Upset with Lagunitas...

On a whim, while at a local Binny's today I looked at a bottle of Hop Stoopid for the date. It was fairly easy for me to read to be honest. Yeah I had to tilt the bottle a bit but easy to read once I had the required angle. I suppose years of practice doing this with beer bottles has come in handy. It was dated from July 6th fwiw. I placed it back in its carton and covered it back up with its blanket of dust.

 

Not in my rotation, I never really cared for it, it's one of the few IPAs I've had that I think needs more bitter.

 

And Cigar City clearly dates their cans.

 

The date is right at the fill line in black ink on the neckof the bottle. There are many numbers on it but the first four for example, 157 7. I take that as (157)th day of 201(7) for those who dont know.

Lagunitas is pretty popular around me. So if i see a new one pop up i grab it. Sadly this is only during seasonals and new releases. Unless i see the store carrying a new one next week they ran out of.

 

never have a problem finding it - it's in the same spot every time. would i prefer more easily visible, standard dating? yes, but as long as lagunitas keeps pumping out good stuff at great prices, idgaf....

 

It's fun to teach new-to-the-job beer reps how to find it and then how to read it.

 

But there are no "rules" to bend - either Federal TTB regulations or US brewing industry conventions - about marketing a beer as an "adjunct lager" (the TTB has no such classification) or specifying length of lagering, or even calling a top-fermented ale a "lager" etc. The only TTB regulation for "ale" is that is fermented warm - the use of either bottom- or top-fermenting yeast is allowed (and was long accepted by most, but not all, in the US industry).

Yes, and many US ales of the pre-craft era were also stored for a period equal to, or in some cases, longer than the same brewer's lagering time for their lagers - obviously, often in conjunction with their dry-hopping process but not always. "Several weeks" or months or up to a year or more (for stock and India pale ales).

Sure they did not use the term "lagered" for the ales (although I swear there once was at least one US ale advertised as a "lagered ale" but can't find it), preferring terminology like "stored" "aged", "matured" or "ripened", and it was often at warmer temps than once typical for lagering but it essentially was the same thing. A US "stock ale" was, by definition, supposed to be long aged.

And many US ales (and porters and stouts) of that period also typically employed adjuncts like rice, corn and various sugars and syrups - probably the vast majority of them, in fact. I can only think of a few all-malt ales of that era - Trommers and Croft Cream Ale (pre-Narragansett era, at least).

They do? Even when it's labeled "ale" ? I think it's more the beer geekery that worries over such things - not the masses, nor the regulators or industry.

Yup, but not everyone agrees with what it is trying to say...
(That's often what all the mumbling is about )

 

Should we really have to 'find' the date code? Having to take the bottle out of the carrier, tilt it around so that I can get the correct light and then do some math or use a julian calendar to figure out the bottling date makes me pass on LAgunitas pretty much every time I'm shopping.

If they stopped using black on brown, you wouldn't even need to take the bottle out of the carrier to read the code. I bet most people who purchase lagunitas don't even know there is anything printed on the neck of the bottle.

 

Is it from this thread https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/lagered-ale.52866/ Samual Adams Boston Ale

 

No, they don't, nor do most beer reps in my experience.

 

And likely most people who purchase Ballast Point don't know there is anything printed on the base of the bottle. And to read that date, the bottle needs to be taken out of the carrier as well. Is it really that difficult for people who are keen on freshness dates to pick up a bottle out of a carrier? Maybe takes 10 seconds and a modicum of physical effort?
I have petitioned breweries for talking bottles so when one is in close proximity to a bottle it states clearly. "I was born on January 1st, 2017." I've seen a prototype and they could only get the bottle to say, "I was born on 00117."

 

No, that's about 50 years or more after the one I'm thinking of (which might be me confusing the old Genesee Cream Ale in 16 oz. returnable "pounder" bottles having a neck label that read "Cold Aged" - and was probably the same as the Genesee Beer neck label?)

But the SABA quote is interesting:

...given that it was a rare US lager that was dry-hopped (before the craft era, anyway). I'd imagine that most ales were aged at "cold" temps, even if not as cold as US lagering temperatures. "Cold" is both kinda vague and relative, I guess.

 

I love these freshness threads where folks gripe over their own purchases.

The decision to purchase beer in a store where you can read the date or not read the date or if there is no date (it if that is the case) is COMPLETELY under your own control.

Don't buy it!!!!

 

Naw, then when I walk up to a display rack there'd be hundreds of bottles all telling me, "I was born on...." so then I'd still have to pick one up and hold it close enough to my ear.

@FBarber

 

But if you do (or even if you don't), don't come here and start yet another thread to complain about it!

 

Well, there's Talking Bottles 2.0 when AI will be introduced. It will be rudimentary at first. One brewery's bottle will say their born on date to you and a neighboring competitor's bottle might then state something like, "Hey, that bottle's full of lies. Not only is it older but it tastes bad to be honest."

 

To make matters worse they'll all start talking at slightly different times, given their proximity detectors. Plus as you are one of a couple of people the background talking will increase as individual bottles focus on the nearest locus. Then there's the advertising potential for branded glassware, etc. Also Version 2.3 will be hackable and controlling it remotely will lead to....

 

Antiquated though it might be, I've never had a problem reading a Sam Adams date code.
The only time I've even remotely questioned it is if the bottle has been sitting in the bottom of a cooler for long enough for the label to become saturated and start rubbing off.
I wish all brands were that easy to read.
Yes, it would be better if it was inked on in a clearly readable, contrasting color, either Bottled on XX/XX/XXXX or enjoy by xx/xx/xxxx, but I don't see label marking being a problem.