bottles without brewdates

I've pretty much stopped buying Lagunitas IPAs because I can't read the bottled on date stamped on the neck. I was in my local beer store today and was looking at both Sucks and Little Sumpin' Extra. I couldn't read the bottled on date on either one of them, even after holding it up to a light and using the flashlight on my phone.

This really does suck because I love most of the Lagunitas IPAs. Unfortunately I've been burned too many times by old bottles that I won't buy them anymore without seeing the datestamp.

 

Okay I hate to say it buy Local from the brewery and they will tell you the date it was canned or bottled. As far as the others if your not sure or if in question don't buy it.

 

Ive been wanting to try even keel flr so long but the single i found said 15203. So march 20, 2015? That's very old for something almost $12 a sixer. Refuse to try it at that reasoning

 

hm depending on how they did the julian, if it is YYDDD then that was brewed at the tail end of June roughly 203/30 = 6.8. So that makes it approx 3 months old

 

I just don't but undated beers.

 

pretty sure double crooked tree has a date, and it should get a pass anyway because you can drink that many months old and it will still taste awesome while kicking you in the face.

 

Bottles without "bottled on" dates are difficult. Maybe @Sixpoint can explain why breweries prefer to tell customers when their beers should be consumed rather than leaving it up to the consumer to find the most fresh beer available.

 

Digits #3-5 are no doubt "Julian" - aka "day of the year" - dating, so it'd be the 203rd day of 2015. Despite many people viewing this as some "secret code" it is common used in many industries and business, and actually avoids the confusion between US style dating (Month - Day - Year) and Euro dating (Day - Month - Year) where "02-12-15" might mean Feb. 12 or Dec 2, 2015.

July 22, actually. Your formula doesn't work correctly because you have to add a 1 to the result to get the month, because there is no "0" month - January - 001-031 in Julian speak - is "1".

 

When everyone joins us in doing this, within six months every IPA on the shelf will have a date.

 

That is July 22, 2015 production date not March 20. Day 203 of 2015.

 

And to think of all the beer I have left on the shelf because it was a month older than I thought...Thanks for pointing that out @jesskidden.

 

Brewers have more information than the consumer. They know the efficiency of their bottling/canning system. An IPA hand bottled has a much shorter shelf life than an IPA bottled on a new very efficient bottling system. I feel much more comfortable buying a 5 month old Green Flash or Victory IPA than buying a 3 month old dark horse IPA. Green flash and Victory have invested in modern technology where Dark Horse who hasn't been able to yet. I hate the idea that brewers are trying to get something over on me. The brewers that I've met want to showcase their product in the best way possible. They want to bottle date but sometimes can't afford the equipment. Do I buy a fermentor or a bottle dating system? if it was my business in which I can't meet demand for my beer, I'd be buying the fermentor.

 

because in certain jurisdictions, it is required by law in order to sell beer ;-)

 

3 keeping computerized inventory control as simple as possible.

 

I don't like decoding dates either, and if it's not dated I don't buy it, there's lots of IPAs I like but I won't buy them anymore. I can get fresh local stuff that ...... Happens to be can or bottle dated, if they can charge me 13-14$ out the door on a 4 pk they can date the damn things too. All the great local options like Scythe, Pernicious , Freak , HDR are all dated, only Jade is not , but it's a rotational offering so when you see it, it's fresh.

 

Double crooked released in February
Devil dancer released end April beg may
120 min released in Jan and August for 2015

All those are fine to age anyway

 

I fully agree and also bottles/cans without legible dates should also be avoided. I don't think it can be that difficult to put a legible date on the label.

 

I dont think it is that difficult, but it def does add some cost to the product...having said that, who amoungst us doesnt want to know when it was bottled/canned and that it is fresh?

 

And....it's not just a US problem(dating bottles/cans)

 

I see the cost factor. And I get it. It obviously just isnt on the top priorities list of breweries. If it were though, there would be undoubtedly a cheaper/easier way to apply dates than some elaborately expensive computerized system. I was speaking out more on the whole "code" thing though. In terms of, ok here you are as a brewery that already has a dating system... why does it now have to be somehow imbedded in a jumbled mix of letters, numbers and lot numbers and case numbers. Idk, like I said, breweries that care about it or are required to, do it. Others just dont really care. It sucks either way.

Not all are as "professional" as a real date stamp, but if its a matter of complexity and cost, just use a price tagger gun like Trillium does. Or, if we're talking sixers/12s/24s, just pay the extra $8/hr for four hours for someone to walk along the packaging line with a date stamp for the boxes. Or mark a colored sharpie on the bottle or can bottom, and have a generic message printed (as to avoiding special ordering/printing new labels for each canning/bottling) that directs the drinker to a webpage somewhere that has what colors were from what month or week, if the drinker cares to do so.

The above methods would be for a smaller prodiction brewery obviously, being a little JV on the professionalism scale. Then once they are producing up with the big dawgs, they can buy a real dating system. And if the arguement is that they cant afford to pay one of their staff a total of $40 and a $10 order of sharpies from ebay, then they probably dont care as much about freshness or customer satisfaction or whatever. It atleast appears that way in my eyes. Maybe they shouldnt be packaging their product. This mostly refers to more time semsitive beer styles too.