According to the Fresh Beer! site, Jack's Abby prints a bottling date on all their beer. But I'll be damned if I can find any kind of code on either bottle or label of the Saxonator and Mass Rising that I bought today. I checked all 5 bottles and the MR packaging too — several times under good light — nada. Can anyone provide some info/help here? Thanks.
I remember asking a similar question a while back. I believe they were having an issue with the machine/mechanism that dates their bottles. Some were getting dated and some weren't. Seems like that was months ago though. If that's still a problem I'd say that's pretty whack. But hey, Jack's Abby's done nothing but wonderful brews, so I'm not going to complain much. Maybe you got a pretty old sixer? Maybe @JacksAbbyBrewing could chime in?
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/jacks-abby-may-june-releases.178126/#post-2418905 see posts 5 and 6. indeed it is working.
Thanks guys, missed that thread somehow. Anyway, I contacted the brewery too after posting here, and they informed me of the bottle stamping issue. I was told that Saxonator was most recently bottled in mid January and that Mass Rising was bottled in mid April and early May. The bottles I bought weren't at all dusty so they're most likely from those batches. Not really an issue with Saxonator anyway, but I just wanted some reassurance regarding the MR, it being so highly hopped.
I'm looking at an empty bottle of mass rising now. It has a stamp but damned if I can interpret it. 40126A1621... the last three numbers are worn off. any ideas?
1 out of 4 is completely readable. 40126A1621219 I'm completely baffled. I bought these a couple of days ago and they tasted reasonably fresh. About middle of the road for mass rising. I've gotten in the habit of not looking for a date because I knew their date stamper was broken and mass rising usually is fresh, although I've had a disappointing one. Now that I see the stamps I'd love to know what they mean.
the weird stamp I'm looking at must be something different. It's on the bottle not the label. These bottles must be from when the date stamp was still broken. they tasted pretty good anyway.
When the date stamper is working right, no interpretation is needed. The date is clear (like the photo a couple posts above). I have seen some older Mass Rising on shelves, e.g. November, so I try to make sure of the date before buying.
I've had a few bad ones too, but for the most part I get lucky. glad luck isn't involved going forward.
I've passed up on JA a lot lately because of the lack of dates. :-( I love Hop Union and Mass Rising but they need to be fresh, and the last ones I got (no datee)had fallen off the table.
Hey is the dater down again? The last couple 6ers of HU I've bought have been date free. One was from the brewery, one was from a case dated 7/2 at Julio's. Speaking of that one from the case at Julio's, it was $8. JA, please match that price. I'd rather give you my money directly, but you make me feel like a sucker paying $3 more per 6pk.
Did the bottle not have the yellow dating on the neck? There have been some kinks with the new system where occasionally some bottle go through without a date but overall it has been pretty reliable and should be close to 100% once everything is figured out.
No dates on the necks from either 6pk. If it helps, the 6pk from the brewery was purchased on 7/12, I believe.
JA was on sale at Julio's recently, and I got a nice free pint glass too. But I think that $8 is the sale rather than normal price. I paid $8.99 for Mass Rising...a price I've never seen anywhere.
I had an Aussie Rulez Hopstitution this past weekend with no date on it at all, tasted great just curious as to the inconsistencies myself!
It's nominally a "sale" price, but that "sale" has been going on for months (I checked their newsletters). I don't think it's ever been higher than $9/6pk at Julio's.
