Package Dates

As much as i totally get what you are saying, the last thing needed is govt intervention. This should be the total responsibilty of the indusrty to make this change. It is the indusatry that should come to some idea of how to make it a uniform system. Those who chose not to follow will be left behind. Some are package dates , best by dates, unreadable codes and so on... it is a mess but then again so is govt...not being partisian bc this applies to both parties. After spending many years working with and for Uncle Sam, i promise you, we do not want their involvement.

 

Why would the responsibility be on the brewery ? They sold the beer to their wholesaler who then sold it to the beer store. IMO it is totally the responsibility of the beer store. Products dont get rotated or whatever..4 years is way too old. As for Stone...They have a section on their web site where you can report things like this.Stone will contact the store or the wholesaler and ask the product be removed. Again, it's up to the store to make the right decision. It is also up to the wholesaler to make sure this doesnt happen as well. I am in total agreement with you but Stone cant control every aspect of the distribution line.They can eliminate the oppertunity to those who are continual violators of their policy. Think about Stone Enjoy By...I have seen that one on the shelf two months after the date. I reported it to Stone and the following week the product was off the shelf.

 

Understand. But it may only happen if required by someone like TTB.

Only the brewer knows the specifics of when it was "made", so needs to be their duty to print the date. I vote bottled/canned date...

 

I see your anecdote and raise you an anecdote.

My local Retail Beer Distributor has Stone Enjoy By beers on their shelf that was clearly past its best by date. There is a feature on the Stone Brewing website where you can report old beer. I reported this old beer for two reasons:

• To see if Stone would initiate having this old beer removed
• To see if the same person (a Stone Sales Rep?) would also remove the other old Stone brands on that same shelf

A week later I went into that store and the good/bad news is:

• The old Stone Enjoy By beers were indeed not there
• The multiple brands of Stone beer (including Stone IPA) that were old were still sitting on those shelves

Was it my responsibility to create a detailed list of old Stone beer brands (per six-pack and/or twelve pack) to have old product removed?

I have since stopped purchasing Stone beers (and for the other reasons like stupid legal actions they take).

Cheers!

 

Couple things on that:

1) Breweries have reps for this reason. Like it or not, fair or not, to the consumer this reflects on the brewery. The average consumer doesn't think about or care about the distro system. BevMo is notorious for poorly stored and/or old stock. If the brewery doesn't take it upon themselves to tackle this knowing the parameters of the system by being diligent about and removing old stock, then in my opinion the onus IS on them.

2) Stone self-distributes in SoCal.

I don't intend this as specifically picking on Stone (which I know I am wont do for other things), but more as an example of the failure of the system even when craft controls distribution.

 

No way. Those IPA's lose their hop character after 4-6 weeks at most. Still drinkable, but a shadow of themselves.

 

I'm going to throw in another endorsement for old Heady. IMO it peaks between two and three months.

 

Maybe two or three days. I'll trade you, my two or three month old HT for your 2 or 3 day old of same.

 

PREACH! I was in my local grocer today and decided against a pack of local(ish) Bearded Iris Homestyle today b/c there was no package date. Most of their other beers, which are not available aside from select liquor stores,have a date on the bottom of the can but perhaps as this is their big flagship I’m supposed to assume it’s reasonably fresh here in TN?

Another peeve is the trend for lowly TN to receive relatively old IPA & PA as “new” beers from big time brewers. I made the mistake to purchase a 4 pack from a CT brewery that was so flavorless I emailed them out of concern for image/reputation purposes only to not yet hear back multiple weeks later. I get the message, only in it for money and not love of beer. 10-4. Will never purchase again!

 

The packaging date may not be exact, but it gives a better approximation to the origin/freshness of the beer than the best-buy date, which is subjectively decided by the brewery (some say IPAs last three, some same six months).

I would agree the responsibility should not rely on the consumer, but in the real world, if you want to avoid running into old beer, it often does. The distributers often don't keep up and beer is beer like a sale is a sale to the retailers who will sell no matter the age. Yes, maybe "pride in the business" is diminished, but most casual drinkers don't read dates. Just like a grocery market will sale expiring produce, so would a retailer sale expiring beer if the distributor won't take responsibility. Personally, I try to find a packaged/brewed date on all my beers, particularly IPAs.

 

That sucks because I really like Anti Hero and would consider it one of my go-to's if it was ever fresh around here ! I always check the can but it's never fresh enough for my tastes. I've even loosened up on my standards this year. I used to only buy within 30 days of packaged date but due to 2020 inconveniences (we'll call it) I now will buy up to 2 months out in some instances. This has led to me purchasing many ipa's I wouldn't have otherwise bought. I started buying the freshest 6 pk on the shelf whatever it was. And I gotta say most were pretty darn good. I drank just about every voodoo ranger variation there is this year and I liked them all. I probably wouldn't have bought those in 2019.

 

Except in the case of variety packs with a "Packed On" date, which might contain cans or bottles from different days, never heard of packaging dates that are not "exact". Seems a simple thing to change dates manually on systems that don't do it automatically. And I'm not sure how a consumer would even know?

My post was not about "Best By/Before" * dating - it was about confusing packaging dates with brewing dates.

Few consumers know when a beer was brewed or can figure it out by the bottling/canning date (w/o knowing the length of fermentation and lagering/aging periods), nor would it be much help in determining freshness.

* "Best By/Before" dating can be just as good as packaging date, though, when the brewer notes the shelf life period they give their beer, which many breweries do (too often in a website FAQ rather than on the label).

 

Stone is a very weird brewery that usually like to be different. The Enjoy thing is a marketing ploy and nothing else. I have had Enjoy By 6 months past date and no issues. I had one 11 months out of date and it lost a bit of the bite in the hops. Stone loves it when people report old beer to thier web site. The ensures that new beer must be purchased from the wholesaler which means new beer must be bought from Stone. Stone has recently put out a memo to the 'industry, whole salers and distributors that extends their shelf life on most of their products. So its ok now to keep a Stone product on the shelf 120 days instead of 90? Yes thats what they want you to believe. We all love fresh beer, but we need to be realistic when it comes to codes.

 

Yes, and luckily for me I can 'achieve' here by purchasing beer from small, local breweries. Just yesterday I purchased a very high quality German Pilsner from a local brewery that was canned on 12/14/20 and the price was $8.49.

We beer consumers have choices in this regard.

Cheers!

 

No IPA after 60 days!

That’s my motto, although, I do actually prefer a Heady toward the end of that window rather than the fresh side.

My feeling is one of: if the producer places quality as a priority, packaging dating would be on the top of the list. I won’t buy anything without a packaging date.

 

Maybe instead of ‘Best By’ dates breweries could use ‘Should still be pretty good by’ dates. We all know that certain styles are best when consumed closest to its packaging date.

 

Well, there are some brewers whose codes use the phrase "Enjoy By" - my thought is often it sort of implies:
"(After that, you can still drink it - it's just not as Enjoyable").

 

The breweries would say there is not enough room on the bottom of the can (or on the bottle label) for this verbiage but you are correct here in what that date means.

Cheers!