Distributors That Pawn Off Old Beers.....

Oh, I could see that, I suppose. Some of the stores I go to would probably see not getting "special releases" as the icing on the cake - who wants to bother with the nightmare of constant phone calls, making waiting lists (and people on the list never showing up), lines of people at the door when you open up in the morning, accusations of favoritism, etc., etc.

And I'd agree with them if I was still working retail.

 

Yep, it is a blessing and a curse to be on the distributors good side for special releases, but then one day that distro doesn't bother delivering your BMC order the week of the superbowl and you lose customers... I have a buddy who is a beer manager at a store here, and at least according to him (so anecdotal bitching about work) some of the distro reps are pretty shameless in pushing stores to carry certain things and help them clear the warehouse of beer no-one really wants... Makes me pretty glad I don't have to deal with it!

 

Isn't the retailer also partly involved in the best way to take care of old beer? It takes an effort by distributors and retailers to keep track of dating and to share in losses. Smart retailers mark price down and sell off close-dated beer.

 

Depending on the style (not IPAs, duh), I'm open to a deal on something that was sitting somewhere for whatever reason. I'll buy a little to test it out, and if it's good, possibly buy more.

Just got some Ommegang 4pks for $5 at the Wine Source, and they had sale signs up above the pile, so they knew what they were doing, and not trying to dupe anyone. I can dig that. As part of regular inventory with regular pricing? Homie don't play that!

 

I'm ok with it, with full disclosure, AKA the discount pile. A business that intentionally deceives is a business that should be avoided. On a personal note I bought a case of Young's DCS Nitro's at my fav beer stop@ mkt price in PA 75.00 pre tax dollars that Mrs Nebbie toiled to earn! Stop in a place a few clicks down the road and bought a case of the same off the discount pile for 19.99 with a best before date of 7/14, my palate after many attempts cannot notice any difference! I'm going to keep testing however!

 

So you don't buy beer anymore? I am sure every store you ever shopped at had at least a beer that was out of date when you shopped there.

I love finding past expiration dated Great Lakes Blackout Stout bottles.

 

I share the pain - I just received a shipment ordered over the Internet and a hoppy red ale was a year and a half old and an Dugges Bollox! was bottled in 2011. I have had more issues with big box stores than with smaller specialty shops but I do not think the distributors or the retailers are paying much attention for our desire to have beer that does not taste like wet cardboard.

 

Who ever says that they would stop shopping at a store because they saw old beer is kidding themselves. I see old beer at almost every store I've been to (20+ states). It just happens and there is nothing you can do about it. There are too many breweries and not enough buyers. My local store has old beer, and has had for 7 years (Arcadia Imperial Stout dated 2007), but they always get fresh good beer in at the same time that doesn't last for more than a few weeks. I shop their 2-3 times a week. I don't hold it against them for having old beer. Its a combination of the fact that some people who shop there really aren't into certain beers/breweries, and the distributors sitting on cases for an unnecessary amount of time. You can't blame the shop.

 

I don't get the expiration date on that beer. It's a great stout fresh and with a bit of age on it.

 

You must only get beer from breweries then. Every shop has outdated beer, get over it.

 

Now that's just pathetic.... They can do better than that

 

Lol me either, fantastic with age on it.

 

Its disapointing, Amoskeag and NHD usually take back any expired beer. Of course it has to be a full case otherwise they won't touch it.

 

I try to get the oldest bottles I can find usually. Recently I got some 3 year old north coast old stock and some old raspy that was 2 years old, both were awesome.

 

While at first blush this might seem to be the case, its not so hard as it seems. I have been on site more than once when a delivery was being made to one of the retail outlets where I buy my cases of beer. Its basically a one man show with two part-timers who come in and help out on the cash register and minding the store when he has to be out for some reason.

Before signing to accept delivery on an order he has placed with a wholesale distributorship, the cases get double checked for dates, but opening them is not required since virtually all of the cases are either fresh seasonals or there is a date (bottled on, best by, sometimes both) on the case. If the beer is too old he refused to accept delivery on that case. He reports that over time the distributorships adapted and quit sending him questionable dates.

Once he did misread a Julian date on a case I'd ordered of a seasonal that should have been fresh but that had actually sat around the distributor's warehouse from the year before. When I spotted that he immediately took the case back and began to raise hell with the distributor and the brewery. Subsequently I wound up with the distributor apologizing for their screw up (which they claimed not to have noticed) and throwing in a case of one of the Brewery flagship beers (and the brewery kicked in a logoed t-shirt ).

On another occasion I'd ordered a case of a particular winter seasonal and the distributorship delivered 2 cases of the wrong beer but one with a similar name. Similar enough that he accepted delivery and I picked up my case and didn't realize it was the wrong beer until I got ready to write my review.... I liked my case enough to keep it and my guests liked it even more. Since it was not the beer he'd ordered, that second case sat around his showroom floor for months and was well out of code by the time the distributorship finally just told him they were not going to pick it up and he should just trash it himself.

A guess my point here is that in general a retailer who knows or cares about the importance of freshness of beer can put in place the necessary business procedures to ensure they have fresh stock coming in the door.

But I also agree that from all I've heard, Chicago is an area with some special problems as to who and how the legal controls intended to prevent abuse are implemented/enforced.

 

Here in upstate NY there is a company that goes around to the distributors and buys up old craft beers.

In turn, they sell them at a heavy discount to BMC drinkers which are the majority of their clients. They specialize in discount BMC.

Griff's is the name, and I don't recommend you buy any craft for obvious reasons.

 

That is pretty good - I wish I lived where you do - the stores around me don't do anything even close to that! Also tends to be a lot of big box stores by me that get in pallets of beer 4 or 5 times a day. I guess it is much easier when you are the store owner of a smaller store to have this control!

 

From my perspective I don't think it’s that the control is easier with the smaller store, I think that the organizational structure at a larger store makes it harder to put in place. If store management actually gave freshness in beer priority it could be done there, and at not much extra cost.

But then I'm inclined to agree with those who argue that organizational problems/failures should be viewed as failures of management rather than employees, the system, or "the difficulty" of doing X. There's talking and there's walking and if there's no talk there will be no walk, and even if there's talk there won't be any walk unless the responsible managers put their money where their mouth is (to mix metaphors). :-)

 

True - if management isn't making it a priority you can't expect the store employees to care...

 

This is why my favorite brewery self distributes. Too many distributors sitting on kegs too long.