Clean those taplines!

Which I understand. I realize there are competing interests here (on the one hand, they want to sell beer; on other hand, they would like their beer to be relatively fresh), but it strikes me as unfortunate if the need to sell beer at all costs outweighs their interest in making sure the customer is receiving a product that closely represents the flavor profile the brewer had in mind when he made it (which I would argue, is not what the customer is getting when they inadvertently order a 12 month old can or bottle of DIPA). I don't mean to be naïve on the subject, but I would like to think that most brewers have enough interest in selling a fresh product that they would be willing to expend a little extra time, money and effort to make that happen.

That being said, let me shift gears for a second and ask you a question Jack. If you inadvertently purchased a beer that you later found out was much older than you had anticipated, and it turned out to be as wretched as you expected (given the style and age of the beer), who would you blame for that beer still being on the shelf? The retailer, the distributor or the brewery?

 

I hear you.

What I've discovered over time, is that as a customer I have to just be ever vigilant. The last time I bought an old can of DIPA from Revision Brewing, I was pissed off on all kinds of different levels. First and foremost, I was mad at myself for not taking the time to take a closer look at the can I bought (I was in a hurry and just grabbed something from a brewery I knew and had a proven track record - they also have a "brewed on" date that I didn't see until I got home). Part of the reason I wasn't more careful, is that finding old beer on the shelf typically isn't a big problem in PDX, and those places where it is, most knowledgeable customers know about them. As it turns out, this was a store that upon reflection, I shouldn't have been surprised there was old beer on the shelf. That of course made me mad at the store in question, as this is clearly not something they take very seriously (letting old cans of beer languish on the shelf - I would add that this is also a premium local grocery store, with Whole Foods like merchandise and pricing). In this particular instance, I wasn't particularly mad at the distributor or brewer, though in retrospect, maybe I should have been (as the distributor clearly is aware of what stores in town aren't moving product very quickly - but as you pointed out, who cares, a sale is a sale). For that matter, it would be nice if Revision tried to exercise better quality control when it comes to the actions of their distributor (after all, Revision is a pretty big deal and a popular brewery here on the West Coast, so they have some clout).

A story I've told before (my apologies if you've heard it before) involves a time I was in Ft. Bragg California and asked to take a look at a bottle of Deschutes Hop Henge DIPA before I bought it at a very reputable beer bar in town. The reason I asked, is that I was surprised it was available, as I didn't think Deschutes had brewed the beer in a while. The owner assured me it was fresh, as he'd just gotten in a case a couple weeks ago. I pointed out the "best by" date on the bottle, which was something like 10 months in the past. The owner was surprised and angry when I pointed out the date. He mentioned that he thought he could trust the distributor who had sold it to him, that he thought of him as a friend, and now he would have to rethink his relationship with the guy. I could tell this was not making him happy, and he wasn't at all pleased that I'd pointed out the problem. Unless I miss my guess, I believe he was also wondering how many other smart asses would notice the best by date, and for that matter, how many of his customers would even notice that the Hop Henge wasn't really all that fresh (and so maybe he wouldn't have to raise the issue with the distributor).

It's a complicated world out there, and not everything is exactly black and white (like you suggested, I think there's plenty of blame to go around when it comes to pointing the finger at old stale beer sitting on the shelf). Frankly, the suggestion you made at the end of your post is the one that seems to make the sense to me, and in the long run, I think it's the solution that would be most beneficial to the industry as a whole. However, as long as most customers continue to buy old, stale product without batting an eye (and unfortunately, I think that's the case for the majority of the beer buying public), I don't see the problem being fixed any time soon.