Market Saturation & Product Shelf Date

I had Unite the Clans from Third Space on tap when I was in Milwaukee, very good beer.

I hit up the Woodmans in Oak Creek while out there and was blown away by the amount of beer as well as the price.

Most of the beer I looked at there was in date including the local PA beers I checked.

There was more beer at Woodmans than I have seen in one store before and the dates were better as well.

Cool town Milwaukee , hope to get back again.

Enjoy

 

I just purchased 2 six packs of "Joe" IPA from Bend Oregon that were bottled in February for $3.99 each and 2 - 4 packs of 16 ounce Southern Tier 2X IPX from April for $3.99 and they were both delicious. I understand the fresh is best thing but if stored properly I will buy the discounted older stuff all day. It is a great value and still tastes great.

 

As a wholesaler it was always a deep challenge to keep beer as fresh as possible. Between changing and fickle tastes, the brands were evolving quickly. It was always a fun task to buy beers from the world, whether from an importer or buying directly from the brewery.
It was an everyday task minding the business. I have always tried to make the convergence of beer distribution and consumer appreciation to work in tandem.

 

FWIW I share your 'frustrations'. Today (3/29/18) there are so many hoppy beers on my local beer retailers shelves that there is absolutely no way they are all fresh. I still purchase hoppy beers but for some purchasing occasions it is a now a lengthy process. I pick up hoppy beer A and I look at the date and put it back down and then hoppy beer B and back down and sometimes it is not until hoppy beer G that I decide to make a purchase because A-F are too old.

Right now it not truly problematic for me personally since I have a homebrewed Centennial IPA that is about 2.5 months old and I have an El Dorado IPA that is just about reaching peak drinking condition. Yup, homebrewing hoppy beers is indeed a great option.

Cheers!

 

This could be the problem. Your ideals and the brewers' lab-tested freshness range just may not ever jive.

Was there a question here? Or just a simple rehash of something that's been said again and again?

 

Welcome to Craft Beer in 2018!

 

I was at a local store Sunday, lol they have beer sitting there with dates going back to Feb 2017. Bet those IPA are tasty. I was really amazed at what I saw, I went for a specific beer and the brewer pulled his bottles from them due to this crap. Needless to say I walked out with zero items and headed to a store that maintains its stock.
Cheers

 

I replied to this post saying I agreed with the post. The post was deleted and I was told I should have liked the post. Sorry to say I have never hit like on this site as I think it's a silly idea. Call me old fashioned.

Any who......I agree with the post. I have and will continue to purchase out of date/close to end date IPA. Most are still quite good.

A few great deals I have purchased

SN golden IPA $15 a case close to it just past eds

Deschutes inversion IPA $15 a case 30 days from eds

Hop Hunter stands up well after the drink by date

Enjoy

 

Just did this recently. Decided to stop at a store that I'd never been to because it was on the way home. Everything was either undated or old. Bye.

 

I'm seeing this more with West Coast and other non-NE IPAs especially. Last week, I saw some Great Divide IPAs with canning dates of mid-2017. Oof. As I begin to gravitate away from the NE IPA style and back into the piney/resiny stuff, I'm finding it's easier said than done.

 

I just don't know anymore. There's a local brewery in the midst of a huge Expansion who has their IPA dated late March still hanging around some store shelves. They say theyre expanding because of demand but I just don't always see it.

 

And all this will continue until the public at large understands freshness. Your average person that walks into a store is mostly unaware of freshness in regards to IPAs. They just want an IPA because that's what everyone else is drinking. I would say that less than 10% (and I'm being generous) of the people who walk into my store to buy IPAs actually check dates or even ask when it came in if the bottles/cans are not dated.

I try to rotate my stock and even err on the side of ordering less than I should in order to maintain a fresh stock, which sometimes pisses people off when I'm out of something. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

 

I wonder why some of my local liquor stores don't drastically reduce the price when the product is old. Selling beer cheap is better than not selling them at all.

 

Is there a saturation of stores selling craft beer in metro areas? More options where they are available could lead to each selling less product or selling product slower.

I live in a rural area. Not many craft beer stores around (20-35 miles or so to nearest). As an example, the 2 craft beer stores within 40 minutes from me sell Sip of Sunshine. It seems to sell quick and is always pretty fresh. The gas station that is about 10 minutes from me also sells Sip of Sunshine. It tends to hang around and they keep it on the shelf until it sells.

The two craft beer stores only sell craft brews, the only people shopping there are looking for craft beer. Gas station gets mostly people buying bud light/etc.

 

Very true, to take that one further I have noticed other customers giving me a look when I am checking cans for a date. I get the 'really' look from them like I am annoying them by checking. I think most people assume beer never expires or has issues with age.

 

They are greedy, they will let that sucker sit for 3 years rather than reduce it a few bucks and sell. I see it all the time, it comes down to store owners/workers. Why I stopped going to a lot of places, they are just ignorant.

 

Do you offer to order the specific brand the customers wanted? It seems to me that this is perhaps the best way to manage this situation (assuming the Wholesale Distributor will not be sending 'old' stock for your order).

Cheers!

 

Was in Bastrop Texas for a baby shower and slipped out to pick up some Grodziski from Live Oak at the local Specs and found some six packs of Trumer Pils on the shelf (doesn't make it to Houston). Was grabbing them up when I flipped one over to check the dates, Aug of 2016. Man was I sad. I had that out in Cali on a trip and really loved it.

 

I basically order everything that gets released in my area. The trick is figuring out what I should order more or less of. Its all in the forecasting. Taking into account who is on the hype train this week, what beers won't move as fast next week....etc. Lots of tickers buy them up in the first week that something comes to my area. If I'm asking people what they want me to order for next week, I've lost a lot of sales to other stores.