Sierra Nevada Dates

On Sierra Nevada's website's FAQ - Beer page (you'll have to go through their Age Check page first, of course), there is a link to download a 17 pg. pdf on how to find their codes, and suggested shelf life periods, etc.
Sample pages for cans:

 

I believe they might have changed them or are in the process of, because I remember attracting @sierranevadabill's attention.

Blindfold Black IPA: 013014C216:10
Snow Wit White: 014 14 C-2 2118
Single Hop IPA (Yakima): 02704714
Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale just has the actual date now.

I had used that before but every bottle I get just seems to have a different dating system (the cans in a variety pack and their over-sized bombers)

Bottles in a variety pack and then 24 oz. bombers aren't even included in that PDF, which is all cans and usually includes the date on the actual can packaging as well as the cans.

 

I am a SN portfolio drinker..(favorite brewer hands down) and I see that they have gone to the new dating scheme which is just an actual date. Much easier than trying to decode the old date scheme. The packaged date is on the side of the cardboard packaging of the 4-packs. I have seen lots of fresh Pale ale...usually packaged within 30-60 days of the actual date however I have seen consistently old Torpedo 4-packs on the shelf. Just picked one up that was brewed in January and did not taste very good. I also recently went to one of the top beer stores in Massachusetts and saw 4-packs from late 2013. This is not the first time I have run into this issue. I did find a fresher one brewed in April at another store which was great. A bit frustrating given that the Torpedo bottles are always very fresh and typically on the shelf within 30 days of packaging.

Hopefully the new east coast brewery will solve this problem.. A little help @sierranevadabill ?

 

I did find out that some of the beers like Celebration are bottle conditioned for 2 weeks before shipping.

 

Pale, Porter, Stout, Celebration & Bigfoot

 

still is tasty!

 

SNPA is by far my tastiest of all the beers i consume. I see the born on dating bottle and can.

 

Sierra always dates their brews. Now they moved from Julian dates to regular dating. Just another reason why I am fan of SN.

If you had the beer did you not check the can? That would the first place I check.

 

We do, and always have, provided a date code on all bottles and cans. We also list best before dates for all of our products.
The rub is, finding out when beer is somewhere out of code. There are a lot of retails stores that carry Sierra Nevada products. Our sales team, and the sales teams from our wholesalers are pretty good and finding old packages and swapping them out for fresh ones, but still, occasionally older product does sometime slip through the cracks.
If you or anyone on this site runs into old beer, please shoot me a Beer Mail with the name of the store and the location and I will pass the info on and switch out that beer. Old beer doesn't do any good for anyone, so it is in our best interest to swap out any package that has lingered for some new stuff.

Don't be shy... like the good people at the TSA say: "if you see something, say something" I'll do my best to get it swapped out.

-Bill

 

Thanks for the quick response Bill. I will shoot you a note.

 

tried Torpedo for 1st time 2 days ago, via 16oz 4pk in SW CT liquor store. So excited.....

Putrid.

Could have kicked myself for not checking dates....which ended up being March 2014

Appreciate SN for providing such obvious and transparent dating. On the other hand, the store I bought it from, after 2 other previous freshness experience problems, is dead to me. Done. Done. done

 

^^^^Bring it back to the store for a refund.

 

and that I did. As a glutton for punishment, and possessing a willingness to forgive, I went back in and got a 6pk of Torpedo 12oz bottles dated Sept 28....returning the old beer in the process. I figure 5wks is as good as I'm going to do for a West Coast beer on the East Coast.

It was a little better, but not enough to justify the type of rating it's getting from BAers. Maybe it's just not my cup of tea.

 

I don't know.....I am usually a stickler for freshness but I find SN beers hold up and don't fade as quickly as others....torpedo and pale I will buy at six months....I would NEVER buy any other ipa at this age...I have attributed this to the use of all whole cone hops, though that is my own theory and probably wrong.

 

As our NC brewery and the resulting east coast distribution gets more polished, I'd expect those dates to come down by a lot. We brew a lot of Pale and Torpedo in NC so getting them through the pipeline and into market quicker is a high priority. We'll keep getting better over time, but now it's still a work in progress.
Also, North Carolina doesn't have a canning line yet. All of the canned beer is coming from Chico right now, regardless of where it's sold. NC's canning line should be operation after the first-of-the-year, so soon enough, we'll get fresher cans to the east too.

-Bill