Old beer in bottle shops...

Yep. One of the reasons one particular retailer got most of my business in the days when the case law was still in place boiled down to the fact he date checked every case and then refused delivery on the old stuff.

 

Yeah but isn't it the distributor's decision about how much of a beer that they buy and sometimes "bury" in their warehouses?
Over enthusiastic retailers don't help the situation either and add to the problem of distributor's decisions. What a mess.

 

I am not a beer industry expert but I wonder if the breweries provide volume discounts when selling their beers. Do you have knowledge here?

Regardless it is ultimately the brewery that gets blamed for producing 'bad' beer. When was the last time you heard a casual beer consumer blame a distributor?

Cheers!

 

That's good. Fresh threads are the best, after a while they tend to get a bit stale.

 

It's a number of factors. Was recently talking a distributor on this. To some degree a distributor is to blame saying said beer will sell fast and doesn't. Other times a retailer will buy more than they should because they think it'll sell like hot cakes.

For instance. Stone Enjoy By.... unless the retailer promotes this it will inevitably sit on the shelf. Stuff like Bud Light or Yuengling or macro brands sell themselves because of price or because "it's what everyone drinks". Well also advertising plays a large part.

Some companies if you tell them you saw past date beer on the shelf they will send a rep immediately or connect with the distributor or retailer to fix this. Others don't care. Some even buy back old product depending on much was not sold.

Total Wine can be a victim of past date beer and still sell it. Other TW locations will drop the price when it nears the expiration date. The Craic sold rather well. But I recently found some in Sarasota. The six pack originally sold for $9.99, but was now $7.99. At least in their eyes they are still attempting to make money. Some TW will scour their shelves every day to make sure they don't have old product.

As for liquor stores? Eh. There are some near me that have beer from 2012 still, but on the discount rack for 12% off. Sure seeing a bottle of beer you never knew existed. Just not one that was from 2014. Also some have high florescent lighting brighter than outside and that alone makes me not want to buy anything. I treat these places like a museum. Look, but don't touch.

Not every place can sell fast. The community in where a store is located plays a huge part. However, I've noticed my generation seems to be more for finding new beers to try. Where as others just want a cold beer in a cold glass. To that degree I don't care about them.

 

We've had this discussion before, and little has changed. They SHOULD put brew dates on bottles, but many don't. I too buy carefully, and favor buying from local breweries where I know the beer is fresh.

 

Just cringed at some year old Stone IPA and 18 month old Bells Porter.

Around here I don't buy it if it's not dated unless I know it's fresh (new beer, seasonal), and I always check.

 

That's fine if you have a local brewery that makes good beer.
If the beer isn't good to begin with, it doesn't matter how "fresh" it is...
Freshness does not always equal good beer.

 

I believe they do, I see tons of different beers out and they are not moving fast. Then the next release comes and the cycle continues.

 

I can second that on local craft and old beer in stores. There is a brewery down the way from me and I can hit a store less than a mile from them and the IPA is 3 mos old. Its like you are a mile away and your beers sit at local stores and is stale. That is really disappointing to me. I email them and see no change, guess they just don't really care.

 

Distributors want to buy enough to get a good price, but if they buy too much, I doubt they can get their money back from the brewery - so they are sticking retailers that they know don't check dates. Your retailer not accepting old beer (and possibly not undated beer either) will just lead to the distributor dumping the old beer on the next 20 retailers that don't check, and your retailer will have a smaller selection of fresh beer. This works for you if you're satisfied with the limited selection of fresh beer, presuming the retailer is also honest enough to pull old beers that came in within date, but sat on his shelf too long.

 

Around me there are several stores and in a few I had to wipe dust off the bottle to see the date. I got the impression the owners couldn't care less and never will care. It's a quick painless business for them that holds no passion whatsoever. They have a blank state if you try and talk to them about anything. Point is those stores will never change on their own

 

"Ownership" of the beer is not the deciding factor, the brewery and the distributor have a legal business contract, which (should) contain wording like the following (taken from actual contracts):

In no event shall over-age Product (according to age standards published from time to time by Anheuser-Busch) reach the consuming public. If any over-age Product is found in the possession of wholesaler or in the possession of a retailer to whom wholesaler sold such Product, wholesaler agrees, unless prohibited by law, to destroy such over-age Product in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations, and to replace any such Product which had been in the possession of a retailer with fresh Product at no cost to the retailer. Wholesaler's cost of destroying and replacing over-age Product shall be borne by wholesaler or by Anheuser-Busch, depending upon which party was responsible for the over-age condition.
_________

Distributor agrees not to sell ineligible brands to retail accounts. Ineligible brands include brands that are out-of-code date at the time of sale to a retail account... Distributor shall sell product to retail accounts on a first in first out basis and shall monitor retail accounts to ensure that no out of date product is offered for sale at retail. Distributor shall, at its expense, remove out-of-date product from retail locations and exchange the product on a one for one basis, or as allowed by (law).

And it's not like the Beer Distributors don't know or acknowledge their responsibilities.

Keeping Perishable Product Safe and Fresh
After delivery, distributors continue to monitor retailer shelves, taps and keg lines to ensure consumers are receiving the freshest product.
--- NBWA Annual Report

 

You have some questionable assumptions here.

One is that the distributor is allowed by state law to charge a different price per case depending on the volume a retailer purchases. That is not legal in some states, including PA.

Another is that my favorite retailer and I cared or had some sort of responsibility to worry about whether some other retailer was sloppy and accepted old beer. Personally, if I'd see too much old beer in stock too often at some store, I'd simply stop shopping there, and go somewhere else.

A third is that my access to a case of a particular beer was limited by what this one place had in stock. However, If I had wanted to just live with the available stock, fresh or not, I would have gone to a different retailer who had more space and so had the room to carry a larger range of offerings. But since this guy knew that I'd buy a case if I ordered it through him, and it was fresh enough upon arrival in his store, he'd arrange to get me a case of a particular beer if I ordered one, and if it could be had fresh in PA. If the price was likely to cause sticker shock he'd let me know before ordering.

If a retailer wants to get my dollars I get fresh beer or I don't buy a particular beer and choose among the attractive alternatives, or go to a different retailer, or have a "wee nip" of a nice single malt Scotch instead.

 

Some interesting conditions on transfer of ownership and of responsibilities there. Do we have a sense of how many small brewerie-distributor combinations there are where such conditions are in the contract of sale/responsibility?

 

PROBREWER Obligations of beer wholesalers:

There are no strictly defined responsibilities of the beer wholesaler, but the following are considered standard obligations of both parties (snipped):

Wholesalers
– Proper stock rotation in warehouse and retail trade.
– Remove “out of date” product from retail trade.

Look, everyone in these constant deja vu/old beer threads can find out-of-code beer on the shelves, every retailer has stories about the difficulty in getting distributors to deliver fresh beer, exchange old stock or even monitor dates and, even with a contract, franchise laws in many states make it difficult for brewers to get out of their contracts with wholesalers, but even the NBWA says it is the distributor's job. Brewers should also have their own reps in the region monitoring the job their distributors are doing.

 

Yet there are distributors who don't live up to that.

I'm aware of at least one retailer, here in PA, who cares enough to check, who also reports having rejected the same case of beer from the wholesaler's delivery truck at least three times. Similarly I personally know a case where the wholesaler actually put out of code beer on a retailer's shelf as if it were fresh. Finally I have a nice brewey tee shirt and got a free case of beer when a wholesaler "didn't notice" that the case of beer I ordered was a year old. (The date code was just arcane enough that neither my retailer nor I recognized that until I bought the case and then found my "decoder ring" at home.

 

I didn't say (or at least did not intend to) that the distributor charged the retailers a different price, I meant that the distributor might be getting volume discounts when they buy a truckload of a beer vs a few cases, which would encourage them to buy too much, which could contribute to beer aging at the distributor.

I didn't say that you or your retailer care what happens at the other retailers, I was just making the point that the great policy of your retailer will unfortunately not cause the distributor to start watching dates more - if they can dump it on other retailers. We need more retailers to check - and only then will it change the situation. Not saying that all distributors are shifty, but based on reports here (and you can always believe the internet) some are.

I applaud the actions of your retailer, and yes you can choose to shop anywhere and be as diligent as you want in accepting whatever dates are available in your market. But the problem will continue to be the distributors, retailers, and consumers who don't care enough to change things. Wouldn't it be great if everyone did their part - clear and consistent dates by brewers, distributors not buying too much and not pawning off old beer, retailers not accepting old beer and not letting beer sit too long on the shelf, and consumers who refuse old or un-dated beer? Probably not going to happen unless mandated.

Based on what @jesskidden said above, agreements already in place should avoid old beer from some breweries, as long as they actively verify. I can see AB/InBev enforcing this, but many craft brewers may not want to expend the money to verify.

 

let me know where and that will stop