Should Best By Dates Be Standardized?

It would be nice if brewers would just have a gentleman's agreement to put the bottling or canning date on their product without the government getting involved.

 

I think canned on date should be used, many food products have used by dating. How much this has cost the consumer I've yet to see data on this, it may exist but I have not run across it. I think the cost to the consumer is used as a scare tactic by industry. Put a canned date on the beer and let the buyer decide. Why must the consumer not benefit since in the end they are responsible for the success of the product.

 

Yes. If we all pull together it could become a reality. Brewers, distributors, retail, and consumers.
It's not unlike reporting something to the city you live in. If one person keeps complaining about an issue, city gvmt will say "yeah yeah yeah it's just that one crabby person complaining". But when 2 or 3 separate entities lodge complaints about the same thing the city gets up off their asses and the issue gets into the gvmt machine so to speak. IMHO if retail and distribution entities heat things up re manufacturing and or expiration dates for beers, we could see a change. Hey a guy can dream! Right?!

 

And I "can dream" of a situation where a bunch of beer enthusiasts with a dream don't try to waste the government's time with such trivial stuff. Especially in a case where the Brewer's Association would fight against it.

 

Do you think the Brewers Association would be against it?

 

Seems like an impossible task since different breweries and beer styles have different shelf lives and your opinion might differ from the brewer's opinion.

Personally, I'd just like to see everyone switch to a "packaged on" date so opinions won't matter as much.

 

---- BEST PRACTICES GUIDE TO QUALITY CRAFT BEER
Delivering Optimal Flavor to the Consumer
BREWERS ASSOCIATION publication pdf (Undated)

 

They represent the interests of the brewing companies, and I think one can assume that forcing companies to universally adopt something would be seen as a negative. There's a reason why this thread exists in the first place.

 

I don't think it would be a hassle for companies that already do it.

 

The label dating technology isn't free and it seems like there's a pretty wide quality range out there. All of the breweries that aren't currently doing it (seems like it's probably most breweries still not dating their packages) obviously don't want to take on that expense

 

It's hard to argue against that logic.

Regulation that would force brewing companies that don't date (or clearly date for consumers) their product to change their practices... yeah, there will be plenty of serious resistance.

Going back to the OP:
Regulation that would force a large brewing company to date their national IPAs with the same best by timeframe as a local small brewer... yeah, there will be plenty of serious resistance.

Ditto for Bud Light and a craft lager using the same best by timeframe... or Guinness Draught and a craft imperial stout (but imports and exports are different cans of worms too).


I don't know how much truth there was to this, but I once heard that Belgium had some regulation requiring all beer to have a best by date. That led to brewers simply coming up with whatever they wanted to measured in years. This might be false info, but I even heard of a brewer using his birthday for best by dates.

I'd just be happy if date stamps were consistently legible. I know I'm a cynic, but if brewing companies can't even get that right in this process...

 

I understand. There must be a simple way, esp for really small breweries that don't have a large facility. I do see complexities with it all. It's an added task/cost really. We need our Thinkers. C'mon Thinkers. Sort this shit out!

 

Color code the pale beers by month with a harmless dye and the year of brewing gets printed on the label? That would really throw tradition for a loop!

 

Things could get pretty avant-garde...!
My new book: The Art Of Dating Your Beer

 

A few points...

1. Dating is probably not required because drinking old/expired beer can't kill you/make you sick like eating old meat/milk. Sure, it sucks, but it won't kill you. Because PH/presence of alcohol etc.
2. Would honestly rather see born on vs best by.
3. As far as standardization... I honestly prefer Julian vs a month day year or day month year. But, as far as Julian, what's the standard? I'm used to DDDY but have also seen YDDD.
4. And law enacting beer dating should be named in honor of Greg Puckett

 

Here's one: Many bakeries use different colored twist-ties for loaves of bread that indicate what day of the week things were baked & delivered. Some ties even have the day printed on the plastic coating.

 

Well, looks like I just got rained out. Dammit. Good thing I haven't started yet. Ha!! Murphy's Law rockin' the house. Time for a Yuengling Trad Lager. I'll be rolling some of it over the state line back into Non-Yuengling land in a couple weeks. Cheers!

 

Both the people wanting, and those in fear of, the government requiring dates on beer should note that, according to the USDA's own Food Product Dating website: