Outdated beer

It'll be fine, just not as good as it was. Some IPAs get pretty sweet as they age.

It said "best by" not "undrinkable after"

 

cardboard

yes

 

First thing to go in a hoppy beer is hop aroma, then flavor hops. That is when the malt starts to shine through.
Depending how it was stored it could still be "good". If it was stored in the cooler the entire time the aging process is slowed way down.

If you really wanted to return it, go buy a six pack, return the old beer with the new receipt. However, you may not be able to return alcohol in your state.

 

Thanks for the responses, folks. Even more thanks for not being jerks about it! I think I'm gonna give one or two of them a shot to see what they're like and save the rest of side-by-side comparison with fresh Harpoon. I guess this is as good a time as any to learn what a fresh IPA tastes like next to a not-so-fresh.

I do have some really fresh Stone IPA in the fridge as well, but I'm not sure if it'd be fair to judge outdated Harpoon against fresh Stone.

 

I'm not sure a fresh Harpoon IPA and a fresh Stone IPA would be very comparable to begin with. I would just enjoy the Stone for being the damn fine beer it is, and I hope that you can palate your dad's present.

Cheers!

 

Why don't you just ask Harpoon? (802) 674-5491 is the Windsor, VT number. They are nice people and I'm sure they would give you an honest and educated answer. I live 10 miles from them, and know them. Call em up.

 

If you just want to drink beer, because it's good and you like beer- then drink them. If you want to do super descriptive official reviews and ratings, then probably not... The beers are okayfor a year before they start getting really cardboardy- people here just like to be elitist snobs and drink the beer straight from the breweries' tit, otherwise they think it's garbage, even when it's fine.

 

Guest beers

 

I was just given a bottle of 2010 bottle of Celebration. I wouldn't advise aging a hoppy beer 3 years, but if you accept it for what it is, it wasn't terrible.

No matter what anyone says, a slightly old IPA isn't gonna kill you. Harpoon IPA isn't that great to begin with anyway, I'm sure it's fine.

 

I've had an IPA (Descutes Inversion) that was 5 or 6 months old and it tasted really old and not right. I drain poured it. But some IPAs taste fine after that time, just no nose and more malty. Test it out. Not sure it's worth reaching out to Harpoon. Good question though.

 

I actually had a two month out of date Inversion tonight, I preferred it to the fresh one.

 

What!? IPA is evolving?!

Congratulations! IPA evolved into Barleywine!

 

I just wish there was a standard dating system that every brewery had to use. Having to check freshbeer.com everytime I buy beer to see what each company uses is a pain. Once again last night I bought what I thought was really fresh Odell Myrcenary (3/22/14) only to get home and see that Odell dates it's bottles by best by date. My really fresh beer is 4.5 months old.

 

It's not the brewers fault that the beer is outdated, it's the distributors responsibility to maintain fresh product on the shelves, generally. I used to deliver beer. (Sorry if someone else already posted this, I didn't look through the other 3 pages of posts )

 

The chain Liquor store just up the street from work still has a few cases of Pumking out on the floor at the normal price it was at last year.. I'd be more tempted to risk buying some if they reduced it greatly.

 

I read this whole thread. Who is responsible if the beer on the shelf is past bottle dates? What should they do with their very old Titan IPA? In this scenario the bottle shop is trying to do a really good job with fresh hop-forward beers in particular. Should it be clearly marked as old and marked down? Does it just get thrown out? Should the distributor do something? Should a brewery rep swap it out for fresh beer? What is ideal?

 

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I made the exact same mistake as the OP yesterday (AND I even had read this thread prior to doing so! ), only I actually did check the date by looking through the handle and into the box where I could see the Best By date on the bottleneck. However, even though I read "Enjoy By 01/03/14," my brain, so used to seeing 14 as the last number in the date didn't register that that meant it was bottled in 2013. I even checked the date of the box behind it and it said "Enjoy by 12/something" and I didn't bother to read the last two digits which probably said 13! So, I proceeded to buy the box and me and my buddy each had one as soon as I got home. Neither of us had ever had it before and we both say..."This is pretty damn good!" I drank the whole glass without noticing any faded hop character or anything. I know. A factor that may have contributed to this was the beer was in a refrigerator at the store but still, 9 months to a year after bottling and I would not expect it to have as much hop character as it did. It wasn't until I went to put another one in the fridge that I looked at the date again and realized my error. So, I'm about to have another one here soon and I'm dying to see if maybe now that I know it's way out of date that my perception (and the fact that it sat in my room temp closet for a day now) will make it so I notice some flaws. Will report back in a few hours.

 

Has it always been Amarillo? I've got a 2012 bottle that I'm going to do a side-by-side against a 2014 bottle and that'd be good to know going in (if there's any evidence of dry hopping left after 2 years...)

 

I've got a few Pumkings from 2013 that I held intentionally, I'm doing a side-by-side against fresh soon and I'll report back how the 2013 is holding up, if it's as good or better than fresh, no reason to require a deep discount to make the purchase.