Old beer stocked on the shelves?!?

More than likely it has been sitting there since then. A place near me never rotates its stock so I only go there for new releases and hard alcohol. I have said things to the clerks about it, but they act like I have no clue what I'm talking about.

Yeah because almost a year old Deviant Dale's is still as good as when it came off the canning line. Keep telling yourself that.

 

Ask the store/distributor, and check the bottle dates before purchasing

 

oh yeah man. beer stores are notoriously bad for keeping track of the age of their product. many will flat out lie and say aging is good for and/or doesn't harm a beer (regardless of style). buyer beware for sure. beer stores simply don't sell the volume of beer that they stock. they will ALWAYS have old beer on the shelves. Some of it might be fresh but there will ALWAYS be old beer too. in fact two local places will probably be putting out 2 year old sierra nevada estate ale when the 2014 version rolls out later this year. they sure as hell did it last year and i almost bought a bottle before noticing the year old date on what is suppose to be a fresh hop ale!

 

The old beer could have been sitting at the retailer but they could also have been sitting at the wholesaler as well. If the old beer is due to sitting at the wholesaler the retailer should have checked it and refused delivery but that doesn't always occur.

The bottom line is like @rollom stated: check the bottle dates before purchasing.

Cheers!

 

I don't know about other areas, but with Indy, the responsibility typically falls onto the beer reps as it is in their contract and job duty to rotate fresh product. But it sounds like it may be a case of laziness!

 

I have been there. I have taken old beer up to the register and have been told I will remove it form the floor. The bottom line is that "mom and pop" buy beer for a very fickle community. A community whose tastes change as often as the wind changes direction it seems. They are stuck with what they buy. That includes imports ( which some of them do have dates by the way) and american beer.

Consider yourself informed. Check for dates. if you are not willing to "lose" what you spent on that beer should it be stale then do not buy it. A beer you have not seen before does not guarantee freshness only the bottled on date does.

 

one of the things that killed the first craft beer (then micro brews) revolution. Old stock constantly being on the shelf. you had to pick up a bottle and see if it was cloudy or not. John Q Sixpack would try one, not like and never go back again.

 

I noticed my local liquor store had (5) 6pks of Bells Hopslam in the cooler...I asked the owner where he got them...and he said he was saving them in the his office...but now decided to sell them...I said good luck selling 4 month old Hopslam for $19.95 and walked out

 

Sales reps should keep an out eye for freshness but if it costs them money they usually ignore it, this has been my personal experience.
Personally I have learned what I can buy from what stores. Usually a large chain store I purchase from has fresh beer, my go to stuff, but I have a few small shops where I pick up seasonal and special releases but I won't buy my go to stuff there because I know that the store has date issues.

 

I bought a Knee Deep Simtra recently after seeing the store post on IG that they got a week old batch in. When I got home, I realized the bottle I bought was almost two months old! I returned immediately and the owner let me exchange with no hassle. He pulled one out from the back, but kept the old ones out for people to buy first. I understand why he didn't put the new batch out, but it won't help the store if they have mostly old IPAs for sale.

 

This is a double-edged sword with the explosion of craft beer popularity I think, especially in small market areas like where I am at (northern MN). In the case of my local liquor store, I have been pretty pleased with the expanded selection they've been able to offer in the past couple of years, but it has also resulted in a lot of aging beers sitting on the shelves, to the point where I really want a 6pk of Two Hearted or a 4pk of Furious, but I'm not buying stuff that was bottled 7 months ago.
Even worse, I've seen instances in a few different stores where a beer that they didn't previously carry comes in and it is already 4+ months old, so I don't know if the distributors are unloading old stuff on some of the lower volume out of the way stores or what. Not cool.

 

Do you really expect a store proprietor to throw out beer that is only 2 months old? I understand it's not right off the line fresh, but it would still be perfectly serviceable. It's not like he lied about getting new beer in, he just put it behind the older stuff, which is shelving 101.

 

I picked up a 2013 Oak Smoked Old Guardian the other day and was pumped. Sitting next to it on the shelf was a Stone RuinTEN. How and why that hop bomb was still sitting on the shelf was beyond me...

 

Dude, I'd try a year old RuinTen. I might not like it, but it was one of my favorite beers of 2013 and I miss it and... if I saw that I'd have bought it. All I'm saying. I think getting upset over 2-4 month old IPAs is crying over spilled milk. It reeks of entitled elitism and beer snobbery. Not all IPAs fall off like that. The better ones can last a decent amount of time, and the rare IPA can even get better with a little age. No, usually not a year like some BA Imperial Stout, but 2-4 months is nothing to shit your pants about.

7+ months for your more average IPA, now that is a more legitimate complaint, but still, like UtopiaJane says, you can't really ever blame a craft beer joint for having old stock. It's not their fault we didn't buy their beer fast enough. Oh, and also, you are privileged even to have a shop to go to that has craft beer, let alone craft beer that you normally enjoy, in stock all the time.

 

I was excited to see a seasonal beer I enjoyed last spring hit shelves at a store near me again but when I looked closer it's the same batch from last year! If I wanted to try it aged I could have cellared it myself. Good thing I didn't buy it and discover the fact at home.

 

lol, no, sorry, I wasn't commenting on your complaint, which I understand much more, it was SLOBrewCRUZin and Optimator that set me off.

 

Its why I never go to a local ABC liquor store, their "craft" beer is always old. Of course half the reason is its stocks by BMC distro's. or so I been told. I not buying it, but bottom line even Sam adams is sold here out of date. On the other hand before they stopping selling it you used to get deals on ROCHEFORT. it would sit there and sit there, and finally they give it away for sometimes a low buck a pop, crazy....they even used to carry ORVAL. It was always 9 to 12 months old "new" in store, thankfully it tastes great then. they stopping selling it also. oh well, I make the 15 mile trip to TOTAL wine....their loss.

 

http://www.firestonebeer.com/beers/fresh-beer.php