Old IPAs on store shelves

Ive been pretty lucky with getting things while they are still good so far. Being in CA you should have no problem getting some fresh goodness i would think.
Have you had this problem at multiple stores or just one?

 

It's all about haunting the shelves and snapping up new things when they are freshest.

 

My mom sent me some sculpin from Florida this week. Old label, enjoy by date of 8/30/13

 

It's getting better. It's come a long way over the last few years. Your experience with the malt minefield was definitely a lot more common down here in South Florida maybe 5 years ago than it is today. Of course, it also depends on the store.

 

Just feel lucky you don't live where I do. It happens OFTEN here.

The most recent example was a grocery store in town that put out some Stone Enjoy By 10.25.13... over a week into November. Now I've already discovered that I think this particular beer tastes great even a month past the enjoy by date, but still... receiving and putting something on the shelf AFTER it's expired...? Sheesh.

 

Yeah, I guess i can see that happening with soo many offerings out there.

 

Did you lambaste her for her stupidity!?!? DID YOU!!?!?

 

Nope, I did tell her to never visit the store again though. I've also tried the sculpin, some hop character remains surprisingly but it's obviously nothing like it is fresh

 

I have almost exclusively been buying six packs of dated hoppy beers that move. Stone IPA, Union Jack, Maximus, Sumpin' Sumpin', Dale's, etc...
I never have IPA disappointments anymore.

 

Hey, it's the thought that counts, right?

 

I will almost exclusively buy freshness dated IPA's here on out. Exception might be if it is new to the market or something along those lines, and it is likely fresh.

 

This happens quite a bit in my Brooklyn neighborhood. There are a few bodegas that have great selections but don't mark the prices on their bottles and usually they are overpriced by about 15% vs if you found the beer at a nicer store like Whole Foods. So, yeah I see "expired" hoppy beers all the time and it breaks my heart, ha, b/c I usually see something that I haven't had but I usually don't buy b/c it's not fresh. Which ultimately leads me to not shopping there and only popping in once a month, if that, to see what they have and 75% of the time I leave empty handed.

 

I've seen year old + Stone Ruination and Southern Tier Unearthly on shelves at the Giant Eagle in Homestead.

 

Happens far too often in the south. It's a bummer!

 

This topic is new and refreshing.

 

There are only 4 places within a 45 minute drive where I live that I can go to get a nice selection of IPA's. I learned the hard way that IPA's are best as fresh as possible.

The problem is, there aren't enough people where I live buying up these IPAs so they just sit there until one by one poor uneducated beer buyers dwindle the stock (which takes forever). Craft beer buyers want variety, but they want freshness as well. That's extremely tough to accomplish with a small market.

Now I know what to buy and what to stay away from. On the flip side, I've found 2009 Bigfoot and some other older stouts that actually were delicious.

Smaller selection of quality fresh IPA's far outweighs a hundred malt bombs.

The IPA struggle is real...

 

all the time but now I have a solution. simply don't buy them. I purchase my hop forward beers from breweries for the most part. My local shop moves a ton of sea hag so that's always a safe bet. I picked up a hop stoopid with a date code from early oct. that my bottle shop just put on the shelf. I bought it and it was quite good. some times with ipa's there's not a lot of choice when it comes to freshies and knowing which ones will still be fesh and drinkable. oh, btw, old dipa's certainly do NOT turn into barley wines.

 

I have tried at least two (both were at least one year past their "drink by" date) and really enjoyed them:

Great Divide 18th Anniversary Wood-Aged DIPA and
Uinta Detour DIPA.