Fresh Old Beer Twin Cities problem

To paraphrase a quote:
"I see dead beer. They don't know they're dead.
Where are they?
Everywhere."

This is one of the Four Horsemen - buckle up!

 

I haven't been at retail for over ten years, but this very problem was an issue back then. So what's the solution?

One would think that a retail beer buyer would be able to catch all of those brands/SKUs which are either near-code or past-code, right as they are being offloaded into the receiving area of the warehouse. But can it be done when the average retailer of "better beer" is stocking more than 1,000 individual brands?

Circa 2000 to 2005 I'd do my best to identify and pull old beer as it arrived. The drivers for the big houses were mostly on point and did this as a part of their job, and this task was made easier in that A-B, Miller, and Coors brands all had easy to understand codes printed on their "suitcases", 4x6-pack longneck, 2x12 "battery" pack longneck cases, etc.

But when it came to the mothercartons of Micro/Craft or Specialty-Import brands, it was an entirely different story. These were rarely stamped with either an easy to read date code or even an easy to understand code. Some importers carried lines whose own production and date codes were deliberately obscure (off the top of my head: Merchant du Vin, Samuel Smith's).

Maybe all of this has changed in the era of Total Wine, Binny's, and BevMo?

I doubt that. But I'd love to hear one of you retail guys (or gals?) chime-in and tell me how much easier it is today.

P.S. The wholesalers often grumbled about taking back / crediting the past-code beer. But it always made me wonder why they were sending it to us in the first place.

 

Same things are happening today. The wholesalers WILL NOT take back beer that isn't expired yet. Sometimes, we will get beer in that has only 1 week until the best by date. They say that it is still good and you ordered it. Then, when you get an IPA that is supposed to be fresh, they say the same thing. It's ridiculous how they overbuy and stuff just sits in the warehouse...

The best is when Stone "Enjoy By" $20 6-packs come in and there is only a few weeks to sell them by. People want that stuff fresh, and it seldom happens.

The distributor has written out a big check for all this beer, and doesn't want to lose any money. They could care less if the beer tastes up to the brewery's standards. This is a far larger problem than most people think it is. I've went so far as to call breweries and let them know this is happening.

 

It was disappointing to see (at the time) 2- or 3-month-old six packs of a great west coast IPA introduced to our market in January. Hint: we already could purchase (5-month-old) bombers of this beer.

In this case, I'm very curious if the distributor held old product out of choice, law, or if the brewery sent old beer. And if the brewery sent old beer, did they know the distributor might not put it on shelves right away?? Oh the questions...

 

It happens all the time. I check dates and keep all ales/lagers/IPAs refrigerated, but what is the use if the beer is already old? When you bitch about it, the distributor "blackballs" you. They act like you are being irrational. I'm sorry, but I don't think the breweries want their product treated like that. It's a very messed up system.

Also, distributors will push deals at you, which they know you cannot accomodate. This also leads to alot of super old products on shelves. If you don't take the deal, you are not "supporting the brand", and thus miss out on all the special releases from that particular brewery. This kinda thing should be illegal, but nobody ever says anything.

 

I wonder if anyone ever uses Stone's fresh beer link, or if it even makes a difference? Old "Enjoy By" IPA has become way too common lately...

 

The breweries can complain to the distributor, but may not pull much weight since the breweries want the distributors to keep carrying their products and they understand that the distributors need to buy in quantity to get decent pricing. I can see where distributors might not be enthusiastic about adding new/small craft breweries that only further dilute the market and add more slow moving beers that pile up in the warehouse due to the distributor's need to buy in quantity. I'm sure distributors love breweries like Founders and Stone that sell quickly since they can move truckloads of it vs. delivering a case at a time.