Do you check for freshness?

Every time. I'll occasionally take chances with no dating on the cans if the beer store guys assure me it's fresh.

 

I only check dates when I want the beer I’m buying to taste as good as it possibly can.

 

Absolutely! Unfortunately, my local grocery store is always stocking 3 month to one year old IPAs for top dollar. Makes me wonder if the distributor funnels all the old beers to my grocery store?I’ve been burned many times on the hard to read can dates, but my palate knows better. Never again, now I just buy the quick rotation stock at the gas station that has the dates clearly labeled.

 

I do constantly. My local craft shop, I know what is usually fresh, I’m in there enough to know what moves and what doesn’t.

Grocery stores, I’m usually turning that sixer around like a damn Rubix cube trying to find a canned on date while onlookers stare confused. Which I shouldn’t have to do, just stamp it on the damn box in a color that doesn’t blend into the packaging.

 

If I am not in tune to the release, yes otherwise you are hosed 90% if the time unless the style doesn't suffer from it.

 

I bought one year old Sculpin once. Tasted like ass

 

Yes, I do.

 

I've had the guys assure me adding, "we just got it in" only to find out later at home the stuff was more than six months out of date.

 

Big time.

 

Yep, I sure do. That's why I stopped buying Aslin beer, (no dates).
I also politely let the store employees know about outdated beer, (I think if they hear this often enough & old beer doesn't sell, they may begin to make more of an effort to check packaging dates).

Unfortunately, I've noticed a few breweries are placing "good/best by dates" on the packaging. I don't like that either, it's just another sneaky way to get around telling us the actual brew/package date, naughty naughty!!

Kudos to MBC for brew dates printed in clear black ink on a white label, (and large enough print for my old eyes to read).

 

Perfect, for dry January!

 

Always turning the bottle/can/package looking for that canned on/bottled on/brewed on date.
Sometimes, I'll take the chance and sometimes it's a winner and sometimes it's a lose.

I'm a terrible gambler.

 

Always,

 

Since I prefer strong dark beers such as BA Stouts, I rarely think to check dates. If I do, it's on an IPA. It's often poorly printed in small non-contrast small font, and/or encoded.

 

I returned beer from Ballast Point for that reason once. The guys promptly pulled it from the shelf and sent it back to the distributors. I just caught that at a store in Missouri a couple months ago when their beer guy was showing me the stuff that just came in. He got pretty ticked at the distributors and pulled that beer off the shelf too.

 

Always!

 

I do, but just like writing checks, it takes a few weeks of Jan for the change in year to stick. Wound up with some awful IPAs as a result!