Your Sad Beer Pictures

Stop you are making too much sense.

 

The dictionary definition of this just shows a picture of this thread.

 

In SD, there are places where the person doing the buying, usually the owner, engages with their clientele and knows what sells and doesn't, and regularly keeps fresh beers (at least when it comes to beers that are better fresh, like IPAs) in the cooler. And there are places where the person doing the buying has overbought lots of beers that their clientele doesn't want, so they sit on shelves forever. I suppose it could be that their clientele is a whole lot more fickle than at the stores with fresh product, but it seems in most cases that they overbought because they don't really know their clientele or the products that well. That can be kind of sad.

 

Yeah there are definitely good and bad beer buyers. But the places I see little to no old beer are usually non craft focused liquor stores or grocery stores where they have a narrow selection of things they know move quickly.

The issue I see at craft focused shops is that the customer base for craft beer tends to appreciate variety for the sake of variety and so there's pressure to bring in anything unique they can get (even though it means there's often something like the old expensive Other Half cans that Raul mentioned or the $10 Trillium cans I saw last time I was at the best local shop). If anywhere would have a beer shop so good that it's got a solid selection and no ipas are over 120 days old then I guess it would be San Diego, but that's not the norm by any stretch even in the best markets.

 

Saw a lovely case of mid-November Firestone IPA at the store right now. Firestone kindof confuses me, for a while almost all their stuff in the LA stores was very fresh as I think more of it was coming from/through the Venice location. But the last few months+ it’s all old old old

 

Accidentally picked up a Tioga Sequoia El Cap stovepipe dated 031322 at the Grocery Outlet in Taft thinking we were still in 2022. Drank it anyway and the 9% abv probably helped it not be to terrible. A bit sweet though. The February 2023 Lagunitas Maximus I picked up at the same time was much better.

 

Let's make this a competition. Who can post a pic of the oldest, meant to be consumed fresh, beer currently on a shelf for purchase somewhere?

 

I'll make it easier for everyone: https://www.bevmo.com/my-store/store-locator

 

No luck finding a 2020 date, but here's some good ones

Super heady Other Half collabo at a freaky fresh 220 days.

Dank westie that just passed the 1 year mark. Since we had a couple earthquakes recently, which mimic the rocking of a ship at sea, I think this is officially a historic recreation of the original India Pale Ales.

Alesmith Porter is a dark beer, so it's made to age, so I guess I'm just lucky they aren't charging a cellar fee for this 16 month old pack

But this one took the cake for the oldest dated pack I found. 18 months. Alt does mean "old" I. German, so maybe we have another store curated historical recreation? Anyone know how long the old Bavarian brew masters would age their beer in plastic lined aluminum? Just want to make sure these guys aren't cutting any corners.

But the saddest thing in this beer section that I found. These were on the same rack as a number of great imports Including a handful of Ayinger brands, Rochefort, and Sam Smith Stingo. Those were all on lower shelves, this was at chest height

 

Im the same way very picky on dates except I'll make an exception for sierra nevada as they are can conditioned and take a very long time to "fall off". very shelf stable

 

The Beast probably has no expiration date

 

I dunno, I've heard the tweaker sweat that lends a lot of the flavor starts to drop off after about 90 days

 

@unlikelyspiderperson that Porter is good even at a year old .

I had a Kern River that was 6 months old and it was great ( refrigerated)

Anyone that buys OtherHalf beers at the prices charged here has other problems that need addressing

Monster Rules.

 

Sure it's fine enough. I've bought a pack of this batch in the last 2 months. There's not a lot of porters on the shelves. But it's far from ideal and I'm for sure going to be picking up the 1/23 batch of Black Butte on the shelf over this one every time.

 

Not everyone agrees:

 

Lol, just came across this thread. I had a winter ale a few days ago that was buried in my fridge. It was still pretty good! Still don’t like seeing beer sitting around like that.

 

Lol. I opened a 10+ year old Pliny back in 2021. First pour was very slow and tasted alright. But finished pouring the remaining bottle and it was nasty as hell.

 

Can’t say the label didn’t warn ya!