So my girlfriend surprised me with 6 Stone bombers when I came back from vacation and I was very pleased with the selections. However, I noticed 3 are well expired. Self-Righteous, Smoked Porter, and Cali-Belgique each have a May 2012 Enjoy By date. I've already gone through the motion of Stone's Expired Beer reporting process but my buddy told me I should still try them and see how they are. He thinks the Smoked Porter shouldn't be too bad but he's not sure about the other two. Any thoughts or past experiences? Am I diving into a bad idea that my taste buds will hate me for?
The SR and SP will be fine. Just a little less hoppy and smoky. Not sure about the CB, but I imagine its ok minus some hops...
Yeah as mentioned above, all of them will not have gone "bad" -- the CB and SR will have diminished hop profiles but each have other attributes (CB, belgian yeast and SR, dark malts) so it wont be a total bummer. Don't judge the beers as they are knowing they should have a lot more hop presence.
I agree with this guy. I don't have any personal experience, but I assume that the brews would still be tasty, just different.
I notice most beers (whether it's an aging beer or not) will taste good past freshness dates--some will taste better. They biggest problem is with ipas and some pales. If the malt backbone of the beer has little character (mostly or all 2/6-row pale/pilsner malts), there is going to be very little to write home about when the hop flavor falls off.
I bought a couple of 22oz Ruinations a couple of weeks ago and didn't realize they were about a month past the "enjoy by" date. I did the whole reporting thing on Stone's website and drank them both; they were still good beers but they seemed a little "dead" to me. Not much flavor or aroma really stuck out.
It isn't expired, it's just gone past its "best by" date. Such dates are pure guesswork by the brewer , who hasn't a clue about the conditions the beer will be kept under after it leaves the brewery. It's most likely the beers won't be at their best but still capable of being pleasant drinks in their own right.
I'm pretty sure the date is not an "Expiration" date as in the beer is no longer any good. It's only a date that Stone is designating as "best by". While not at its prime, I'm sure it's fine to consume with perhaps very subtle changes in flavor.
I had it with 3 weeks left on the Enjoy By date, it tasted nothing like the reviews. No hoppiness, just a spicy, peppery, licorice bomb.
I would try the beers in front of your GF, then when you take a swig and spit it out and then go on a long tirade about paying attention to the freshness of beer next time. Just make sure your plentyoffish profile is up to date before you attempt this.
You're going to need some dried sage, body paint & an empty beach. Arrange the bottles around a firepit of the burning sage, paint yourself and your girlfriend up since she is the one who brought them to you (also e-mail Greg Koch & ask him to participate for ideal results), dance around the bottles for 45 min or so. Then hunt down an animal on the beach, preferably a chicken, eat it, then pop the bottles- they should be fine.
Well I feel so much more conscientious about dates now. Matter of fact, I had a Lagunitas Censored the other night at a restaurant and it was 4 months past bottle date. I figured it would be ok but it ended up having no head and it was not very enjoyable. I never had it before so idk if I wrongly judged it or it was too far gone.
