Aecht Schlenkerla Fastenbier Bottle Date

I don't know for sure, but I think if you made the assumption that it was bottled in February and will be good through June you'd be on the safe side.

 

Below is the link and an excerpt from when I e-mailed the brewery this past winter.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...-what-do-you-drink-on-christmas.241020/page-2

As a follow-up to this, I had e-mailed Schlenkerla, and they promptly replied to my e-mail with the response below. I eagerly await their response to find out what the code on the back means, so now we'll all know the bottling dates for Schlenkerla! Even the distributor e-mailed me and they're working with the liquor store to find out what happened (the store is a good one, and the distributor is aware of that and said they were a great account).

"thank you very much for this information. I am sorry, that there was a problem with the bottles. From your description it appears to be a protein coagulation, something which can happen to filtered beer over time, especially when stored too warm (I presume the bottles were not in cold storage in the shop?). Unfiltered beers have the same thing happening, but since they are already cloudy, it is then not noticable.

By the way: All Schlenkerla bottles have markings on the back labels, with which we can trace them back to the bottling day. If you happen to have one the bottles in question, i.e. a picture of the backside of them, you can send that to me for analysis.

All Schlenkerla beers (expect the seasonal lent beer, which is bottled for the first time in 2015) are being exported to the US all year round. Our importer B. United International has an excellent warehouse management with almost no "lost" time there. As far as we know this is very like not the case for all distributors and quite presumably not for all stores, as often staff does not follow the "first in first out" principle or the assortment is too large in relation to the turnover. So in conclusion your assumption of them being old bottles makes sense. Again, I am sorry for the problem. I am sure that, now that your distributor has been informed, "new" material will come in quickly.

Best regards from Bamberg, and all the best for the new year!"