"New" stock that's actually old

Me too. I was so happy to see new foudners beers on the shelf after an entire year of looking at 7/12/12. The new beers were 10/12.

I think they have no choice or that they are simply uneducated about it. The average person thinks beer is good forever because it's not refrigerated.

 

It's the distributor.

 

Isn't this usually the distributors fault? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I know in my area that's usually the case when old stuff hits the shelf as "new."

 

At the store I work at, it's almost always up to the distributor(s) we work with as to when our product actually shows up. You should've heard my boss after the third consecutive postponement of our W00tstout delivery...

 

Distributors in Arizona do this. I've seen Safeway switch to new beers or expand the beer section and large portions of it were beers that were months after expiration. The distributor delivered expired product.

 

Who among us but you can tell us what goes on in Djibuti or why? Long shipping distances perhaps? Muslim anti alcohol strictures perhaps? But most breweries do not have the storage space to hold back lots of beer while distributors typically have warehouse storage space, so they seem a likely culprit as well.

 

Beer distributors are for shit, they're probably the ones pressuring the breweries not to bottle date.

 

I saw some new fall seasonal nondescript Oktoberfest at my regular store that was dated August 2012. Had to be a distributor that couldn't dump all of last years stock so they held onto it until now. That is not beer advocacy.

 

Not always the distributors, at a store that used to be my regular, I asked the guy when they were getting hoptimum in, he said in a couple of days, but he called the manager of the distributor and had him deliver his shipment that day so I could buy some, went in at least twice a week for the next two months and never saw hoptimums out until almost three months later, he just never rotates his stock for some reason, and that drew me away from being a regular, still go in every once in awhile, but never really see anything new, it's been almost a year since I've been going there and at least 80% of the stock is the same beers

 

Every time I see a "new" batch of FW Union Jack or Double Jack on the shelves, it's always at least 3-4 months old. It's a shame because they are both incredible beers.

 

As noted by many posters above, it typically* was the distributor who delivered the out-of-code beer to the retailer, but it was the retailer who accepted the shipment of that beer, in many cases (state laws vary) paid for it, and allows it to be sold in their store. [*In some states, it is legal for chains to transfer beer from store to store].

The next question becomes why does the distributor still have 11 month old beer in their warehouse? Does the brewer have no responsibility for that? No local brewery rep checking out the inventory, either at the distributor or at retailers? They just sell a quantity of their beer to their distributor without care or knowledge of the local market, shrugging their shoulders and say, "Whatever. If they want 6 pallets, sell 'em 6 pallets."

 

Whole foods in Djibuti?! I never would have guessed. Must've just opened...

 

This always happens with Sierra Nevada in Indiana. The CVS I worked at would routinely get 4 month old Pale Ale.

I'm starting to notice this trend with Green Flash since they just started distributing here as well. I don't think I've found anything from them fresher than 90 days old.

 

I think it may be due to the distributor not flying through some of their inventory. It would make sense if a product has a relatively high retail price (not talking about price gouging) it must have a higher case cost to the store. This could slow sales at the store level which would also lead to a distributor having older inventory

 

This leads to the debate about what is fresh and what isnt. 4 month old pale, and 90 day old Green Flash are not old in the eyes of the distributor.

 

Do you have any support for that statement? I never heard about pressure on brewers to not bottle date

 

No. The store has to make a conscious decision to order, accept, and put out for sale a six month old bottle. Sure, it'd be nice for the distributor to have fresher stock, but whether or not an old beer goes on the shelf for sale is up to the store.

 

Seems like this is one of those problemmatic areas in the 3 tier system worth more attention in these discussions.
So while questioning whether the brewer has any responsibility, we might also want to explore the question of whether the brewer has any authority. After all responsibility without authority is a very difficult position to be in and many businesses don't manage it very well.

Since the laws vary from state to state, lets take your home state, which you know better than most.

Suppose, for example that Kane Brewing or Climax Brewing (assuming they do not self distribute in Jersey) sends an employee out to wander around Jersey stores and that person finds some old beer on Joe Canal's shelves in Glassboro. What is the power or authority they have in such a situation to impact Canal's operation or the operation of the distributor(s?) who supplies Canal's.

 

No nothing to substantiate this, but look at it from their standpoint, who benefits the most from knowing the age of their beer? The consumer. Who does it hurt the most IF they do bottle date? The distributor. I think distributors hold a lot of power here, and there's a lot of money at stake for both the brewers and distributors, beer in their warehouse is theirs, and if it's not dated all the better. And slower moving beers tend to back up from retail to the distributor to the brewer, dating just makes it more difficult to sell. They can then offer places like Total Wine a discount to dump product, if it comes to that. FBS is a prime example, last year TW at one point was selling it for $4.50 a 4 pk, why is this, they were offered a deal about 6 months or so after release, they didn't buy it to take a loss. They had way too much in the system and needed to clear it out, but with FBS it's no big deal, but if that was an IPA they would have been screwed.