beer date question

Dale, FWIW that is my impression of how the distributed beer market works (or more precisely doesn't work).

Cheers!

 

It’s why small breweries are pushing a petition to the state senate to overturn that law. It’s incredibly self serving and inhibits growth , smart owners are not turning their product over to sloppy careless money grubbers. It’s why I can’t get Old Mech beers , they said no to distributors and pulled back to Charlotte.

 

Yah, I thought it was about going on a beer date as well, ha! It's funny I have been getting IPA's lately that have bottle dates going back 5, or 6 months and they lost some of the flavor profiles of the beer. They were the tropical tasting IPA's and they just tasted like regular IPA's w/o tropical fruit flavor. It is pretty frustrating. I am definitely going to be the finicky beer shopper next time.

 

A big part of the reason why you'll see those single 16oz cans with significantly older dates than 6pks/12pks is that they come 18 or 24 to a case. So a retailer has to move 18+ units before they can replenish with a fresh case vs. 4 units to replenish a case of 6pks. Same thing will hold true for 22oz/750ml bottles. That's why I always prefer to sell and purchase freshness-sensitive beers like IPAs in 4, 6, or 12-packs over large format bottles. Not only do you get a better price-per-ounce, but they're more often than not going to be fresher.

As someone who works at a retail craft beer store, I've always operated with the mindset that the responsibility to provide fresh product ultimately falls on us. While we can work with our distributors to get credit for or swap out out-of-date beer, our salesmen/women aren't coming in and checking dates, we are (at least as far as craft is concerned, they do a much better job when it comes to domestic beer).

Our ordering practices at the retail level also have a HUGE impact on turnover and freshness. We're also very diligent about checking dates as deliveries come in, so that if we see something close-dated or out-of-date, we can cut it from the delivery right then and there and hope for something fresher next time.

 

Just an update. I just purchased a 12 pack of Torpedo dated 12/20/17. That's 11 days old folks. Now, in fairness there were also 12 packs dated June, July,August and October on the shelves. That, as far as I'm concerned is a big problem. June? No excuses. Where is the rep?

 

Except for the fact it would be vandalism, it would be "interesting" to have some stickers printed up that say "Expired", the kind that are permanent, and apply them to said old beers so nobody buys them by mistake. Again, not advising this.

 

They dont have to monitor this because the food stores do it for them. At the food store I shop at pretty much anything getting close to expiration is marked way down to sell out. If food is on the shelf past its BB date I think the food store can get fined so its self policing. You can sell beer 20 years past the BB date if it even has a date.

I think that large beer distribution buying more than they can reasonably sell is a big part of this. Save an extra .25 cents a case , who cares if its sent out past its prime. Until old beer does not get purchased by the public this will keep happening. I stopped letting stores know about old beer a long time ago. I pretty much was always told in so many words, Fuck Off we dont care. Most distributors I have gone to have old beer and dont seem to care. The one I go to most often now has a pallet of old beer up front and sells at a discount. Many good deals there. I actually got a case of Golden IPA from SN this year there for $20, it was still a very good beer.

The general public know nothing about fresh beer. I have been drinking "craft" and imports for well over 25 years and had no idea about fresh IPA till I bought Sculpin(about 12-14 years ago) after having it on tap. The tap was amazing but the $65 case was cardboard tasting nothing. I found out about fresh IPA after that purchase. How many people just getting into craft know nothing about dates or what the dates mean? They will keep buying old beer or stop paying premium prices fro beer that is not near as good as the pint they had.

Till beer is forced to date every bottle/can like food the old beer issue will not go away. I wont buy any IPA/hoppy beer with no dates. Remember when bombers rules the aisle, We stopped buying and started bitching and now look. Maybe we can make a difference. I will start to send an email any time I want to buy a beer and its old.

Enjoy

 

I like it. Wonder how long you could do this before you got caught.

Enjoy

 

The bottling date should be mandated to be in a consistent prominent spot on every beer, in a consistent and easily interpreted format that does not require a secret decoder ring and Julian calendar, in a color that contrasts with the label, and in a font that is readable. Expiration date is optional.

 

I posted my last comment because It was doubted that SN could get product on the shelves here in Maine that quickly. Gotta hand it to someone, eleven days is pretty good time.
The other reason I posted is because it's obviously not the brewer responsible for old beer. I totally agree that beer should be marked to move after a certain time period on the shelf. Not $1 off, but 50% or so. In the past I have made the argument that IPAs were originally intended to last. I think refusing IPAs after a month or two is absurd, but after EIGHT MONTHS on the shelf sitting next to eleven day old beer from the exact same brewer, exact same beer, someone is really missing the boat.
Don't think of this as a piss and moan about old beer, think of the amount of WASTE when these things finally get pulled and dumped out or whatever happens to old beer. I'd feel the same way about meat and produce.

 

At two months old? Get the bottles. Cans do tend to keep hoppy beer tasting fresh for longer, but still, at nine months old, canned IPAs are still going to be malt bombs.