21st Amendment packaging

I can only speak from experience:

1. I have seen freshness dates printed on the cardboard boxes, not sure how prevalent this is.

2. Any retailer that I have been to breaks up nearly everything into singles. I see loose cans all over the place.

3. Are you talking the old school rings? If so, they are reusable!?!? After I remove a can those things are more blown out than a seventies **** star, they may still be useful for holding cans of Fosters. If you are talking about the snap in rings, then I agree, reusable and wonderful. I have a few that I hang onto and reuse, but I do not need them on all my beers. I can buy the beer I want regardless of box or rings and then snap them in place and go on my way.

I completely understand personal preference but from my experience there is really no downside to boxes.

 

I have had far more "bad" bottles than I have bad cans. A bottle cap is far more likely to malfunction than the seal on a can. Even if the bottle cap is damaged a "wee bit", you can end up with a flat or oxidized beer and visual inspection alone may not tell you that.

Human pathogens cannot grow in beer. The beer can sit damaged on the shelf for several years and the worst that will happen is you have an unenjoyable experience. Beer is not food, it does not spoil, a dented or damaged can is an inconvenience and not a safety concern.

 

Bottles, which break much more easy that cans, come in cases and 12 packs - and sometimes 6's - that are sealed. I've gotten 10 times more broken bottles over the years than I ever got broken/damaged cans, or the occasional can that has been pierced by a box cutter when opening a stretch-wrapped pallet, etc. (Once nearly got a Pikeland Pils bath when I grabbed a case off an overhead shelf that had many cans sliced open by the fork of a forklift).

In fact, I've got 3 Troegs bottle necks w/crowns still attached from a series of broken bottles I got from cases of Nugget Nectar and Sunshine Pils a few years back. Threw them in a pile figuring I'd return them "someday"....

 

As long as the date of canning is visible somewhere on the box, I don't see the problem. It's not as if 21st Amendment is a big investment or anything.

 

Bought a 15 pack of All Day IPA from Founders and one can was empty with no visible signs of damage to the box, but the can was dented a little. I just chalked it up to poor mishandling somewhere along the line. I still got 14 quality beers for $16.

 

1. it just takes moving the date stamper to the end of the line and there you go.
2. Hokum. Any packy worth its salt that can sell mix a sixers will break them apart.
3. Many breweries do not use those old plastic rings, and now use Packteck and other similar handles that break nearly everytime you pop a beer from them.

 

I'll have to look more closely to the box next time I'm at the store to see the dates. And, even if the retailers do break up the six-packs, what bugs me is when I'm in places that allow you to take a single out of any six-pack. They're obviously not gonna be happy if I break the cardboard box to do that. And I'm talking about the snap rings. Oh and I'm lovin' the avatar selections you've made the last couple days

 

Not talking about the old plastic and, if they break every time you pop a beer from them, you're doing it wrong...And what the hell does hokum mean?

 

If you're really interested in what's in the box open it up, it's not sealed with tape or some other material. Open it up, inspect for snakes, spiders, Coors Light cans, or whatever else it is that you fear could be in there and then proceed as you see fit.

 

That actually happened to me a couple weeks ago. An All Day right in the middle of the pack must have been punctured at some point because the box was completely dry.

I think another poster said it already, but most of the boxes have a born on date of some kind on the outside so just inspect the box a little before you purchase it.

 

Nah. I've popped tens of thousands of the things and I'm citing personal experience from having worked with them at the packaging level both by hand, and with machine. They break far more often than not when you pop a beer from them, and its at the support structure in the ring where it happens.
Hokum?
ho·kum
ˈhōkəm/
noun
informal

1. nonsense.
   "they dismissed such corporate homilies as boardroom hokum"
   • trite, sentimental, or unrealistic situations and dialogue in a movie, play, or piece of writing.
     "classic B-movie hokum"

 

Interesting. I guess the only thing I'm not understanding is what you mean by "break" since I've never had one break on me and have always been able to reuse them. Yes, they bend when you pop a beer from them but you can bend it back into place.

 

If a box is really making you hesitate when buying beer, you're doing it wrong.

Choose your beers based on the contents inside, rather than the hype, packaging, artwork, etc. and you'll probably be a lot happier with your selections.