E.T.A. on Lagunitas bottling dates??

Many threads on this. The dates are there, they are on the neck and impossible to read unless the moon,sun and all the stars are aligned. Also, the format seems to differ from each of the different beers.

Dogfish Head has it perfect, easy to read bottled on dates right on neck. It boggles my mind why other breweries can't do the same.

 

While not ideal, the Julian dating they use is usually not too difficult to figure out. It's just the first 3 digits.

 

The bottle of Lucky 13 I had last night has 15346413. So it's there, just hard to see with the black dotted numbers.

 

the first 3 digits on the bottle is the day it was bottled.. so if the first 3 digits are 132, that means it was bottled on the 132nd day of the year, etc..

 

You are proof that industry standards or at least a common sense approach can only benefit sales. I pass up any beer whose date I can't find or figure out. I also don't want to have to consult my phone like the magic eight ball for every bottle I am looking at to see if it's a bottled on date or a best by date. Date friendly beer goes home with me.

 

It was bottled on the 121st day of the year..

 

Also, the crazy thing it is alot easier to see the bottled on date once the beer is empty! Doesn't anyone at these breweries do some tests to make sure these dates are readable?

 

He's too busy whining on twitter to get to it.

 

That looks like the new codes that have been popping up lately, 121st day of the year and the 3 should be the last number of the year so 2013. Still can be a bitch to read the black ink though.

 

But is doesn't show what year...

Nothing to prove that the beer hasn't been sitting around for over a year - and I'm pretty sure I've seen some of these.

Edit: Didn't see the post above. I'll have to check for the 4th numeral now.

 

Hi Lare... It's nice to know you're listening so closely.

There is a Julian date on the neck. The other numbers are our batch and time numbers.

We bought a laser coder that will make it easier to read on the label. It is sitting in a box next to the labeler waiting for all sorts of fermenter welding work to finish up and then we'll get it on line.

 

I wish all breweries did dating the way Maine Brewing Co.does it - their's is the most legible I've ever seen - black ink on a white label with a clear bottled date on the side. The current Lagunitas method sucks. Hope the new laser coder improves things. I had a hell of a time the other day trying to see the date code on the bottle in the store. I finally was able to read it but did not want to bother with trying to read others. So I left further possible purchases on the shelves. As I do with other breweries when they make it difficult to read their coding system or do not date at all.

 

I'll stick to Lagunitas's hard to read Julian codes and reasonable prices (not to mention great beer) over Maine's easy to read labels and overpriced (very average IMO) beers. I agree though, it shouldn't be that difficult; just put the bottle on date on the label itself, month, day and year (like FW and GD).

 

I buy Lagunitas all the time so I get their Julian dating system, but sometimes it's impossible to find the dating code on the neck of the bottle. There was a time recently I couldn't find it and decided to buy something else. They need to make it more visible and easier to read. Stamp it on the label or put it on the bottom of the bottle, or use the same system Dogfish Head does. It's almost like they don't want customers to be able to find it.

 

The sooner you get that laser coder operating, the sooner I can start buying Lagunitas beers regularly.

To beer.

 

If you are able to look at the cases, the Julian date code is on those too and is much larger.

 

Great. Just bought 5 month old Hop Stoopid!