Went to the grocery store today, found a mix 12 pack of flying dog for $12. Not a bad price except there is no way of telling how old this beer is and it just sits on the shelves for ever. Usually I would pick up a mix 12 of just about anything craft for 12 bucks. So I pass on that, then I see the Easy IPA by them in the 6 pack section. I'm a huge fan of these session IPA's so even with my average at best experience with Flying Dog thus far I wanted to try it. Can't find a bottle date to speak of. I'm sure they must have one so I look it up online. Turns out it is a Julian code NOT for the "bottled on" date but for the best before date "usually 140 days from the bottling date". This is absolutely pissening. Not only do I have to do the little bit of math in my head to put the Julian date into a normal calander date but then I have to subtract 140 from this? This is down-right ignorant. Moral of the story: If I was ever inclined to buy anything from Flying Dog ever again in my life today would have been that day. They offered two things that I love: a decent priced mixed 12 and a session IPA. But I am so disgusted by their dating system that I will never buy their average beer again. Want to use a Julian date? Fine but it better actually tell me the date it was bottled on. Want to use a "drink before date"? I guess I'm cool with that as long as its blatantly obvious like Sam Adams. Combine the Julian date with the drink before date and it really burns my ass. When Budweiser is doing a better job than you at something that might be a problem.
Never had a problem with freshness, but then again I live in Delaware. Their Lager when they had it and their Brew House Rarities Collection (Bock Series) is all I've bought. Never Had a problem with them tasting bland or stale. They used to have either in the lower left or lower right of their web-site an open email/feedback forum. By all means, give them a piece of your mind! Flying Dog is not the best nor the worst, but of heard a lot stories about their various antics.
Email. I mean they're not going to change the codes immediately, but pressure helps. I forget who heads their Sales / Marketing now, but check the staff page and they usually have their personal business emails posted too. Another thing is knowing if they have a rep for your area. Their corporate accounts app is extremely useful, so if an area has a dedicated rep, they are (should) checking for proper sales and allotment and everything. I hadn't seen the thing in use until we were eating at Willimantic while out of Maryland for a wedding, and it found every account with order dates and what product lines and all sorts of crap. I'm told that's pretty standard for them if there is someone designated to the area.
