I just saw something that upset me while doing my grocery shopping the other day. I just saw a pack of 12 beers by the brewery "Dieu du Ciel" of IPA beers that was marked with a clear production date of around summer 2025. At that time, I thought it was too old to have the full freshness of those beers, so I didn't buy them. Recently, I saw the same 12-pack beers, but this time they erased the production date. I guess they had some overstock to sell and decided to put a little trick against the customer. I think it's a shame to see those merchants playing with us by thinking we must be fools or something...
Possibly. When I do look for dates, sometimes they are impossible to read. I just thought that I was the brewer doing a crappy job. However, I rarely buy beer from non-breweries any more. It's usually for SN seasonals such as Celebration and Bigfoot.
I've seen old beer left to rot on shelves. Even saw a distributor try to sell last year's spring seasonal in a newly opened store (2 months before the actual seasonal world be released). But I don't think I've ever seen the date code eradicated. Not sure how retail works in Canada, but I wonder who actually removed the code?
There’s a bottle shop in town (and they have 2 locations) and they regularly have “new” old beer. I suspect that the distributor cuts them a deal.
I've definitely seen places cover up box dates with stickers. Can't say I've ever seen anyone totally remove any date markings, though. That's pretty egregious. A favorite trick for less-honorable stores is putting out unsold packs of last year's Oktoberfest in late summer. It's one thing if it has just been sitting there the whole time, but I've seen places that hold it and put it out there intentionally.
I have seen it happen where the bottling dates are rubbed-off from where they usually are. Not uncommon, unfortunately, and it’s always a mystery as to who or whom should own up to the nefarious act!
When total wine was opening near me I was very excited. I went to the grand opening. They had year old beer on the shelves the day they opened. That's not an oversight that's intentional. I don't go there any more.
Can't say that I've ever seen dates obscured, but it's pretty common to see beers that are past their best by dates still on the shelves. "Build/Make Your Own Six Pack" features are infamous for that. Actually, there are a couple reputable stores that I frequent that put their out of date beers on their clearance shelves. I've picked up some nice beers there. Pays to know which styles age well.
I've seen distros hold last year's seasonals and drop them as new stock at stores. Called it out a few times -- sometimes with results, other times not.
Yeah, out here I can't tell if it's the distributor or the stores. I typically blame the stores because it seems like the ones doing that are always the ones pulling other shenanigans.
I found beer on a shelf for a brewery that closed at least 6 months before. I told the beer manager about it, and he said it was still ok (within code or something). I went back 6 months later and the beer was still there. I don't go to that store anymore.
I haven't seen any retailer remove the packaged-on date from a 6-pack or 12-pack carton before. If I don't see a date printed on the box, I won't buy it.
There was one store I would shop at that would have several cases of this or that brand of beer on sale at reduced price. Typically this was beer well past the expiration date. I didn't ask, but I assumed they either had left over cases to get rid of, or they bought excess inventory from the distributor and sold them off at cut-rate prices. I never picked any of these up, but I'm sure someone did.
I have found old/expired beer in just about all of the beer stores I have been in, but I still will shop at those stores. The trick is to be able to keep an eye out for old stock vs the fresh beers coming in. This is hard to do unless checking in on a regular basis.
It's quite a pickle. Put yourselves in the shoes of the store owner. The craft beer market has been shrinking year over year. You have an overage of inventory that you need to move, no rebates from the supplier. What do you do? You have to try and sell this stock by hook or crook. That's why it's ultimately up to us, the consumer, to do our due diligence and check every date we can find. Two of my favorite shops have an insane amount of inventory. They'll never sell everything. Impossible. When I go to these places, it's very time consuming, but yet rewarding when I take my time to evaluate everything. This is the mindset I think we should all have
I actually have mixed feelings about the OP's experience. Of course it's outrageous that the store would try to engage in this type of subterfuge, but at least it reflects some awareness that beer is a perishable item and doesn't stay fresh forever. It wasn't all that long ago that I used to pretty routinely hear staff at local grocery stores claim that beer doesn't get "old," so what's the big deal about freshness. All that aside, I think stores that engage in this sort of nonsense do so because the vast majority of consumers don't pay attention to "best buy" or "bottled on" dates when they purchase beer, and don't really give it much thought when a particular beer tastes a bit off. Until that changes, I don't see this type of behavior changing any time soon, just for the reasons articulated by @beerdedking.
A couple of weeks ago I posted: "I just got back from my local Retail Beer Distributor. I was in the mood for hoppy beer so I checked out Firestone Walker Union Jack. They had two six-packs (boxes) of Union Jack on the shelf. On one box I could read it was canned in August 2025 so about 5 months old now. The other box, where the canned on date would be, had torn off cardboard." I am tempted to state that we BAs should never shop at beer retailers who do this crap but.... Cheers!
