Local Breweries and their Freshness Dates

Ha! Well, good luck in your search then!

 

First off, thanks a ton man! I work at a beer store and your site has made it much, much easier to keep track of the dates on the beer we get in.

Just grabbed some bottles from some of the breweries in question off the shelf at work:

Cheboygan - no visible date
Crankers - no visible date

Detroit Beer Co - they have bottled-on dates printed on the glass below the label, usually towards the back label. the format is a random letter or two, followed by the date of the month, then the month spelled out, then the year.
an example would be...
bottled on:
S22DEC2012

Frankenmuth - no visible date
Greenbush - no visible date

Keweenaw - 2 of the cans from a six pack have some kind of date on the bottom lip of the can in black ink, but it's completely smudged out and unreadable. Not sure if it's best by or bottled on. Other four cans are unmarked.

Rocherster Mills - their 4pk of Cornerstone IPA has a white label on the plastic 4pk holder that says '262-34', 4pk of Milk Stout has the same white label with '142-33', their 6pk of SNO White has no such sticker. nothing on any of the cans themselves. I suppose those first three digits could be Julian best-by dates?

Schmohz - no visible date
Thirsty Dog - no visible date

A couple other questions/comments as well.

Arbor - your site says the last four digits on the sticker on the bottom of the six-pack holder are the date/month. The stickers I've seen recently don't fit this format. One sixer I just looked at has '523739' as the code. Any insight into this?

North Peak - since earlier this year, they've stopped dating their bottles. There is now a blank space above the UPC code where the date used to be. At first I chalked it up to an isolated mistake on their part, but every case that has come in since around April has been undated.

Odd Side - your site says the date is stamped on the bottle. Could you be more specific? I've seen no sign of dating on the glass on any of their beers (Citra, Simcoe, and Hoppy to Wheat You). Only on Simcoe Sensation does their appear to be some sort of code on the front of the label, but it's been unreadable on each case that has come in.

Thanks again man, your work is much appreciated!

 

Lake Louie has a julian stamped on the lable. Example is 141 3 for 141st day of 2013, they just started this year.

Lucette has nothing yet.

3sheeps is another new brewery in WI with no info.

Central Waters switched there labels on there year round stuff and for some reason decided to take off the month notching

Northwoods has none.

Fat Heads has the date stamped on the neck.

 

its odd some breweries dont use this info. I'm as gun-shy purchasing a beer with no date as, what I could only assume to be, purchasing a gallon of milk without a date. The milk business does it right. Even soy and almond have that sh*t.

 

Haha, did you get this reply in every single regional subforum?

 

Gotta feel good to know that people use the site a lot though...

 

dumb question but have you emailed the breweries directly? called? i've found that many of the smaller ones are more than happy to have a chat.

 

roger that

 

sure is, thanks for what you do mate!

 

Listermann / Triple Digit

The packaged stuff is all specialty releases labeled a vintage, the normal lineup is is draft only

 

To supplement (or give alternate info) to what Shamrock gave you above:

(I have collected bottles for many years, which was the source of my search, so some data given here is from some older bottles as noted below, but my data is recent for most of this info. I have given example(s) for many breweries for you to decide if they are date related or just batch #s or something else.)

Cheboygen – bottom # example: 0012 B2 1421
Cranker’s – bottom # examples: 0972 B2 1237 or 0972 B2 1202
Detroit Brewing Company (you listed Detroit Beer) – bottom # examples:
8059 B-20856 or 7330 B-21023
Elevator – no marking
Fat Head’s – bottom # example: 2207 71C0744
Frankenmuth – no marking
Greenbush – bottom # examples: 2016 73W0330 or 2341 73E1514
Leelanau – no marking, although it is an old bottle that I looked at. It stands to reason that Jolly Pumpkin’s dating method could be on current Leelanau bottles since JP brews the beer for this brewery.
Rochester Mills – none on bottles; however, the bottles I looked at are old, and I’m not sure if they still put beer in bottles anymore since they started canning.
Schmohz – bottom # examples: 3240 B-2108 or 1841 B2 0517
Thirsty Dog – bottom # example: 6256 B-20024
Tri-City – bottom # examples: 1841 B2 0606 or 1841 B2 0517
Walldorff – older bottles that I have from 2007 and 2008 have on label “Commemorative Beer Series 2007” or (“2008”). Unknown what current bottles might display.
Wolverine State – none on an old bottle. Uncertain if they put beer in bottles anymore since they started canning.

Additional notes:
Arbor Brewing (older bottle) – bottom # example: 0602 B1 1221
Arcadia – in addition to neck date on most bottles, some newer bottles also have bottom #, example: 0027 B-20216
Liberty Street – bottom # example: 3028 78??? (smudged)
Odd Side – bottom # example: 0133 B2 2025
Round Barn (new to your list) – bottom # example: 153 12 B/W 1003 (unsure of the “W” which is smudged)

Paw Paw – no marking

I hope this helps.

 

Just wanted to give props to the site. It's a life saver and has saved me a ton form buying old beer. Keep up the awesome work!

 

You can probably go either way with the Detroit listing. The bottle labels says Detroit Brewing Company, but the brewery's BA page and their website use Detroit Beer Company. Just put Detroit BC and let people go with whatever they think BC stands for.