Allagash Black date

I just bought a bottle off letspour recently and drank it tonight. The label had a clear dating that said Mar. 15, 2013 in the white box on the side.

 

First time posting and I am new to the site. And what a great site this is! I have a similar question of dating, and I have email Allagash in regards to it. I had a bottle of Allagash White Ale, however. Their was a stamp on the bottle, but not the bottom, but on the side near the bottom. The stamp was 2963 9:37. So, if we are going by the Julian calendar system, I am to understand this was bottled in 2012 on the 963rd day at 9:37 in the morning!? lol I know, it is not possible to have a 963 day. Either I have done something wrong, or this is not a Julian dating code. I will let you know what they say about this stamp.

 

I took another look at the bottle and I could make out laser etchings down the side near the bottom:
1421 18313 301A

Again using the Julian calendar system, this means it was brewed on the 421st day of 2011!? Even if we were to assume the first four are in a YYMM format, then this brew was (will be) made on whatever the 21st month of 2014 is, and somehow it has come back in time (3 days ago when I bought it) and was available for me to purchase at the store. LMFAO Even if we took the 2nd set of numbers, 2013 at the end are the year, but 183 would not correspond to anything unless it is the 183 day of the year, which means this is not true Julian calendar dating. Which also means, if true, that this beer is over 6 months old, and is a bit past it's freshest taste date.

 

What people often casually call "Julian" dating is merely a day-of-the-year date, a 3 digit number (001-365[6]). It is not the "Julian Calendar" or "Julian Dating".

There is no industry standard on how (1, 2, 4 digits) where (before/after) or even if the year is designated when the day-of-the-year coding method is used. Also, not every string of numbers on a bottle are brewery bottling codes - most bottle manufacturers also code their bottles, so any date contained in it might merely be the day the bottle was created.

As you've noted, most bottling codes contain a number of digits or letters, and unless one know which 3 digits are the day-of-the-year, and which other digits represent the year, the long codes are useless.

 

It was bottled on the 296th day of 2013. The code you have, the first 3 are day of the year, the last digit id the year (2013 in this case is represented by the 3 at the end, not the 2 at the front). This seems to be just about the most common way I have seen it done

 

Well, that answers that. Thanks for both of your replies, I now feel more confident to determine the bottled on date of my beers.