Asking for fresher beer.

Digging for fresh beer is no different from digging for fresh milk at the grocery store; you're not a dick or a weirdo for it any more than the people looking for milk are. You are, however, a dick and a weirdo for having a Tom Brady avatar.

 

That was not a dick move on your part. I would not support that place again!

 

Do what you gotta do but don't go in expecting the response you want. It's a total toss up in my opinion and if it doesn't work in your favor then I say you gotta move on and find a better spot.

I've seen too many threads about grown men acting like spoiled brats when their freshness questions aren't honored with a kneeled bow...

This is why you should either support breweries that bottle date or go to a speciality shop for specialty beer. If the employees at the speciality shops don't honor your request then that's a separate issue.

 

As a liquor store manager and a hop head my self I don't mind at all if someone ask, actually i tend to respect the shopper more.

 

You should just go in the back and get it yourself.

 

I imagine in most such cases people are discussing bottles with dates- otherwise how did they know that some bottles are too old or older than others or to ask/look for fresher ones?

Bottle dating helps consumers find and identify fresh beer but as anyone who routinely checks codes at the retail level knows, it hardly insures that it's on the shelves.

I don't find it particularly "uncomfortable" to check for freshness -it is a bit frustrating in some stores. Still, concerning the the brewers who don't date code- they just make it easier for me to decide what beer to buy since those companies are quickly eliminated from my choices.

 

I'm very friendly with the folks at my local beer store, so I don't mind. Also, the people who have to go in the back to look are kids, so I normally just go straight to them. In this case, 2 of the stockboys live on my block, so even easier to do this. I only do this for IPAs.

 

I always ask my couple stores I frequent to check in the back for fresher if I dont like the beer of the shelf. Its not rude to ask, since if something on the shelf is brewed in Nov and it's now March.

Cheers!

 

I mean, it's one thing to look around for fresher beer (i.e., checking to see if the stuff on the warm shelf is fresher compared to the stuff behind the cooler doors, the stuff on the cooler floor newer than in the door racks or if the rear bottles are fresher than the front ones on the shelf or vice versa,etc) but it's long been traditional for retailers of all goods to not stock much inventory "in the back"- it's just not cost effective. If you've got it, put it out on the shelves.

With beer, why would a retailer have old stock on the shelf and allow fresher beer to get old "in the back"? Why did they order more of the same beer if it's not selling? If the old stock is out of date, why didn't they get credit for it and return it to the distributor before ordering new, fresher stock? Most of the backroom stock at most retailers is going to be stuff that sells so quickly that it simply doesn't all fit out on the floor.

 

used to be here the ABC stores, had a sign on cooler that said there more beer in here.

 

Well I can answer that 1, 2 ways. 1 if its a small store but a big cooler, with limited shelf space in front, one has to stack the cases on the floor in the back. In fact in my other post the ABC stores used to run out of Orval in front, and It was ok for the customer to go into the cooler and open cases, I used to do it all the time. of course for me I like the beers that age, so all this fresh IPA do not apply to me. Then they get more in than they can sell and it stacks up, usually all mixed up to boot.

In big stores like Total wine, the distro stocks the shelves.

 

Or just put random batch numbers on the bottle that you have no way of knowing packaging date unless you check it at the brewery's website...just saying since you've got the Hopslam avatar

 

I was at a local supermarket back in February and I was about to buy some 60 Minute until I noticed that the stuff on their shelves was bottled in October of 2011. I asked the store clerk if they might have any fresher 60 Minute in the back. Without even offering to go look his reply was " I doubt it...we don't sell much of that wierd stuff." I've decided I won't be shopping for beer at that store ever again.

 

I used to ask questions, and I never felt awkward about it. It’s a product where freshness is usually very important, and retailers should expect to be asked, right? But I think every time I’ve ever asked, the vendor has acted surprised, if not offended, and they always insist the beer is perfectly fresh (even in the face of evidence to the contrary). So I've pretty much stopped asking.
FWIW, I feel like I've encountered fewer problems with bottled beers being stale than I have with draft beer being under or over carbonated, served way too cold, or off flavors from unclean tap lines.

 

I picked up the last six pack the other day, and it had both as well.

 

Most stores in MA have self-serve coolers, I love when customers go in and grab their own beer when they can't find it on the shelf. It's strange that some store owners would kick you out.

 

I don't get it, though.
A retail shop that is going to be put off by a question about one of its products? You know that they'll sell every last bottle of 60min they have in stock, and that one in a couple hundred customers might ask about bottling dates. This is part of doing business. You have to know the products you stock, and you have to be willing to look up information you don't have offhand. When I go buy a bottle of bourbon, which I know very little about, I ask to talk to whomever at the store is responsible for buying their bourbon... because I want some suggestions based on what I like. And there is no decent wine shop that isn't chomping at the bit to tell you about wines that aren't Pinot Noir... if they just leave customers alone, they're only going to buy trendy wines, and never look at Spanish, Italian, or French varietals apart from a few obvious names. Why should beer be any different? I submit to you, sir, that it should not! (unnecessarily dramatic!)

Seriously, if a liquor store even SEEMED put off by me asking about the bottling date, it would be the last time I stepped into the shop. But I'm a hard on for good service... I pay good money, and I am all about being respectful, and expecting nothing less in return.

There's a difference between asking valid questions and sneering and whining--being obnoxious.

No, I would not walk into a shop's cooler, unless it had some sort of sign suggesting that I can.

 

Have you every tried to get a distributor to pick up out of date beer? It can take weeks and weeks of hassling and arguing, I've threatened to refuse entire trucks of old code wasn't picked up.

 

I will do my due diligence and check dates, it is the smart thing to do. If the dates are not within what I am willing to buy I will move on. If it is not on the shelves than I assume it is not for sale. There is always another alternative, I am not going to have someone dig around the back looking for fresher beer.

I do think that people go overboard with the freshness issue however. Many peoples standards have become absurdly high when it comes to freshness. There are far too many people complaining these days about old stock on the shelves when the product they speak of is perfectly acceptable for the breweries standards. The unfair complaints just spreads false information and has no positive impact on the community at all.