Yet another Lagunitas packaging date question

In telephone conversations with brewers I've been told cost was a factor in installing equipment that would print mm/dd/yy on their labels. Well, let's look at that.

Equipment upgrades for a manufacturing facility are usually done with bank financing and today my bank charges one point over prime for a total of 5.25% on a 10 year business loan. Taking the equipment cost at $20,000 that works out to a repayment schedule of $214.58 per month.

For tax purposes the business is also allowed to write off the entire equipment price and using straight line depreciation that works out to $166.66 per month over the life of the loan.

So the net cost to the business is $47.92 a month. I realize my example is simplistic but the point is a brewer who says they "cannot afford" to install mm/dd/yy dating equipment is not being forthright about the real cost involved.

 

Just divide the Julian date by 30 and you're close. I can do that and my brain has a lot of miles on it.

 

Seriously! I really thought that the julian dating was old school. That cracks me up that someone actually uses this type of dating. Now I wonder who else may actually use this on a regular basis? By the way thank you for your service to the good old U.S.A.!

 

The answer to this question is the brewers get more beer karma
As to OPs question I don't sweat it too much - if I can't quickly decipher the date (forgot decoder ring or 100k candlelight) I move on to another that is.

 

That is pretty much the same for me.

We are fortunate that we live at a time when there are plenty of craft beers to choose from at our local retailers. Any brewery that is going to make me work hard to find/decipher dates will lose my business to other breweries such as Sixpoint.

Cheers to Sixpoint and their new dating system!!

@Sixpoint

 

Or is an amateur without a comprehensive business plan that includes consultation with accountants.

 

Apparently all of the military services use it. It's much easier for managing inventory control, especially when computers are involved.

Similarly the use the 24 hour time clock to reduce or eliminate ambiguity.

 

I understand the scientific community makes extensive use of Julian Dating partly out of tradition but also because it's more accurate for their purposes.

Beats me why a brewer would require scientific accuracy yet forgo clarity.

 

I'd like to propose a standard beer born-on date that is six digits, MMDDYY, 041217 = April 12, 2017. Short, simple, consistent. We don't need the time, we don't need Julian, we don't need European DDMMYY, but Oskar Blues can keep doing the clever messages. I wonder if AB/InBev and their ex-craft armada would cooperate?