Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Date Question

This is correct, except that is when it was bottled, rather than best by/purchase before, etc.

 

Franziskaner is an odd one. Since it's brewed in the same place as Spaten, you'd think they'd have the same, clear, best-by dating.

Since I only ever see 12-packs anymore, that makes it even more difficult to judge because the coding on the cases isn't clear -- and I don't want to rip open a case to look at the bottles.

 

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it was 10/25/19, whether that means it's "bottled on" that date or "best by" that date is the real question, but i'm pretty sure it means "bottled on"- I tend to see a lot of Franziskaner sit on shelves, and unless you have a really top notch beer store who stays on top of their bottle dates, there's a pretty good chance that it's from last year.

Plus, a lot of german brewers put longer shelf lives on their beers, usually six months to a year, which is completely unheard of in other realms of the beer world.

 

In the Three Tier system, it is the wholesale distributor's responsibility to maintain freshness of the stock. According to the National Beer Wholesalers Association - "After delivery, the distributor continues to monitor retailer shelves to ensure product freshness and integrity."

 

Like any beer (especially bottles) if there's some question as to how fresh it is, there should be some attempt by the shop owner to figure it out and prevent selling stale beer to it's customers.

It doesn't shock me that a big retailer would put it's bottom line over it's product quality, but I guess it does shock me a little bit that none of them knew how to read the codes.

By "top notch" I was referring to some of the more knowledgeable small time distros, where the owner/customer relationship is more personal (I don't have Bevmos or Total Wines by me). Usually these places are more on top of their beers shelf life, but like anywhere else, there's always the "buyer beware" slogan in the background of every purchase. I've been in a few situations early on where the beer I bought ended up tasting like a loaf of bread, and then I kicked myself because I forgot to look at the date.

 

Same here. My memory is that it's a good hefe, but your/my reasoning is why I cannot confirm