So my area just started getting Boulevard beers. I purchase a bottle of Double Wide DIPA (on 7/5/13), get it home and notice it has "Best By 02/15/14" on it. Seven and a half months? (not even knowing when it was bottled, could be more, only assuming it is fresh since we just got it). This seems pretty strange to have that far out on a hoppy beer, anyone else know what they do this? I'm not normally huge on "OMG you have to drink this IPA within a week or it's a drainpour" but dang. I'd much rather have a bottled on date than a best by date as it seems some breweries are just throwing numbers out there. Thoughts?
I wouldn't worry too much. I didn't remember that beer having too large of a hop profile, but after 6+ months it could have altered the flavors a bit. I had some 6 month old Palate Wrecker and it seemed like it had retained a lot of the hops, but a lot can vary from beer to beer.
Pretty sure it's 9 months. Last time I ha a double wide it was pushing 3 months old and it was... ok. Never seen it fresher than that so I don't buy it. Drink my weight in Tank 7 every few months though.
Any questions about the beer, you may want to tweet to Jeremy Danner, who is a Boulevard brewer @Jeremy_Danner
Here's the text from our FAQ regarding Smokestack Series bottle codes: The batch number consists of a letter or number indicating the brand, followed by the Julian date when the beer was bottled. For example, 70071 is a bottle of Tank 7 (7) bottled in 2010 (the first 0) on March 12th (071, the 71st day of the year). We also provide a "Best By" date (mo/yr) underneath the batch number, in this case 03/11. The beer is not necessarily bad after expiration, but may have passed its prime. Seasonal and limited release beers also have a Best By date, but instead of a bottling date, a batch number. For example, 2010-1 on a bottle of Rye-on-Rye is used for the first batch bottled in 2010. The Best By date is 01/13, indicating that we believe this beer can be aged for up to three years. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
