Bell’s “best by” dates

You are correct here:

“How long is Bells beer good for?

The vast majority of our beers have a shelf life of six months from the day the beer is bottled, canned, or kegged. The packaging date (PKG), shelf life, and batch information (PRN) can be found on all our packaging. Apr 12, 2023”

I have commented several times in past threads but utilizing a best by duration of “six months” for an IPA is nonsense IMO.

Cheers!

P.S. There is a blog on the Bell’s website about this change in dating:

https://help.bellsbeer.com/hc/en-us...dated-Shelf-life-Packaging-Date-Batch-Numbers

 

Two Hearted’s shelf life is 6 months, as is Hazy Hearted’s. Double Two Hearted and Hopslam are 3 months, Expedition Stout is 12 months (IIRC).

Yes, I read cans/bottles.

 

Honestly, I hate the idea of converting to a Best-By date. I'm empathetic toward trying to make it simpler for the consumer, but this actually adds so much more confusion, subjectivity, and frustration to the system.

 

Is it just me or is it strange that their IPA’s shelf life is twice as long as their double IPAs? I would think that they would be the same.

 

We've taught them well.

 

I've had Two Hearted at 6 months (including a couple of weeks ago) and it holds up very well, IMHO.

Actually, I had a bottle of Hopslam years ago that was 12-ish months old, and it was still pretty good (picture a sweetish barleywine), but it was radically different. I didn't do it on purpose, and I wouldn't recommend it, but it was fun to try.

For science, of course.

 

Seconding the "can afford to be picky". My main stores claim to fame is having "1000+ craft beers on the shelf at any time". Meanwhile I've been passing up the same 700 for a year or better in favor of the new arrivals. Between that and local breweries, I have no need to buy a 6 month old IPA. Of course, around here it's fairly common to find 2H canned within a month of shelving. Cheers.

 

Oh, I definitely agree, Two Hearted at 2 months is definitely better than Two Hearted at 6 months, but it doesn’t drop off like the Citra-hopped beers - I’m looking directly at you, Zombie Dust - which after 30 days is a COMPLETELY different beer and after 90 days is nearly undrinkable, IMHO.

And I will say that Two Hearted at 2 weeks is a beer that I’d consider pushing my Mom out of the way to secure. I’m not proud of that, but IJS.

 

I got a 2 day old HopSlam 2 years ago and I look back on that experience and share the push your mom down sentiment. Sometimes that stuff just hits different

 

Okay; thanks for that. I can’t remember the last double IPA that I had; it’s not a style I seek out; but I get that the old paradigm of stronger = age longer doesn’t apply to IPAs dominated by flavor & aroma hops.

 

I went through two 4-packs of the Double Two Hearted (and way too much Two Hearted) this summer before even taking notice of the packaged-on or best-by date.

I looked at an empty (it’s recycling tomorrow doncha know) and see a best before date of November-something. That tracks, because these just hit the cooler at the end of last month, and our Bell’s allotment has always been robust, locally.

 

This is very clearly about maximizing profits at the expense of the consumer. Granted, profits is the goal of a business. And breweries are businesses....

The only possible position I can see is if they want to say "packaged date isn't meaningful to everyone, 'best by' is meaningful even to non-craft beer nerds." However, I think, if you're aware enough about beer to 1. consider something like Bells Two Hearted IPA and 2. check for any sort of date information, you're very likely knowledgeable enough for a "Canned On" date to be valuable information. As a further counter to this - 6 month shelf life for an IPA? Please. No way a 6 month old IPA is the beer the brewer intended for you to drink.

**sigh**

 

I can vouch for misplaced Hopslam. Last year I found three cans that were at least four months old, and they tasted great. Very different flavor than when new, but still was very good.

 

I can’t imagine getting anything fresher unless you were drinking it off the tanks at the brewery.

(Was this at the brewery? I went on their Two Hearted tour a few years back and [chefs kiss]!)