Just got a Spaten (Maerzen/ofest) Keg with new label for date code (L14434). I think this is day 144 (May 24) 3= 2023, I don't know what the 4 is but could be the production facility. I appreciate any help.
@PapaGoose03 wanted me to post this here. I thought there already were some posts regarding Spaten in the thread and there were a few, but I don't think anyone wanted to post definitively. @Jaycase @steveh Well, I'm going to now. I think it can be confirmed that Spaten uses a 1-year best-by date. The packaged on date is found on the code underneath the best-by month/year. It is the 'L' with the first four digits being the Julian day and the last digit of the year. So 'L0013' would mean that the beer was packaged on January 1, 2023 Most of the following post is taken from the one I made in the Oktoberfest tasting thread:
I wanted to revive this thread to remind everyone it is here and to alert people who didn't know that it is here; I also have confirmed our past guesses on Reissdorf, below is their response, got within an hour of my email to them, great customer service on this one. They even gave me a screen shot. Screenshot was a can with: R33177D 06:01 R = Reissdorf Kosch 33 = year of canning/bottling + 10 177 = day of the year D = machine line used end is time of day _______________________ Yes I guess technically you could just look at the second number as the last number of the year instead of the + 10 thing, just wanted to share the great detailed response I got. _______________________ Not sure if a mod can add the following to the first page: Reissdorf – first two #'s is year of canning/bottling + 10, next 3 #'s are day of year (example: R33177D would translate to 2023, 177th day)
Or they could have just listed "23"? Was somebody at the brewery a fan of Indiana Jones movie and figured some 'secret' arithmetic would be cool? Headpiece to the Staff of Ra "Take back one kadam to honor the Hebrew God, whose Ark this is." Cheers!
So, we're supposed to see 33 and subtract 10? If so, WTH? Why so convoluted when they can just print 23?
If only we knew, that warm weather we had last week had me itching for kolsch. I didn’t buy any cause I wanted to confirm code first. Now it’s time to go back and check cans later this week.
Permit me to recommend Von Trapp Kolsch to you. And with their recent rebranding you know the new branding = fresh. Prost!
Goddam metric system, I bet! Compounded by the fact that @jonphisher emailed them after February 29th of a leap year. Somewhere Fritz Maytag* reads that and thinks, "Damn! Why didn't I think of that!" * The guy who once told the Wall Street Journal: ""We believe in competing on the basis of the taste of our beer, not its age. We don't go out of our way to tell everyone how old it is."
I think there's a fine line between improvement and quality drop-off. I've had a few pretty oxidized Aventinus of both styles.
Adding another one for everyone...Coniston Bluebird Bitter showed up in NJ and I grabbed some without knowing the code cause well, a newly available English beer, for me at least. I was pleasantly surprised to find out they were about as fresh as an import can be... Code was L26 039... L26 part is the year +2, why? who the F knows...I guess the English like to F with us too, just like the Germans. So it was bottle in 2024. The second 3 digit code is day of the year... So my bottles were bottle February 8th, I purchased them here in the US on April 5th, that may be the freshest import I have ever bought. @M-Fox24 MODs question: I added it to the notes on the beer as an update, could we do this for imports with codes? If we report an update (notes), it would be helpful to have at the top of the descriptor for people who don't know about this thread.
Seen other breweries utilize this format with the packaging time on top and packaging date on bottom. So, this top looks like 24 hour time, and the bottom looks like date protocol.
Hofbrau's 2024 Festbier has a best-by date configuration, so it appears that that brewery has moved away from code dating. However, I haven't looked at other Hofbrau brands at the store to confirm this dating goes beyond the Festbier.
I have Maibock and Winter Spezial with date codes from last year and the year before. I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure I've seen Original, too. https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/bock-thread-2023.671655/page-30 First instance of the new dating in the wild?
