Ballast Point Sculpin no bottle date...weird.

Julian dating is stupid IMO, your standing in a beer store trying to figure out what date 183 is. I can roughly figure out 183 is bout half way to 365 or I can divide 183/30 and get a rough date at 6 months, but why do this? Just as easy to do 7/3/13, damn how hard is that.

 

I am under the impression that Sculpin is good within 120 days of bottling date.

 

Other than overpriced, sculpin is very good.

So does Julian code work both ways? In this case 13183 would equal the 183rd day of 2013, just like the more common Julian code off 3183?

 

Just keep a julian date page (like this) saved as a bookmark on your phone. Quick & easy to access in store.

 

Shouldn't have to though, just as easy to date it so any idiot can read it without a spread sheet.

 

not necessarily. 7/3/13 is 6 characters, 183 is 3 characters.
and who's to say there wouldn't be confusion that the date indicated March 7?

 

So called "Julian" dating is simply the 3 digit day-of-the-year - 001 through 365 (366 on leap year). There is no standard of how a manufacturer (not just breweries use such dating) indicates the year - some use a single last digit, some use the last two digits of the year, etc., and it can either before or after the 3 digit Julian code. Some (IIRC, Langunitas once did this) omit the year entirely.

Well, as jmw notes above, the day-of-the-year Julian code avoids the confusion between US and European (and most of the rest of the world?) methods of dating, in which 01/11 is Jan. 11 in one region, and Nov. 1st in another.

Also, mechanically, Julian is easier. Certainly before computers, when dates on printing units were changed with timers or by hand, moving from 031 to 032 was easier than moving to 201 on Feb. 1st. I worked in the factories of two Fortune 500 companies (neither were breweries) and Julian dating was common. At one pilot plant, the code was stamped by hand on master shipper boxes with a large rubber stamp with multiple "belts" of mirror image digits and letters. The operator who made up the boxes first job of the morning was moving the rubber stamp's day-of-the-year date one digit up. Simple.

 

Im with you man .. I heard for months on here about how Sculpin is no amazing and how its so great blah blah blah .. I think people say that because someone else did .. I find it to be middle of the road at best.

 

Everyone's taste buds change. My first Green Flash amazed me, still awesome but there are better IPAs. Same with Stone, Firestone, Two Hearted, Flower Power, and so on and so on. They are all awesome, just Sculpin is ranked the highest and we all know that it is excellent, but probably not the best.

 

'Middle of the Road' is a bit harsh, but I do agree that it's one of the more over-hyped beers out there. It's in the upper echelon but nothing spectacular, IMO. If there's a bomber of Hop Stoopid next to it @ $4.99 (as it is in my area), that Sculpin's staying on the shelf. I don't regret paying that much for the first time I tried it, but I can tell you that the only way I'm paying that much for it again is if there's an extremely limited selection.

 

I admit I've never had it from a small batch, if so, my opinion might be drastically changed.

 

RE: Sculpin:

The original bottling of it had a much more fruity, complex hop character. Then we got the hop shortage and they changed the formula. It's never been the same.

 

When do you think this happened?

 

I first had Sculpin in April of 2008 and I think the bottle had a few months on it at that time. It has never tasted the same since that first time. I don't think I had it again until 2010 and was definitely different from both my memory and my review here in BA.

http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/1476-the-bitter-end-the-great-2008-hop-shortage

 

Agreed on hopstoopid

 

Wait, I'm confused, the 22oz bomber of Hop Stoopin is actually more expensive that the Sculpin /oz.

22 oz at 4.99 = 22 cents/ oz.
72 oz at 13.79 = 19 cents / oz.

 

the 131st day of 1983. send to me for proper disposal

 

So, this is the bottled on date?

BP has created a massive CF here. Went from no dates at all to ,many combinations of bottled on/enjoy/julian/human date. I saw some on the shelves a couple of weeks ago, wanted to buy it but couldn't remember or figure out when the stuff was bottled. What a joke. Don't people who run businesses realize how poor decisions impact their bottom line?

 

Anyone know how they work? I bought a bottle of Sculpin and was super excited to try it...I am drinking it now and it is not living up to the hype...tastes like it might be slightly stale. I cannot decipher the bottled date though so I am not sure...

Thanks for your help...

 

Ballast Point: As of April 2013, uses a bottling date. It's a Julian date code. First two digits represent the year, next three digits is the Julian date. Ex: 13094 would be April 4th, 2013.