Green Flash best before dates?

It should be month/day/year, and I know for West Coast IPA it's 6 months after bottling.

 

Being a Belgian style IPA it has an extended best by date. I wondered this before but I guess it makes sense as a lot of the Belgian IPAs can age some

 

Just send the brewery an email. Pretty sure they could answer your question.

 

2 years? Yep. Bingo. Le Freak is a bottle conditioned Belgian IPA. It tastes great fresh, but is even better with 1-2 years on it. The best Le Freak I ever had was about 2 years old. It isn't a mistake, absurd, or a beer from the future: Green Flash is telling you something.

I used to brew at Green Flash, so this isn't just a little theory I have. If I were you I would snag that bottle and try it for yourself.

 

Yeah the dry hop aroma is long gone by then, but the bitterness still hangs around. Their Trippel and Le Freak at ~2 years have great fruity esters. Any perceived lack of hop bitterness may be due to the esters offsetting it. Definitely more of a hop bomb when fresh.

 

Le Freak can absolutely be aged for a year. The hop aroma will drop off but the Belgian esters are more pronounced.

 

But why the hell don't they publish all this information somewhere? It's ridiculous that I have to take your word for it rather than being able to easily find this information on their website. This type of information is especially important to those of us on the east coast where GF stuff can sit around for a while. Le Freak may age well, but what if I want a fresh, hop forward example?

Also, the notion that their other hoppy beers are good after sitting on a shelf for 6 months really is absurd. They completely lost me and many others as customers when they switched from a "bottled on" date.

 

They do. On the bottle. It's called a "best by" date.

Don't take my word for it, take their word for it. The put a best by date on the bottles. If in doubt, buy some bottles, age them, and drink them at regular intervals to see what your palate prefers.

Have you actually tried them? Green Flash has spent a lot of money on equipment to get their DOs lower. Their DOs are now extremely low, which allows beers to taste fresher for longer. They aren't just guessing when they determine the best by dates. Whether you believe it or not, Green Flash knows better than you do.

Actually, they have been GAINING customers at an astonishing rate. They are growing, not shrinking. It looks like they are doing something right and shouldn't listen to your advice at all.

You might want to give their best by dates a fair shot. A best by date tells you a lot more than a bottled on date if you put your ego aside and realize that the brewers know better than you do.

 

But why am I not allowed to know how far out they consider their beer to be "best by" and form my own opinion? The fact that they are reluctant to make this info publicly available tells you something. They don't want us forming our own opinions, they want us to blindly follow whatever date they put on their bottle.

I know what my palate prefers, and hoppy beer that's been sitting on a warm shelf for 6 months isn't it. If you seriously believe that any of their hoppy stuff tastes the same 6 months after bottling, you're delusional.

Yes, I've tried them, which is why they lost me as a customer. Their dating practices have been extremely inconsistent so I never know what the hell I'm getting. Their stuff is way too expensive to take a gamble on. And yes, us consumers should just sit back and accept whatever BS any company tries to force upon us because "they know better than we do."

That's because craft beer in general is growing. I don't doubt that Green Flash is gaining customers, but they'll lose those same craft beer newbies once they get burned a few times by their dating practices. I actually enjoy their beers when I know they're fresh, but since I usually have no idea how long their stuff has been sitting around, I don't buy it anymore.

Green Flash needs to take a page from Stone's book and put their hop forward beers at no more than 90 days out (and even that's pushing it in my opinion.)

 

You can form your own opinion by drinking the beer. Forming your own "opinion" based on a date and an assumption is silly. There is no "blind" following involved here. They put a best by date based on when they think they beer will still be delicious to drink. They are giving you the information you desire. If you try it and disagree, then stop buying it.

I never said it tastes the same. Please don't lie about what I said. It doesn't taste "the same" on day 2 as it does on day 1. Does it still taste good enough to sell? Yes. And they have proven that. You are the one being delusional in your belief that your "palate" trumps their palates and their obvious success in the market.

They do know better than you. If you buy it and don't like it, stop buying it. You are the tiny minority. It isn't "BS" just because you have decided not to like it.

Green Flash is growing faster than the craft beer industry is. You do know how long their stuff has been sitting around. THEY PUT A BEST BY DATE ON THE BOTTLE. Use it. If you think their best by date is too optimistic, then shave a couple months off of it to fit your superior palate.

Stone and Green Flash are both killer breweries that not everyone likes, and they are fine with that. They don't need to change to fit your opinion, nor take a page out of anyone else's book, especially not yours. They would be ruined if they did so.

Let me know when you open your own brewery and prove your "theories" in the real world.

 

I love forums.

 

And end Forum