Old Hop Stoopids everywhere!

I had a bottle purchased at Whole Foods in early July, was bottled Mid-May. It still tasted good, but not as good as one I previously had that was a month or so old.

I'm guessing maybe they don't sell fast enough down here so when a store gets a case, they put out a few bottles at a time and by the time those few are sold, all the rest are old. Many retails stores don't seem to care if the beer is fresh, so they just leave old bottles out forever. I don't know if they've tried giving them back to the distributor to exchange for fresh bottles and told no, or that they just don't care. Probably the latter.

It is frustrating to see the old beer sitting around at TW, WF, Crown, etc around South FL. This is why I tend to buy seasonals because I know they are pretty fresh. Anything year round, unless it's something in high demand like CCB, seems like it sits around forever in S.FL and then it's a waste of money to buy it, especially the hoppy stuff.

 

Lagunitas changed distributors earlier this year after a long legal battle. Now I don't know all the details but probably with the deal the new distributors had to take in the current stock of Lagunitas from the former distributor. These could have been old already.

But I feel your pain, I've been seeing Green Flash West Coast IPA bottles that say Bottled on 11/19/12.

 

It's not just South Florida and it's not just Hop Stoopid. There are plenty of beers I love that I can't seem to ever find fresh. Green Flash West Coast IPA is a great example. Hop Stoopid is another. Hell, Oskar Blues' second brewery is in my state and I can't seem to find fresh Deviant Dale's anywhere, ever. When I see new cans come in, they're at least a month or more old. How the hell can a beer be brewed 2 hours away and take a month to reach my market?

The sad reality is, the majority of people buying craft beer don't bother to check for dates, so distributors/retailers don't care much if something sits on a shelf for months and months. The only thing we can do is try to spread awareness and never buy anything old or anything without a date.

 

Here's the idea. Why don't you inform them after you've garnered the support you seem to need from posting this here?

 

Complaining to the distributor is probably a better idea.

 

168 is fresh as hell compared to the panhandle. CASES UPON CASES on the floors here and almost all of it is 087. If I found one only 2-3 months old, I may actually give it a shot. I tell store owners all the time, they just shrug. And that shit falls off a cliff after a few months, too.

Ironically, their 6-pack format beers are all fresher. Just another reason bombers blow.

 

i have a hard time buying bottles of any IPA from stores now because of this sorta thing. especially if they're from out of state. it's a big reason why "drink local" is important.

i guess i also don't understand why a brewery like that would be sending very hoppy beers that are meant to be drank very fresh clear across the country.

 

The problem is, there aren't that many Florida-brewed IPAs available around here for purchase. Jai-Alai is pretty much impossible to find anywhere around here (Broward County). No other breweries in Florida besides CCB bottle quality IPAs and distribute to South FL. Due South makes some good ones but they don't bottle. At least I can go to Funky Buddha and get a growler of Hop Gun or their new blood orange IPA (More Mori), but if I'm not paying $7 a pint to have it on draft, I can't find "local" IPAs in South FL.

 

saw a dales pale canned in 2011 at abc in port richey yesterday

 

I don't know about Florida, but in other states both of these breweries changed to different distribution channels- from smaller distributors to large BMC types that promised a broader retail presence (grocery stores, box stores, etc) and much bigger volumes. I guess that the fallout of these big distributors taking on a number of really good U.S. beers is that some of them will completely disappear from markets altogether. It's an expensive and curious strategy. Boulder vanished from North Carolina for this very reason.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The best IPA in the world is almost always the one brewed closest to your current location.

 

Good advice. I can't find any Jai Alai around here (haven't driven around to every store in the county, but I have visited about 10 different stores in my area (Fort Laud) of late - all that sold it previously - and didn't see any) so I went and got a growler of Blood Orange IPA from Funky Buddha today.

 

Store by my house still has Oskar Blues "Gordon" cans on the shelf. The name was changed to G'Knight in early 2011. That's right, the date on the bottom of the cans is 2010!

 

I wish I could agree with this, but in the south this is definitely not accurate. Are there very good ones like SW IPA, Jai Alai, etc.? Absolutely. However, even living in the burbs of Atlanta, many times I can find fresher IPAs from California than I can from Sweetwater.

While I am all for drinking local, I am more for drinking good beer. If the local brewers, distributors, and retailers can not get me a fresh and tasty local IPA then I will look for one from another region. If you do not bother dating your packaging then I wont be buying it at all.

 

Luckily I have access to 2 really, really tasty IPAs brewed in my city--NoDa Hop Drop n' Roll and Triple C 3C IPA. I also have access to fresh Olde Hickory Death by Hops, which is equally tasty. I'd much rather drink any of those 3 beers than just about anything I can get from the west coast. Although I will admit, Stone does a great job of getting their beers here in good shape. Green Flash and others are not nearly as consistent.

It sucks you can't get fresh SW where you're at. I can almost always find fresh Sweet Water IPA here in Charlotte and buy it pretty often because it's delicious and only $8 a six pack.

 

Talk to your retailer. Express your concern about old beer and don't buy it. Don't be a dick about it, of course. Lagunitas' beer sells quickly in the stores I frequent. The bottle I bought last night was carrying a 184 date, so next time I'm in the store, I'll ask about it and report back. If the beer is out of date, the retailer can have the distributor pick up the beer.