Do you check for freshness?

In my opinion the retailer has some responsibility here.

Since you related a story above, I too will tell an old story.

There was a craft beer bar in Manaunk (Philadelphia) called the Flat Rock Saloon. That bar was a little bit 'different' in that they only had a few taps and most of the beer they sold was from bottle/can. I got to know the owner (Bob) pretty well and during one of our conversations he mentioned that one of the Wholesale Distributors he dealt with was notorious for delivering old beer. Bob would make it a point to be at the bar when deliveries from this Wholesale Distributor were scheduled and he would check every case as it came off the truck and refused delivery of the old cases. I replied: well, if they know you are going to check why would they even put old beer on the truck? He just shrugged and stated that every time they showed up he would reject several cases. A crazy situation IMO.

One of the positives of drinking at local craft brewery taprooms - freshly brewed beer on tap. Tonight I will be visiting Workhorse Brewing to try a new 'Cold IPA' they just put on tap this week.

Cheers!

 

And at least for the situation of my 'local' TW store they make the Wholesale Distributors stock their shelves. Absolutely no monitoring is occurring with this 'business model'.

And Cheers to you here!

 

Hah! I don’t shop there period. I’m hoping the fresh stock goes to my same old bottle shop I’ve been shopping at before TW came to town.

 

Yes and no. Everyone in the chain has a responsibility to check for those things at a particular point. At a store level, I'm checking if something that has been on my shelf is expired, not when it's arrived because buyers are operating on the good faith assumption that suppliers/distributors are doing their due diligence in making sure they're not sending out expired product to begin with. Occasionally, it seems that they shirk that responsibility because they don't care or assume the buyer won't notice or care either. Other times, it's possible it escaped their notice and they didn't know it was expired. People make mistakes, we're human after all.

And in the case of your story, a buyer's reaction to finding out beer on their shelf is expired tells you a lot about their feeling of responsibility to their beer. If they're dismissive or aloof, you can pretty much guarantee there is a lot more beer on their shelf that's far too old.

 

Maybe if you are shopping at a beer store.

Most of us buy at grocery stores and beer at all of the local stores is handled by the Beverage Manager whose concern is soda, bottled water, etc. Their training is in grocery management and beer is just another beverage.
It doesn't matter when a ginger ale was bottled so why would it matter with an India Pale Ale?

Around here A-B & MC products are stocked & rotated by the distributor, for everything else it's some teenage stock clerk who's moving the beer from a pallet in the back to the shelf, they couldn't care less about freshness.

Or the third option.

The wholesaler misjudged demand and now has cases of aging beer sitting in the warehouse. The brewery won't take it back so he either passes the old beer along to an unsuspecting/ignorant retailer or takes the loss himself.

Which choice do you think he makes?

Or worse yet “if you don't take two outdated cases of this well known beer that I have exclusive distribution rights for then you won't get any at all when the fresh shipment arrives”

 

All the time. What I find more irritating than no date is the unreadable smudge date on all the cans.

 

I would have been too because again, the expectation is that you should be getting fresh, or at minimum, non-expired product. Blame does fall mostly on who he got it from but there is always some amount of blame/responsibility that falls on the buyer.

I'm sure I've mentioned this in other threads circling around this subject but most expired beer is swapped for the same or similar (if it's a seasonal or limited release that's no longer available) beer by the distributor; it's rarer when it's credited. I think that's the case nationally but states might have different rules about it; that's how it is here in CA.

So it will likely be taken care of at no or little hit to him; however, that simple act is a nightmare. You get people dragging their feet and taking forever to get it swapped/credited or hope you get fed up enough to eat the cost and dump it. Hopefully he didn't have to deal with the latter.

 

This is prevalent even in liquor, where you'd think they'd give a little more attention to those kinds of things. I've had some merchs who were diligent and a lot more who simply didn't give a shit. Worse when it's the buyer that has that attitude.

Always fun when that stuff ends up getting forced onto you for a large display. Market it all you want, no one wants it, it's just coming back to your warehouse when I have to pull it.

I'm glad I'm in a position where I'm mostly autonomous and I have the option to say "no." There's still a gun in this scenario because I still have to work with those distributors but at least the barrel isn't pointed at my head.

 

Always. I'm not a stickler for super-freshness ie I'll drink IPAs that are 4 months old. But last week I was at a bottle shop thinking wondering why there was so much fresh beer on the shelf, until I saw the canning dates being Jan 2021 instead of Jan 2022... not sure if it was a coincidence.

 

I always check for dates. Even if it's a barrel aged stout I still like to know when it was made.

Others have mentioned Total Wine and I've noticed a trend where they will print stickers for their single cans. These stickers have a date which seems to just be when the sticker was printed and put on the can. It might seem innocuous if they didn't manage to put it over the actual date, which is on different locations on different cans. I've peeled a few back to check and they are always months off.

 

I'm pretty sure those stickers are when they get it in vs actual bottle or can date. I'm not a complete TW hater, just watch the dates, people.

 

At the liquor store that I worked at, Stella and Corona were easily two of the faster selling beers. You definitely didn't need to worry about it, at least if you were buying them there.

 

I always check for freshness. Store by me random got some Trillium this week so I want to buy some but put it back after seeing it was nearly 4 months old. Style does factor into my decisions with how old something is, NEIPA the cut off is about one month but will stretch it to two months if I know I will drink it within a week, regular IPAs I give a little longer of a shelf life.

 

But were you able to obtain those beers from the Wholesale Distributor in fresh condition?

Cheers!

 

You said your distributors will swap out old beer. Is that as a courtesy or are they obligated to and is it swapped for a fresher batch of the same beer that didn't sell?

From talking to the retailers around here it seems the attitude of the big local distributors is that inventory control is the retailer's problem and they aren't going to take a loss on beer you couldn't sell.
As far as displays are concerned, pretty much the only largish ones I see are for A-B and Sam Adams products and those seem to sell.

 

Picked up a 12 pack of cans marked down to $13.99 with 3 months until best bye date. At first I was looking for a best bye date that was printed on the box itself, but this was a small, white printed label with the date. It's tasting really good to me. I'm older and lazier, I guess. But my go to IPAs are the OGs from SN, Stone and now Bear Republic. When fresh the value proposition is great.