So, I remember seeing somewhere that Stone stopped putting Ruination in 6pks -- my beer guy had a row of them today and told me they were fresh. I picked up a 6pk and the hops are noticably faded, like 3+ mos old faded. Obviously nobody can speak to my particular store / 6pk, but is Stone still putting these in 6pks? If not, when did they stop? Thanks!
They switched to 4packs, which just started seeing light in California this week. It's possible your beer guy did just get them, but they could be old. Check the dates.
It's laser etched in white just below the neck of the bottle. They use a best-by date, not a bottling date. Ruination's best by is 3 months from bottling. Sometimes it can be difficult to read if it is a few months old and particularly if the bottles had been refrigerated for a while. They've also recently changed their method for printing the dates, newer ones are a bit bigger and bolder than the previous style.
Or it could be like here in AZ where some local shops have bottles on shelves without the dates.... because the bottles are so old that pre-date the beginning of bottling dates for Stone. Retailers and distributors know what they're doing. Nobody should pretend otherwise. Freshest stuff here, in my experience, is at the places with the highest turnover. And I'd take a very fresh dated Ruination at room temp over a refrigerated one that's about to expire or expired.
Thanks crew -- I was able to find the best by date and it is 9.17.12, so barely fresh. I'm a little annoyed that my guy said they just came in, when they clearly hadn't. He's a great dude, so likely just didn't know, but still. They're ok, but clearly fading...
Here they do that - distributor sends out bottles to local places that are set to expire within weeks. It's annoying as hell.
Good point. I bet that's what happened. I learned my lesson on this one, I'm normally great about checking for these things... Thanks again, I'm just glad I didn't find out that these were like 6+ mos old.
This is where a quality retailer comes in, an owner/place who knows what he's getting from the distributor and has a high enough turnover on stock it doesn't die on his shelf. I'm not concerned as much with dark age worthy brews, but obviously IPA's are fickle. This is why I'd never buy an IPA from TW.
Because you can't trust the date on the bottle? TW is usually the cheapest around for special releases like Ruin10 and 16th...
Yes dated or not they more than likely store their stuff warm, because they buy in bigger quantities they have no option. warm and in the light in the stock room, warm and in the light on the shelf. Besides I have an option with a 1st rate bottle shop who stores cold and dark, and it's always fresh, so for me why bother? His prices are a dead ringer for TW too.
As someone else pointed out, the way the distribution system works those six packs may have just come in. You can't tell from the best by date when the distributor actually got it to the store. However, the store could have refused delivery. My beer guy does that regularly when something I order is too old. I once ordered a case of a seasonal beer and the distributor send him a year old case..
Out of curiosity...How much are these new 4-packs? Felt they were overpriced as sixers anyways...although yes, I understand price is subjective based on the consumer.
