move a lot of product. It's generally not too much of a problem in my area, as long as you avoid BevMo.

 

Three Floyds- no bottling or freshness date, but mighty good stuff! Maybe because their stuff doesn't sit around

 

I make a point to pretty loudly say out loud to myself the bottling date on really old stuff when I am standing in the store. Kind of a "beer" pressure thing. Picking up a Port Mongo DIPA that is 9 months gone, "This was bottled last April?" In my area, the distributors do everything, including pick the stock for most stores because they have no clue, but more than once a store owner has thanked me for letting them know they need to rattle the distributors cage about leaving old beer in the rack. I think the biggest sin I have seen is past season Sierra Nevada. They will not put out the Celebration in most areas until the Tumbler is gone. I have seen Tumbler in stores in March. And no Celebration was ever stocked. This is San Jose California mind you, a desert in an awesome ocean of beer.

 

The only flaw in not buying dated bottles is Three Floyds doesn't put them on most of there beers. So I'm out.

 

Lagunitas bottle date is on the neck - Julian code.
This one is 048 = Feb 17th
http://amsu.cira.colostate.edu/julian.html





I always look for fresh dates & packs in the coolers for IPA's.
We spend good $, and deserve to drink the freshest IPA's - it makes a huge difference in taste.

 

I guess you just have to try and know what is fresh and what isn't. Beer store by my house has cases of Stone IPA, Southern Tier IPA, and plenty of other IPA's sitting around that were bottled as far back as late 2011. I don't buy that shit because I know it's way beyond it's prime, and I know that they've just been *sitting* there. But some unbeknown sucker will fall for it and buy it. You just gotta know yr shit.

 

Thanks! Doing what i can

 

If it's supposed to be hop-forward in any fashion, I won't buy it without a bottling date. There's entirely too many options on the shelf to waste money on out of code, stale APAs, IPAs, etc. It's fucking 2013. If the brewery isn't dating their bottles (I don't care how), it's bc they don't care to do so, and I don't care to buy their beer.

 

I bought a Hopwired IPA recently- no bottle date. It may be the last IPA I buy without a bottle date.

Sometimes beer that has a fresh bottle date may not be enjoyable. I recently bought a Sixpoint Sweet Action with a September best by bottle date. It's low ABV. Fresh, but I didn't like the beer

Also, it's important to look at the bottle date when buying a bottled beer in a restaurant/pub. Sometimes, the bottle date is older- in that case, send it back and order another beer

 

I don't pay much attention to bottle dates, and I have yet to drink one I didn't enjoy. IMHO, unless you are drinking 5-6 month old IPA's you're not going to be able to tell a difference, unless you want to.

 

What he said. I don't flat out refuse to buy a beer without a date, but if its a toss up between two beers and one is 2 weeks old and the other has no date? It's a pretty easy answer. There's alot of good beer out there that isn't dated. I think it's worth the risk.

 

Actually, I don't know whether if Stone or the Distributor takes a hit. Wouldn't the distributor be less likely to pull the beer if it came out of his comission?

 

Enough brewers these days are dating bottles. There is absolutely no reason for me to buy undated hoppy beers.

Anybody got any info on Alesmith's new bottle dating system? i hear they are the latest to jump on board.

 

I'm ashamed to relate some of the assurances I've accepted from liquor store employees.

OK, here's one. "Those bottles are dusty because they were cleaning the shelves, and the dust fell onto the six packs on the bottom shelf".

 

Given how big of a deal this is for many people, is there some sort of listing of breweries that date/Julian date/don't date? I bet it would be helpful.

 

Can someone link that interview with Calagione where he says that not putting "Bottled On" dates on the bottle is foolish? I'm paraphrasing, but he says that the expense and effort are negligible and the care it shows is invaluable.