beer date question

Some valid points AZBeerDude72. However..... I place more of the blame on the ignorance of beer on the grocery/retail end. At my local New England chain grocery store, the amount of good beer that is out on the floor not refrigerated is astonishing. I would say close to 90%, while BMC, hard ciders and Maine craft beers are refrigerated. And honestly most of the Maine beers aren't that good. It's all marketing "local".
The majority of folks buying craft are checking dates, so the grocer has a room full of beer past prime but throws them on the shelves because they don't understand or care about dates and craft beer. The beer sits and gathers dust, but the grocer figures" that stuff doesn't sell, throw it on the mix six rack". What they don't understand is that it WOULD sell if they understood that the market they are selling it to isn't going to throw down money on old product, and one that should be refrigerated to begin with.
So the question is, how do you,we,us, as BA's educate grocers?

 

Just out of curiosity have you had conversations with the managers of your local grocery stores on this topic? It seems to me that if enough customers register their displeasure about things the manager(s) might make changes (or maybe not).

If you let them know there is a problem but they decide to do nothing about it at least you can narrow down the explanation to: "they don't care about dates and craft beer".

Do you have options to buy beer at other sorts of retailers (e.g., beer stores, liquor stores,...)?

Cheers!

 

I think companies should consider that and implement it into the compensation of these guys.They are the eyes and ears and if they got rewarded financially I think a lot would change for the better. I think lot of times breweries spend all their time on making a great product and forget about the other end of the spectrum. I guess I don't get why you would make a world class product then allow it to rot in a warehouse or such, makes no sense to me. I am sure we all talked about this stuff before but its not rocket science it all about money, the less they spend the more they profit and that sort of created this mess.

 

Yes. I asked the manager and got an " that's all we have room for" I do understand that grocery vendor space comes at a premium as well. My options are limited here for craft within a twenty minute radius. But yes, I have other options but they are a 45 minute drive and are often limited to single beers and that gets expensive. This particular grocery store has a decent selection of craft compared to lots of others, just poorly maintained inventory.

AZBeerDude was correct in suggesting that the Brewers need to be aware that people are passing up their products that they would otherwise buy, but I don't necessarily believe it's the Brewers fault that they are becoming outdated between the brewery and the consumer.

 

This is what needs to change, that is the common thought process of many. But it actually is their fault because their name is on it. Maybe they are not the ones creating the road jam so to say but they are the owners of the product and should be aware of how it is treated. That is just good management. I feel the brewery needs to follow the product from conception to consumption and if they did we would not have any issues. Just my business side I guess but they are failing their consumers by allowing this to continue.

 

The less they spend the more they profit. Until people wise up and stop spending money on sub par product. Education is key in so many aspects of life to prevent one from being a lemming or part of a herd of sheeple, but to stay on topic here education of the beer consumer.

 

Completely agree about following from start to finish, but for say, smaller to mid size breweries how practical is that on a daily basis in multiple locations?
Asking seriously here.
Also, doesn't or shouldn't that be the burden of the rep/distributor?
What recourse does the brewer have to address these issues?

 

My answer would be if they cannot manage their product they have no business expanding to that size. They should only sell as far as they can monitor their product. Regarding the rep/distro they can either pull their lines from them if they are not willing to end the problem or work out something to allow for better monitoring. Again that is their issue since they are looking to cash in on a wider sales area. Once they get into bed with these people they need to control them, otherwise you have threads like this with tired consumers. We should not have to monitor their product, report out of date beer, and yell at shop owners for them, and a lot of us do. I used to do that until my wife asked why I am wasting my time. I am not paid by them and if they don't care more than I do she said stop and I have. It is sort of funny how many of us took on the job of quality control for them and we do it for free out of the love for beer and all. But maybe we need to stop because we don't see any reward from it, no thank you, nothing.
Am I off base?

 

This is worth a read.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/articl...utors-are-writing-new-rules-for-selling-beer/

 

FWIW, they don't need to drive or fly anywhere. Every decent size distributor (certainly anyone big enough to handle Firestone or SN) will be using a sales/routing system like VIP which allows the brewery to see anything they want to know about their inventory: How much they have, when it was received, when it goes out of code, current "day of inventory" on the floor, etc.

It's fucking ridiculous to expect a brewery to do that. Would you expect Kellogg's to monitor every box of cereal in every grocery store nationwide to make sure they're not selling something past its best by date? Of course not, because it's insane. Instead, you'd expect the store to manage their inventory, only order what's needed, and discount or dump anything that goes past its shelf life. Why should beer stores get a pass and be able to blame the brewery or distributor for their lack of inventory control and management?

Also, SN in particular guarantees the freshness and quality of their beer for at least 150 days, so even though you think it's "fucking garbage" because it's 3 months old doesn't mean it's out of code or undrinkable. If you don't like that, start your own brewery and enforce shorter shelf lives on your products.

 

I do expect a brewery to know what is going on with their product. I expect them to be in contact with their people and make the effort to control their items. If it is too much work for them to hire staff, call retailers, set rules for product and enforce them then they should not be in business, its a basic function of any successful company. I don't think its garbage at 3 mos old for an IPA I know its garbage. Go ask Stone or other breweries the effects of time on their IPAs? I guess when their brewmasters stipulate 90 days is max they are just stupid and you are right? LOL please.
Anyway, my money goes to those who appreciate my purchase. If they want to peddle garbage then I will leave those beers for guys like you who enjoy the old stuff.

 

It was a good read, thank you. Sort of sums up some of the issues.

 

Yep, it also sort of sums up the situation most breweries find themselves in with distributors.

 

How much do you think that breweries like Firestone Walker, Sierra Nevada, etc. worry about "thread like this with tired consumers"? When Sierra Nevada sells a shit-load of beer to my local Wholesale Distributor of Origlio they make a shit-load of sales/revenue money. When they are making a shit-load of sales/revenue money do you think they think they have a 'problem'?

Cheers!

@SierraTerence

 

It's actually a good idea.

Maybe even a "BO or BB date available?" option. Put this part of it back on the brewery. Hard to blame the distributor, or seller if they don't know themselves. Plus it might help us decide before driving an hour to find there is NO DATE!

 

I know they don't necessarily care about this thread or BA for that matter. They care about sales. For the record SN, FW, and others are fantastic. Their product in AZ is always fresh, I rarely see old stuff. Stone is also very good, they have a tight control here and product rocks.
I totally get it and know so long as the money comes in they could care less. My whole argument is that other companies who don't follow along like SN or FW maybe should. I think we all can agree there is an age issue with beer, a lot of people here would agree that its seen a lot. All I aim for is that the industry nip that in the butt, consumers should not have to police the product to make sure they get good beer.

 

How many perishable products can you name where the consumers bear no responsibility for ensuring they buy fresh product?

 

When I chat with local guys that is one of the main things they bring up. They hate distro because they cannot control them so in turn they do their own or cans at brewery etc. Its sad really that the middle man basically controls the beer market, thats what happens when they get too powerful.

 

Lucky you! In my area there are 'tons' of old FW and Sierra Nevada beer.

And for FW and Sierra Nevada in my area they make those sales with the local Wholesale Distributor but the end customers (e.g., me) have only 'old' beer to select from. So, how do you suggest this situation be rectified?

Cheers!

 

I agree but we can also agree most are fresh. Every time I go to the store they are hauling off piles of old bread, etc. We all still look at dates etc. but as a whole I never see a ton of old items, sure it maybe close to expiration but still good.