Did Green Flash STOP bottle dating?

Rush out and get sixers of Deschutes Fresh Squeezed with late August dates! =) Amazing Freshness. We've sold 11 cases since mid April.

 

I used to be a huge green flash fan. But stuff like this makes it hard to continue. I saw some Hop Head Red with Bottled On dates on the shelf today. That's good, right? Til I saw they we're bottled IN MARCH '13!!!!

 

Walked into the Total Wine in Reno yesterday and was surprised to see a big Green Flash display right at the entrance. A bunch of cases of WCIPA, Hop Head Red, Rayon Very, and Double Stout all stacked together with four-packs displayed on top. I browse for a bit, looking for the dates and can't find any on most of the bottles. Finally, I spot a date of 5/1/13 on one of the Hop Heads and immediately decide not to purchase any GF that day. I wasn't aware of the new package designs, but now that I see this, it makes sense for the store to to stack them out front to try to get rid of all their old stock. Most people are suckers, but fortunately I am not.

 

Wow...I don't even put out of date beer on closeout. I will consume it or give it away. There does come a time where it gets hard to manage dates (having around 400 craft selections in a single owner store is time consuming). But that is never an excuse to sell your customers bad beer....I mean, they are your customers...lol. I guess this just gets lost on some companies.

 

This is aggravating to say the least!

 

Green Flash seems to think Rayon Vert is Duvel, and no sort of bottling date (even on the old ones) is necessary. Of course it says on the box, and the beer that I recieved--lol--it was brewed in 2011!!! I yelled at my salesman and told him to re-yell to his boss. ALAS, I get a MID-2013ish Rayon Vert shipment last week and I try it for myself. I've been to the brewery, it is a fine beer. It tasted fine. We sold a couple and I saw a gentleman walking out with one. I told him why it didn't have any "BEST BY" dates on it, or even a bottling date. I told him it was typical for this ONE VERSION of GF. I informed him that if he did not like it that I would buy him something of equal value. Now he is running through cases of 2013 Rayon Vert.

Green Flash is a great jumping off point for anyone venturing into craft. And, when fresh, it is very enjoyable. I really love the WCIPA (now WCDIPA). But I hope the brewery reads these boards. They certainly need to be AWARE of where old beer is. And if a few thousand bottles (or more) got through the line without the date printed...they need to make an announcement!

Anywho, what I ended up doing was cutting the "BEST BY" date off the cases of each respectable GF Brew and adhesing them next to the price tags.

 

Really want to try the new West Coast, but my beer store still has the old packaging...

 

I have been thinking alot about lately. Please chime in and let me know your thoughts.

I've had crappy GF WCIPA more times than good GF WCIPA. Its a shame,cause I like GF WCIPA when fresh but after 3 months or so I think it starts to turn for the worse. I personally think that "Brewed on" dates provide the customer with more specific information than the "Best by" and that any brewer who says that there IPAs, DIPAs or TIPAs are still representing the intended taste 5-6 months after brewing is full of it.

I guess the "Best by" date is the date that these breweries think thier product is no longer representing thier intentions. After the "Best by" date the brewery considers this beer to be "not best". Breweries that have 5-6 month "Best by" dates are willing to sell sub-par beer within the last few months of the "Best by" date and need those extra months to get rid of the stock (so they dont eat it). Quality vs. Quantity is the question at hand, some breweries limit growth/production/distribution of beer to ensure a high quality product is had by all, others grow to big and over produce/distribute beer, ship it all over the country/world and leave it on shelves for to long not caring about the consumers drinking experience during the last few months of that "Best by" date.

 

I agree, I have been tempted to remove the line from my store but I have a few customers that would just go a few miles down the road if I did that

Also, I love recommending the Double Stout to people that are interested in delving deeper into Imperial Stouts. I always suggest they start off with this one. At 8.8abv, it is very drinkable and toughens their tolerance

As far as Hop Head Red, I have completely given up trying to find any fresh.

 

WCIPA is also a good IPA for branching out, at least (I guess) with the new packaging...right NOW people will know that what they are drinking is fresh. But by next year, what then? Hopefully they will have started to date their beers by then.

 

I skip Green Flash stuff because most of it is old as can be on the shelves. I really like the Green Bullet or whatever it was. Great beer when fresh.

I also don't really like the "best by" dates for some reason. Sweetwater does it here locally and I've never gotten a real straight answer on how long that date is, and can you assume it was bottled on said date 90 days from the label.

Meh.

 

I agree with you on the "best by" thing. Especially with IPAs, one really wants to know the brewed on date rather than the latter. And to truly enjoy the essence of mostly all IPAs, you must drink them young, otherwise the hop flavor and aroma degenerates. I can assure you, the easiest products to carry are Tripel/Quadrupel Belgians and RIS .

IPAs are tricky, most people go with the most recognized and acclaimed brands, but the "odds and ends" are the tricky ones to sell. And, lets face it...I am in Kansas. Most of the time people gravitate towards New Belgium and Sam Adams when they are feeling adventurous. However, in the last two years especially, distributors have been GREAT at promoting craft beer on premise at bars, and hosting tastings in our stores. We do our best to get our customers to branch out. ACBW (American Craft Beer Week) this year generated more excitement than it ever has. Year by year, out here in the flyover states learn to appreciate craft beer. Local Breweries (Boulevard, Free State, Tallgrass) have helped immensely of course!

Wow, kind of got on a tangent there!

 

I think one of the main problem with "best by" dates on beer are they are used under the assumption that the beer will be refrigerated the entire time it is in the store. I think we all know this is not always the case and there is a difference between an refrigerated IPA and an IPA that has been sitting at room temp.

 

Green flash is really a brewery with great beer that is a true rinky dink operation. They will almost never respond to any criticism and while there are beer companies in San Diego that are not even distributed outside of San Diego that have dated their beer, green flash has repeatedly had problems. From their current situation with dates not on the bottle even though it says best by on the label to their old system where the best by date would come off when the beer got cold it's incredible that they make such great tasting beer. They need better management and to make more Silva stout.

 

I think Sculpin suffers from the same fate as Flash, maybe even more so because the pricing point here is ridiculous like $17 a sixer. Also Gordon is this boat too, and they can date and an 8 month old brew is very typical. More disappointing is that Oskar Blues is now made I'm NC, don't see why they have to shovel out old product. I buy local high turnover IPAs or Two Hearted Ale , and nasty old IPAs are a thing of the past. No can date I don't buy when it comes to hoppy brews.

 

And this is why I'm officially done with GF. Let's redesign our label, including a spot SPECIFICALLY FOR SOME SORT OF DATE, and then not print anything.
Goodbye West Coast IPA, I'll miss you most of all....

 

Very disappointing buying an "best by 7/31/14" 4 pack of Hop Head Red back in mid May only to discover I was drinking 2-3 month old beer (now that I've figured out their 5 month "freshness" cycle).

I learned this today when I spotted a four pack in the new packaging with an "best by" date of 11/8/14, so I bought a single for comparison sake. Based on their 5 month "best by" dating, this one was bottled roughly 10 days ago, and delivered what it was supposed to in the way of aroma and flavor. The 4 pack I bought in May was a total waste of money as the hops drop off quickly. Just a heads up to those about to make a Green Flash purchase: look at the "best by" date and realize they are claiming 5 months of freshness, which is a load of crap.

 

love the "BEST BY: [nothing written there]" on this GF IIPA. it just showed up at the store though, so i'm pretty sure it's fresh. tastes good as hell too.

 

Here's my take:

The new labels required new machinery to stamp/print the Best By date on the label. Either Green Flash couldn't get it to work correctly or just didn't want to update their equipment. Either way, it doesn't jive. I'm talking with a buddy who works there to try to get a definitive answer.

They're 4-packs do tend to sit on the shelves here in Wisconsin, mostly due to price. How do you justify spending $8-9 on a 4-pack of beer from CA when you can pick up a local, fresh 6-pack for about the same price? Or a few bucks more for a sixer of almost any IPA/APA on the shelf (most of which have bottled on or enjoy by dates)?

When I lived in SD I still had trouble finding fresh GF, unless it was on tap or from the brewery I hardly ever bought it.

BP Sculpin goes downhill so fast that I wouldn't keep it on the shelf if it was more than 2 months old. And that's for cans. 1.5 months for bottles. Anything beyond that and you risk a total hop fall-out.