How important are Freshness Dates to you?

It depends on a variety of things. Stressing over freshness can take some of the enjoyment out of beer if you're took picky. Finding a week old IPA is a nice treat, but that same IPA isn't ruined once it hits a month old, or even 2 months old.

Generally speaking I will still buy a beer if it was canned roughly 3 or 4 months ago, regardless of style. Once we hit 5 or 6 months I might start looking at other options.

 

It’s important AND depends on the style.

I look for the freshest hoppy beers.

I look for age on others and get excited to find older vintages of some beers

 

Well, I look for the freshest beer of ANY style - but I never understand people who say it doesn't matter for certain styles: how would they know how old the beer is without it being date coded? Fine, if you're "shelf life" criteria differs by style but you still need a packaging date.

 

I've learned to check dates the hard way.
Canned/bottled date is best as it allows me to decide if the beer is “fresh enough”, Best By will do if I have an idea of the brewery's time frame and I can work it back.
Plain date>Julian>brewery lot code.
Breweries using black ink on brown bottles don't really want you to know the date.
I've passed up many beers that I would have otherwise bought simply because they lacked a decipherable (or any) date.

 

Ah, you might want to re-think that?

There are nice hiking trails there, a great Amphitheater to listen to live music, if you have a kayak they have a nice launch site to paddle on the French Broad River,...

You might think after your visit that the fresh beer is just part of the 'bonus plan'?

Cheers!

 

Hmm, I voted depends but perhaps that's because of the way it is presented as 'freshness' dates; but give me a Sofie or Matilda or Orval, etc. with a few years on it and I'm all giddy-up!

95% of the time I do allow the dates to make my purchasing decisions for me, though, especially these days when they're so prevalent.

 

Michael,

I thought of you earlier today when I took my last bottle of Sofie from the six-pack in my basement and placed it in the fridge. I purchased that six-pack about 5-6 months ago at my 'local' Total Wine & More (this beer was bottled 8/10/20) and I waited until 6 months of aging (last month to drink the first beer). It is my preference to buy this beer young and age it in my basement since I know the conditions in which this beer is aged.

Cheers!

 

I suppose that's ideal, but I also don't think it's all that fragile of a beer. It would have to be seriously mistreated, like sitting in a hot window, before I'd pass on some store found oldies. All I can say is that I haven't been stung yet.

 

In that case, the actual age is style dependent for me, but I would like to have that information available.

 

Big beers used to be no worries for me as well. I had a pump[ky]n from avery the other day and it poured much lighter than I remembered. It was almost a tan color and I could see through my glass. It tasted like cough syrup. Terrible drinking experience. It was dated 2014 I believe, and is more evidence that beers don't always improve with age.

 

Freshness is king, in my view, and really the only valid indicator for me is canned-on or bottled-on dates. Best-before dates don't mean much, because the period of time defined varies greatly by brewery. I even have seen that breweries define best-before period as 8 months for domestic marke (Germany) while for export product they define it at 12 months. Some beers (not pasteurized, for instance) doesn't even really have a best-before - you just know it's about 3 to 4 months after bottling.

So, in short: freshness is huge for me.

Also in short: beer could often stay fresh longer if perfectly stored (which does not happen for imports).

 

Very important, especially in the styles I prefer. Even if. It’s an age worthy style I want to know when it hits the bottle.

 

Depends somewhat on the style. I'll enjoy a 6 month old lager more than a 6 month old DDH IPA. But refrigeration is important too. I love stores that have a large section of refrigerated beers. Gives me more confidence in the purchase.

 

Or a Retail Beer Distributor which does not have air conditioning.

Cheers!