Just bought a few bottles of this at my local store, best before date is the end of December. How long do they put as an expiry on these? Has anyone had any around this age?
According to the Fresh Beer Only website Weihenstephaner uses a bottling date: "Weihenstephaner: Filling (bottling) date on the label. For example, 7038 translates to the 7 being the 7th or 17th, 03 is 3rd week of the year, and 8 is 2008 so it was bottled on January 17, 2008. This information came directly from the brewer." Cheers!
Just text the wife to check (she thinks i'm weird) but apparently mine actually do have an expiry date on.
First one is Vitus, second is Hefeweissbier. I know there is some debate on German styles longevity so I wonder when this was bottled?
@wesbray , thanks for the photos. That is the first time I have seen best by dates for Weihenstephaner. Hopefully somebody will know what the best by timeframe is. FWIW, when it comes to European beers I typically assume a 1 year best by timeframe. The one exception that I know of is that Pilsner Urquell now uses a 9 month best by timeframe as part of their fairy recent freshness initiative. Cheers!
I agree that 1 year out is the norm in Germany. But that's for beer that's been pasteurized, filtered, etc. For kellerbiers, or beers that are not any of those above, I've found the 3 to 6 month horizon to be normal, yet that depends on the alcohol strength, too.
Hmm would be great to know. Maybe I should email them? I'm sure they'll still taste great, just nagging at me!
True. On the other hand, I'm just having one of those Braufactum beers (their new Brown Ale), and the best-before-date is Nov. 15, 2015! So, I don't know when it was bottled, but the best before is still 15 months away. And the beer only has 4.8 % ABV. Makes me wonder what kind of technique makes this beer so long lasting.
Drinking the Vitus right now, regardless of bottle date it's going down very well Really enjoying German beers at the moment, must take a trip soon!
That would indicate to me November 19th, 2013. The 9 is either 9 or 19. The 47 is the week in the year. 3 is for 2013. 9 months old.......it's a doppelbock, so it's up to you and how fresh you like that style.
