Ballast Point returns to CO

Thanks, Mike, for explaining things a bit more. Still don't know what the law says about out of date product (if there is one), but it's gotta be tricky for all involved. Cold storage helps, and is why I don't have any beer on warm shelves (on very rare occasions will have a warm stack for a week due to space issues). But am thinking of adding a warm shelf for "ageable" beers just to free up cooler space. Anywho....an IPA kept cold can keep fairly well, unless there's a date on it--then it won't sell, and what is to become of it

 

Yea, but Alpine & Kern (& RR's Blind Pig) aren't distributed here

 

This is the real shame. From my perspective, I don't care who's to blame for old beer. If a lot of the beer in the store is old, across breweries and distribution networks, then I'll shop there less. If some breweries' beer (and I agree I've had problems with specific ones in the past - Green Flash, Port, Bear Republic all included) is almost always way past prime (and I'm more sensitive to oxidized hops than most, so a lot of times a "best by" date isn't really cutting it), then I'm going to stop checking after so many times doing it. If an IPA hits bottles for the first time and has made the rounds in other states, gets to Colorado weeks later, and is already oxidized, then I get generally pissed off that everyone allowed this situation to occur. If a brewery doesn't bottle date (NOTE: In an easily understood, LEGIBLE fashion - package date is always the best so I can make my own decision on whether or not I want to purchase it), and I pick one up, and it's oxidized, then it could have been: The brewery's brewing process, the brewery's logistical process, the brewery's packaging process, the brewery's sales rep, the distributor, the distributor's rep, or the store owner...but no matter what, I pretty much stop buying the beer. The business that ends up hurting the most is the brewery. They always lose.

Customers definitely lose a little, since a lot of these beers I'd like to have at my house every now and then, but a lot of them can be found on draft where I rarely see problems locally, and as people have talked about, we do have other options that properly bottle date and can be found fresh. It's annoying, it's disappointing, but we still have options. For the sake of the breweries that consistently have their beer misrepresented in off-license retail, seems to me like the onus is on them to attack these problems.

 

From the Colorado Liquor Code.

"Regulation 47-414. Purchases by Wholesalers.
A. Each person, firm, company, partnership or corporation licensed under Articles 46 and 47 of Title 12, C.R. S., to sell at wholesale shall purchase all alcohol beverage stock for the operation of its business from Colorado licensed suppliers, unless otherwise provided in these Articles or the rules and regulations thereunder.

B. A duly licensed wholesaler may purchase sealed alcohol beverage stock from a licensed retail dealer within five (5) days after the expiration, or the surrender to, and cancellation by, the state licensing authority, of the retailer's state alcohol beverage license. Any alcohol beverages purchased from a retailer pursuant to this regulation must be alcohol beverages which the wholesaler is authorized to sell and normally carries as part of its alcohol beverage stock.

C. Wholesalers are prohibited from making consignment sales to retailers. A consignment sale is the sale of products with the privilege of return for any reason, other than those considered to be "ordinary and usual commercial reasons".

Ordinary and usual commercial reasons for return of products shall be limited to the following:
1. Defective or dated products; including those products with damaged/missing labels or those with mutilated tamper evident closures or leaking containers.

2. Error in delivery;
3. Discontinued products;
4. Seasonal operations;
5. Violations of the uniform commercial code;
6. Surrender or expiration of liquor license;
7. Special Event permittee."

It is a violation of Colorado State Law to not pick up damaged (in shipment) or out of date goods.

 

That's the vague part. May purchase is not Must purchase.
Thanks for finding this, my Google skills have slipped.

 

I see your point. Vagueness is the law.

 

I don't think it's vague. I read it as authorizing the wholesaler to purchase stock that they normally wouldn't be allowed to purchase. By putting it in writing it this transaction is now authorized by state law. It's not attempting to address whether or not it is a requirement to purchase back said expired stock.

 

That's what I was trying to find out. So, there is no law for such requirement. That means the control of outdated products is across the board (store, distributor, brewer, importer...). It just seems the store suffers the most, unless it decides not to carry products with dates on them...and the circle goes 'round and 'round.

 

I would disagree with that, but of course, I have a different vantage point.

 

No, I get ya. Bad beer reflects on the brewery (distributor gets a free pass in the eyes of the consumer)
I'm just saying from a short term financial situation. If beer goes out of date on the shelf--distributor got paid, brewery got paid, store has to eat the costs.

 

Got to agree with the man here. Only 2 Colorado IPAs i really like a lot are Odell and Modus.. I like others here just not love. Sculpin beats both these IMO. WCIPA is excellent as well as Racer 5 when they are fresh.. I would love to pick up some fresh Racer 5! While i like Flash a lot $10 for a 4 pack is Ridiculous.

If i were to list all the great IPA's coming out of Cali i would need another thread. Yeah most aren't distributed here which sucks. I'm really looking forward to Sculpin as this is easilly one of my Favorites.. Alesmith is way up there also. Hopefully we get them also. But they don't bottle date.

I might have you all beat. Just on Saturday was at a place that had Green Flash WCIPA with the Old yellow labels

 

So from what I heard last week, there is nothing concrete yet on packages, release date, etc. Details and such are still being worked out. I would guess end of August at the earliest. Got a good laugh that Ballast Point will only be at Costco, gotta love rumors. That is certainly not the case.

Speaking of San Diego Breweries, look for some AleSmith in Colorado in September!

 

Fantastic AleSmith news!! Can't wait on both of these breweries to be here...and Evil Twin one of these days...

 

First off thank you for finding this. It was very informative to see the actual law. I was able to find the Colorado.gov page afterwards with a quick copy and paste into google. Unfortunately your last statement you added after the law is incorrect (quoted above). It is legal to pickup dated or damaged products but nowhere does it say it is illegal not to pickup such products (although we certainly are all in agreement it should be picked up). This my friend is a prime example of a fallacy. I knew someday I would be able to apply my communications degree someday! Thanks Principles and Practices of Argumentation class. Anyway as far as which fallacy this falls into is another debate and I am a little rusty on the material. Is it Post Hoc (aka false cause)? Slippery Slope? Definist Fallacy? ... Wikipedia actually has a pretty good running list...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

 

Well, it's invalid. The conclusion does not follow the true premise. Maybe throw in a little false dichotomy

 

Alesmith is one of those few places I really, really hoped we'd get and actually had a chance of happening. That's pretty terrific.
If we can just get FFF, Bells, New Glarus, and Brooklyn (yes, yes, I know NG will never happen) I'll never have to travel or trade again

 

FTFY

 

Funny enough, my folks in Alabama get Cigar City so I'm covered on that front