Are bottling dates required by law?

they should be

 

I guess what I mean is, their jaws hit the floor when I mention my several-year-old beers in the fridge.

 

Still not a fan of room temp. Like any other BA I like to let my big beers open up as they warm, but I try to finish them before they reach room temp. Although - yesterday I took a step towards this practice by cracking open a Bigfoot straight from the cellar (not sure what the temp was, but it was close to room temp) and I actually really enjoyed that.

 

Excellent point. I have to agree with you. In my experience, most stores are much better about pulling/discounting beer past its expiration date than beer that is just old with no best by dating.

 

You can usually just subtract 180 days from the use by date.

 

Requiring freshness dates would be more government intervention. This is an issue that consumers can influence by contacting the brewers and voting with their wallets.

As far as bottled date v best use by date, almost all food dates are best use by so the brewers that use that are making it easy for the average beer consumer. Not all consumers, maybe most, would know how to figure a best use date.

 

OK, fine. "Best By" is subject to dishonesty, so "Bottled On" would be the only way to go. Sure, it could be voluntary, but any beer insisting on concealing the "Bottled On" date could not get onto the list of fully-compliant brews, and would be considered swill before long -- just like those 1.5 plastic litres of vin rouge you can get for one Euro in French hypermarches -- the beer version of rotgut.

 

Sadly, no.

Based the craft beers I buy - I would estimate that about 50% have a clear "bottled on" or "best by" date, 25% have some type of non-obvious code, and 25% have nothing.

 

That is a great strategy - I'm gonna start doing this as well.

 

Forgot to mention, I usually state specifically which beer I didn't buy and name the other brewery and their beer. Even if it doesn't have much of an effect it makes me feel better about having wasted my time looking for what turned out to be an undated beer in the first place.

 

Bottled on dates mean little depending on the style and strength of the brew. Some are meant to age and do very nicely, others are like common wines and meant to be drank sooner than later. A session IPA differs greatly from a 10 percent Imperial Stout for example.

As far as discounted beer I have only had three instances of bad brew that is near or lightly past it's expiration date.

 

Some beers could use a "Drain pour by" date...

 

I wish. I normally won't buy a pale ale or IPA without a date, but with stouts i dont care at all.

 

Absolutely, nobody gets sick from old beer and it does matter for the hop heads in the bunch, those bottled on dates are important.

Off topic: I grow my own hops and homebrew, they can drop off pretty quick in an IPA recipe depending on how it's formulated.

 

Right, I am just saying government probably doesn't care too much about hopheads..unfortunately..:-(

 

I wish