Old or expired beer

My last stab at super-old brews was a Mikkeller Drink'in the Sun from 2012. $4.99 for an 11.2oz single & I still took the bait. Ultimately glad I did though, it was encouraging enough for me to keep an eye out for actual fresh bottles of that stuff.

 

I was thinking the same thing, the only undeniablely infected brew I ever had came from a brand new liquor store (ironicly I was their very first customer) but I think they didn't store their beers properly during the transition/moving in period. Thanks for your input from your experiences, now I can know not to quickly write off certain breweries based on a stale beer

 

Holy Shxt! Wish I could post pics...
Was at a local liquor store today, nothing fancy typical joint. Saw a 4 pack of Founders Breakfast Stout. Which I have always wanted to try... Happy as hell i grabbed the 4 pck and looked at the date. Almost gasped in horror. I forgot the exact date but the year was 2012! Does any know if this is still good? Want to try soo bad...

 

Apparently FBS uses a perishable malt and is not meant to be aged... so I doubt it'd be worth buying

 

During the early stages of my beer buying days, I fell victim to a "craft your own six pack" section at a local grocery store. I noticed each beer I put in my six pack was close to it's expiration date, if not already passed. The beer was not undrinkable but all of the brews were produced to be consumed before their expiration dates. I brought this to the attention of the store but they did not seem phased by it. I was at this store the other day and I noticed they were selling a 14 month old DIPA! I can kind of understand the store's confusion beacuse freshness date was printed in Julian code but they should know how to read it. Needless to say, I no longer buy beer at this store.

Overall, I do my best to buy and consume fresh beer, unless it can be aged.

 

I took a chance on 11 month old Jack's Abby Kiwi Rising when it was in the Top 250. It was atrocious. I will never buy ancient IPA (well, IPL in this case) again. Fortunately they brewed it again 4-5 months ago.

 

I don't think that Saison-Brett has ever had a one year best by date. Beers like Bourbon Barrel Quad, Imperial Stout and Saison-Brett have best by dates that are two years out from packaging. Our best by dates are determined by tasting bottles/kegs as they age and identifying a point where we feel the beer is no longer an excellent example of what we intended.

 

Not every place does that. I intentionally don't sell even close dated things on my mix your own 6. I would much rather not have a couple random bottles of OOD product to send back (reps don't like random bottles...). Plus I'd rather put new product that people want to try before they buy. Then I can get a true gauge of what is going to move now and in the future. I will say, the MAJORITY of places I've seen will put super old product on their mix 6. I've even referred to it as where good beer goes to die.

 

I am going based on what my rep that distros boulevard told me. So I guess I shouldn't just say it like I've personally seen it. ha.

 

Depends on the beer. If it is an IPA or DIPA that features hop flavors and aromas, then as soon as possible as they go fairly quick. If the beer emphasizes the bitterness more than the flavors and aromas then I might go 3 months for IPAs and 6 months for DIPAs. A bar I frequent a couple of years ago tapped an Indeed Sage Coach on Monday and I could smell the sage with the glass sitting in the middle of the table. On Wednesday I could smell the sage if I lifted the glass to my nose. By Friday I could not smell the sage. Not the same as bottled beer but anything that relies on aromas, drink ASAP.

 

If it's beyond a couple of months I pass and politely notify the shop owner. Most of these are not kept in optimal conditions in the store so I assume degrading takes place quickly.

 

The problem with a lot of stores is shelf turds do sit around and get discovered. Had a few beers which were probably much better months before, but sometimes you also find the occasional gem.

I can stretch pales and IPAs a while, and will still drink things like Heady and SOS a couple months old. A few IPAs like Jai Alai and Dinner do fade quite a bit, but overall I'm not too fussed as long as it's within a month or so, and try to get the freshest possible.

This thread actually made me check around my pantry and realize a few gems I picked up over the past month or so including a bottle of World Wide Stout that was bottled January 2014 and Both bottles of Trappist Rochefort 10 are notable in that i bought them from two stores in the same city the same week, however one was bottled February 2011 and the other sometime in 2014. I might have to do a vertical on them and see how it's aged when the older one peaks at the end of the year.

 

I made a mistake last night and bought a can of Troegs Perpetual IPA without checking the date. Got home and it tasted horrible, almost undrinkable. Checked for a date, it was canned 2/3/15. Over three months old

 

I bought a Mayflower Brewing variety pack at my local grocery store without checking the date. Got home opened up an IPA which foamed out all over the floor, check the date (which is on the bottle but not the box) and it's a year old. So I emailed Mayflower and they said they'd talk to the distributors out here. Low and behold earlier this week I check the date on what they have on the shelf and it's from July 2014. So I've pretty much given up on buying beer from the grocery stores around here.