bottles without brewdates

Most annoying thing a brewery can do.

 

I think Double Crooked Tree has a date, and Founder's Devil Dancer definitely does, they're just difficult to find (both are on the neck) and prone to rubbing off. I'm with you though, and I wish more breweries would use a system like Bell's - clearly stamped, easy to find, and completely unambiguous.

 

No date on the bottle causes me to bypass on purchasing it. Every brewery should date their beers.

 

Agree 100%
I will not buy many styles without some sort of a date on them.
For the o.p. I just had an instance with a bottle that my wife and I both spent a good deal of time trying to find a date on without success.
I finally asked an employee if he knew when it had been brewed, and he instantly found the date on the bottle, so they can be very hard to see at times.

 

Honestly, I wish package dating was a requirement of the FDA for beer. Clearly typed in a defined space on the label.

 

Thank you for your service!

 

I wouldn't always assume that beer is fresh if it just got to the store, the distributor may have been sitting on it for a while.

 

Yeah my local Whole Foods and Specs just put some Sucks on the shelf and both replied they just received it from the distributor, it was stamped 150 5, so basically bottled end of May

 

Founders definitely has bottle dates. You also cannot rely on when a bottle show up to the shop to determine freshness. I know in Indiana bottle shops are at the mercy of the distributors and one shop may get bottles that could not be sold in a different location.

 

Echoing the theme of not trusting the date of arrival at the shop.

Not too many years ago I ordered a case of a fall seasonal I'd had for the first time the year before. When the case was delivered I got an email to let me know. I went in to pick it up the next day. When I got it home I chilled the first few bottles and then opened the first. Didn't taste the way I remembered. Checked the Julian dating and found the case of beer was a year old. Took it back to the store and got a full refund because the beer guy hadn't double checked the date before accepting delivery. Eventually the whole situation was a net win for me as I wound up being comped a fresh case of that brewery's beer by the distributor who also admitted to not having checked the date on the case before putting it on the truck for delivery.

 

Lone Pint Yellow Rose does not have a bottle date on it. There is a local store that writes the date they receive it (on the bottle). While doing so is still not completely reliable, it helps to a certain extent.

 

Absolutely. I just found a 2013 Oktoberfest on the shelf at a local store. The store claimed the distributor just delivered it.

 

18% - Dogfish Head 120-Minute IPA
12% - Founders Devil Dancer
11% - Captain Lawrence Seeking Alpha
11.5% - Flying Dog Double Dog Double IPA (I can't interpret "261A15")
12% - Dark Horse Double Crooked Tree Double IPA
11.5% - Fegley Brewworks' Hop'Solutely
10.7% - Terrapin Rye Cubed (just says "Vintage 2015")


Yes, bottles without dates are something to avoid. BUT... the beers the OP has listed [abv added for illustration purposes] are all of the kind that you don't buy looking for generous hop influences, or at least I don't. I have had the four beers in bold print and can verify my statement for those beers. Besides, higher abv beers do last longer, even if whatever hop flavor was there to begin with fades away.

 

It's just so amazing when someone at a store thinks all of their customers are as ignorant as they may be.

 

You would hate it here in Mexico, most if not all breweries don't stamp their bottles with any type of date. Even though I have barely ran into old bottles.

 

+1 and also don't assume that the ones in the fridge are the freshest.

 

I recently saw a 32oz of Sucks at the store and searched all over for the batch date... could not find it. I know they put them on the sixer bottles, no way they don't on the 32's too, right? What gives?

It was on sale so it was tempting.

But it was on sale, so I expected it was probably old and didn't purchase.

 

Yea seriously, what the fuck is the deal? Why not print the bottling date? Secondly, why print a bottling date that is in some bullshit code I need fuckin R2D2 to interpret for me? The only reasons I can imagine breweries doing this is 1- laziness in the former, and 2- sneekery in the former & latter.

 

@Homers_Beer_Odyssey
I had a Devil Dancer a week or two ago and it did have a date on the neck.
Dogfish Head releases 120 Minute IPA in February and August I believe. You can check the DFH site for distribution through its " Fish Finder". It claims that it only searches beers distributed in the last 60 days.
http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/thee-schedule.htm

Flying Dog uses a fucked up dating system. The date on the bottle means the date that it is OUT of date. So in your case the 261 first day of 2015 is when the beer turns back into a pumpkin.
The other beers I don't know about.
I know it doesn't help you now. And yes, it is a pain in the ass but there is usually some idiotic way to find out. Budweiser makes it easy, I don't know why other breweries can't. Or won't. Cheers.