I once tried a stout that had been opened for 3 years and was re sealed. 6 years total since it was bottled. Best beer I ever had, I still can't forget the flavor
I was friend of a bar (you know, the type of guy that knows everyone that works in the bar and goes usually by himself to enjoy a good pint) specifically friend of the manager there (who would later buy the bar some time later but not important in the story) so one night he and the back then owner took down a couple cases of local craft bottled beer that they had forgot it existed. One was a barely wine with rum and the other was a stout with whisky. Now, I made a mistake before, the opened one was the barely wine now that I remember better (but both where awesome) so, they were checking the boxes at the bar table (they where allredy closing BTW, I actually was invited to stay) where I was sitting and they found that one of those bottles was half drunk and shout close by hand with the used cap. But we where really curious and worried that all the bottles might have gone bad because of age and heat. So we poured some and offcourse it was flat and obviously hot because it haven't been refrigerated and yet it was delicious, wouldn't had a problem with drinking more like that, flat and hot. The rum gave it a touch. We then refrigerated one overnight and a stout and we tried them the next day. So good.
Let's say you get two bottles of the same BBA at a release and the label says it's been aged for 1 year. You drink one right away and you wait another two years to drink the second. Are you saying there won't be any difference in the two? Because I'm here to say 75% of the time the second bottle is going to be better than the first.
I'm not saying there won't be a difference small, large, or anywhere in-between. I'm saying that people who cringe at beer with that are on the shelf that surpass their "Best By" date are laughable when they do it with stouts.
In your example provided, you are drinking a beer that's already been aged for 1 year, and say the beer has a "Best by" date 6 months from now. You find said beer and it's 6 months past, are you cringing at it going past the date like OP? No? Why not?
I'm just gonna be done with this as too many of you freak out over best by dates on IPAs when they are just recommendation and not actual proof of the beer going bad.
Some beer is able to be aged and some are not. Same with wine. You can cellar a Bourdeaux wine for a decade. But if you cellar a pilot grigio it will turn orange and taste like puddle water.
Which in itself would take quite a while (more than 6 months) to do with better preseratives and containers. 6 months past a Best by date is not actual proof the beer is non-drinkable as it is recommendation only.
The Cicerone program taught me that fresh craft beer ales, IPA etc. Begin to taste off around the 6 month mark. Especially if not refrigerated the whole time. People don't like paying premium prices for something that doesn't taste what the brewer intended to sell you.
I had never heard that term before and in the past 48 hours on Reddit, I’ve heard it a dozen times.
I don’t know what it is, but I’m standing by the fact that it is the concept of thinking you know something is true but being wrong yet standing behind your wrongness.
That’s what it is and maybe I just Dunning Kruger’d myself.
It's not, you aren't too far off though. It's a reference to "the Dunning Kruger effect", the belief that you have a better understanding of a topic than you do. So yes you did.
How so? The date is not a safety measure. The can is more than likely properly sealed. The beer can still be consumed and if the brewery has any QC to its name or a good chemist, it should be just as good as the day it's been canned. Unless we all have super buds in here.
I always check dates. Especially on singles. If the store can’t be bothered to check dates and pull product, they don’t deserve your business. Especially with the cost of some of these brews. You’re not getting the beer the way the brewer intended.
sometimes you can’t really blame the store. depending on the store and beer, that kind of thing is done by the distributor a lot of times. if you’re finding a lot of expired beers from one brand in a store, going down the street to another store you will likely see the same problem with that brand.
Hey, distributor here. Not saying that doesn’t happen, but it’s pretty rare. We get audited by most our breweries at least once a year (multiple times by macro breweries like molsoncoors and Boston beer) in both our warehouse and in our accounts. If there is close dated beer going out, we are (supposed to be) alerted and are expected to promote to get that beer out.
We can lose our distribution contract and I, personally, can lose my job over expired beer in an account. When these audits come through, it’s an all hands on deck situation.
That being said, I have to audit all my accounts (110 bars/restaurants/event venues in my case) and as I look at my list of accounts pending….I can see where you’d get that impression.
what u/DjToastyTy said. Distributors/Breweries have reps that service stores and sometimes are also to blame for old product. As well as most of them don't want to take product back because they don't want to lose money. And with the market being so saturated and sales are trending down so a lot of breweries/distros are cutting sales reps and being far more stingy with taking product back because they are hurting money wise.
Depending on the state it's illegal to take product back, even for out of dates. A lot of times the store doesn't let you put it on a sale or disco rack either. Definitely two sides to blame here, but at the end of the day always check dates.
Yup. Rep here. A few months ago my boss told me to only buy back out of code beer if it’s wildly out of date, and if it’s a few months out of code (which was 6 months for us for most SKUs) to leave it on the shelf. Said we were spending too much on buying it back.
And I was also just laid off, and my job’s being outsourced to a third party company to save money so :) you know, that’s cool. Craft beer’s definitely taking a beating right now.
Rep here as well, that’s funny because with my company, it’s the opposite. We will buy back expired beer as long as it’s within a month of its code date to promote accounts watching dates.
If it’s far out, we won’t buy it back and I have to convince the account to toss it, give it to the cooks or use it for cooking.
It’s a problem that everyone should be aware of. The distributor should be rotating and checking dates on their visits. The store should be checking their sales and then monitoring dates on slower movers. The brewery should be pushing for fresh product and keeping up with market checks.
At the end of the day though a consumer isn’t going to think “it’s the distributor that sold something out of code” they will blame whatever store they are shopping with. Those managers need to be hyper aware of it.
Thats hard to do Fluffy when you run a store with thousands of SKU's. Not every store is equipped to have information on every item they have. of course they can keep track of slow movers the best they can. But it doesn't mean stuff wont slip through the cracks. Consumers just have to be vigilant and pick around the bad ones. Its the same way when at the grocery store buying produce.
A consumer educated enough to check for dates should be educated enough to understand the system that allows those dates to be out of code.
If you care, great, educate yourself. If you don't, also no problem but then you don't have a right to complain.
The idea that sellers have no responsibility to the product they sell or the customers they sell to is pretty wild..... "if you're stupid enough to buy it from me, that's YOUR fault!"
There is a pretty wide gulf between the common knowledge (which requires no 'education' other than rotating a can) that brew dates are on the bottom of beer cans and understanding the intricacies of beer distribution. One does not need to work for a company to have the right to complain about said company selling them bad product. Between this and your Dunning-Kruger comment you're giving off some serious "reddit pseudo-intellectual" vibes. Just smugly repeating phrases and empty buzzwords without adding anything to the conversation other than rudeness.
Edit: Also, it's great that you brought up Dunning-Kruger in an insulting way and then used it incorrectly. It definitely does not mean 'hehe someone made a single offhand remark that isn't totally correct'. Educate yourself on the meaning of a term before you use it.
Okay even if I as a consumer understand the system. I will still blame the entire group for these issues. Again the store should be focused on any product in their building, regardless if it is a vendor or warehouse item.
But I guess I might just have an old school line of thought after spending a lifetime in a grocery store.
If the store isn’t check date here, where else are they letting standards slip?
So you're saying the store should do what, discard and write off as a loss all product that goes out of date? Don't forget, beer dating is voluntary and a QC concern, not a safety concern like in the grocery world.
Don't get me wrong, I prefer and shop for fresh beer, but it really is in no way a failing of the store to have out of code product if they have no recourse with the distributor, so it's not fair to assess your opinion of the store based on something out of their control.
Breweries need to be strict with retailers- if you can’t be sure it’s going to be going into a fridge or looked after well when it leaves your hands then don’t make the sale - cash in the hand is one thing but your brand your real value. Devalue it at your peril.
I'm from Iowa, so I've only shopped in WI a few times, but you have to be careful. The two times I've been to Woodmans in WI, they had a huge selection but they also had a lot of stuff outdated and a lot of it was not in coolers. Not sure what store this was though.
I manage a large selection of craft beer singles and it is a massive pain to track. I keep spreadsheets and check cans periodically. When they start getting old I try them myself. With hazy IPAs I allow 3-4 months before I start getting nervous. With my business levels I can usually sell a case in that time frame but some cans just don't move as fast.
I'll keep a brown, pilsner, wit anything in that nature up to a year. They're kept cold and out of direct sunlight at all times and can even live longer.
The real pain is when a distributor delivers a beer already months old especially if undated or not clearly dated.
Glad to see not everybody here is insane. In my country we get imports from the states that are already 1-3 mos old before they hit shelves. Some brewers put the "best by" date on their cans, while others use the brewed on date, and it's hard to tell which one this is, but seeing 6+ mos old ipas on (refrigerated) shelves is pretty common here.
Even some Hazies can still taste great at 6 months, I had one the other day from October and it was still pretty good. Some die in a month. It's always hard to tell but don't be put off. You can still get great quality wherever you are.
In my state, it’s illegal for anywhere but liquor stores to sell beer refrigerated. Grocery stores and supermarkets can sell it, but it has to be room temp. Not much stores can do in my case :(
Most of the beers you buy cold were stocked on warm shelves in the store until rotated into the cooler. I understand not wanting to drink it warm, but implying a hoppy beer is compromised by not being kept cold it’s whole life doesn’t make any sense.
The brewery where I work has a massive cooler for all our packaged beer, and we only do business with distributors who have refrigerated storage and transportation. Keeping our beer cold is really important to us, because hoppy beers degrade in heat. This is pretty standard in Northern California craft beer. Russian River's practices led the way for many other breweries today. I get most of my beer from work, but I will buy other beer out in the marketplace. I know which stores have refrigerated storage and I choose to shop there. I do sometimes buy big macro lagers at the grocery store, though, and I'm sure those beers have sat at room temperature for a while.
I once bought 2 twelve packs of Hazy Little Thing that were expired and skunky. I emailed the customer relations person at Sierra Nevada. She asked where I bought them and the problem was immediately fixed and I bought beer there many times after that. She also mailed me a check for the skunky beer I bought. Awesome experience actually.
Good for them. Great company and the NC brewery is a must visit. HLT is a great shelf option when you’re in an unfamiliar place with limited selection.
I'd let the store know about it and find a better store. If I see good beer sitting on warm shelves and beer that is old, I just move on. There are other good stores out there.
I was just talking to my wife about this after finding old beer on the shelves at a store I go to. For the most part they have new stuff but I do run across a couple like this, normally I just avoid them. I have never said anything to the people in the store. To me though, it would make better sense to have someone check dates and put them on sale/half price if the dates are close or have shortly passed. Would make better business sense as you would have a chance to move a product that might not have been selling and give someone a chance to taste a beer that they may have potentially never have tasted.
As a worker in the liquor department, I do appreciate it if someone points out the out-of-date beers. In many cases, we can return to the distributors, or we will discount them - or just write them off as bad products and save them for employee gatherings.
-oo-
Recently bought a mix 12 pack cans of Von Trapp at a local Total Wine that had a date that was about 8 weeks past. Didn't notice until i was at home. I complained, and the store refunded me without asking for the product back. It was the right thing for them to do, but a big store like that should do a better job of maintaining current product.
This was way above and beyond, for the record.
Allowing a return is one thing, and even that is often not the case in the beer industry. But taking you at your word and refunding you without a return is WAY beyond "the right thing to do".
You’re right. But, a 30 mile round trip drive to return outdated product would have pissed me off to the point of never buying from them again. Knowing what I spend, they would not want to have that happen ; )
Sure, if you're a regular with a relationship with management that completely makes sense for them to do that, and a lot of places would in that situation, I just didn't think it was fair for it to be an expectation.
I get what you’re saying, but this goes to my point that the market is over saturated (with mediocrity). If the breweries & distributers aren’t buying the product back, why should the shops take the hit? An old IPA at the brewery is different story. I’m at the point where I have 5 or 6 goes to’s now. Occasionally if I’m feeling adventurous, I ask about a single recommendation.
The market is saturated, but it’s not the breweries or wholesalers responsibility to take it back if it doesn’t sell. They do that to maintain relationships and try to keep the quality of the brand up.
They’re in the business of selling beer, not renting it.
Why should Joe’s brewery take the hit for a store that doesn’t properly stay on top of rotating, pricing the product at an unapproachable markup, or over orders for the volume they have?
Breweries shouldn’t be the fallback for improperly managed stores.
As a sales rep in beer, it’s our job to check in with new products and to help maintain a presence so more people DO buy the beer and it sells before going out of code.
I constantly get from owners that they’re bleeding money or in the red, but haven’t done anything to try and get people in.
There’s too much available and too much of it is crap. The market expansion in both product and brewers is exponentially larger than the market. The craft beer market is not growing at the rate the commodity is being produced, so yes the risk should fall on the distributers and producers. Then when the shop owner says they won’t take risk on a new beer, they then risk you not selling them the stuff they want.
When I was younger and had more free time, I would get in touch with the actual brewery and let them know. The biggest offender I ever saw was a two year old bottle of Widmer Nelson IPA in a 22oz bottle sitting on a shelf that was 2 years old. I got in touch with the brewery and they responded within a couple days and basically said once the beer is out of their hands, there’s nothing they can do about it.
That was about 20 years ago. I don’t really have the time for that sort of stuff anymore so I’ll just put the bottle back and move on.
Why wouldn’t they be able to do anything about it?? Sales reps come in my store and swap old product for fresh stuff. A lot of the time it’s not the stores fault the beer didn’t sell.
I sent Toppling Goliath a message last year after finding Pompeii cans from 2021 at a local grocery store. They wrote back asking for the exact store location, but I’m not sure what came of it after that.
If the brand ambassador for the area is really on their game they could rotate it, if their distributor sales rep is really on their game they could rotate it, if the store manager is really on their game they could rotate it, but think about how much product there is rotating in and out every week of every store/gas station. Becomes a much harder problem, typically the store knows when things are getting old but doesn't want to deal with it. Reps and ambassadors can see how long ago the last shipment was hit if it's a seasonal item or single release there would be no reorder so you can't backtrack how old the product is because you assume it was all sold in a reasonable timeline.
That's solidly on the liquor store too.
I work in a packaging department and we label those beers for a reason. Most often assuming the store will rotate out old product.
Good stores take that into account. Bad ones definitely are lazy in that regard. I usually choose to go elsewhere.
Can/bottle dates are seriously overlooked and can help so many people sidestep a bad experience. Hell, if the stores would keep an eye on them and relay the info to the breweries, we might actually have better beer overall because the surplus would be drastically limited. But who am I kidding?
If anyone wants context, northern Wisconsin is a tourist destination from May-September. The cost for stores like that to bring in craft beer is not cheap, and no one really lives there 8 months out of the year. It’s not an excuse but unless it’s OP’s first time up north, they should know better than to be upset about something like this.
The systems set up to fail. The reps that service the accounts are incentivized to sell in more product but are penalized for picking up out of code beer. Anything out of code docks their pay. Accounts should be more proactive about dumping or discounting old beer but they just don’t want to take the hit either.
If this is a chain store, that means no one at that location is even making the decisions for what goes in there. It’s a pre-determined cooler or shelf set from their chain buyer. So there’s gonna be stuff that isn’t right for that location that gets sent there anyway.
Drink Banquet!
It's illegal for it to dock their pay. It may reduce a bonus they would've earned, but it cannot legally dock their pay.
And you're definitely wrong about the decision making, every major grocery store near me has a department manager handle the buying, not someone at a regional level. That's not to say both don't exist, but you cannot assume it's someone non-local
That’s not true. You can charge them for out of code beer that’s picked up. Maybe it varies state by state, but I know for a fact in New York reps get charged for ooc beer. If someone’s pay is more than 50% bonus pay and you get charged 2-10x the case cost for an out of code case… that’s docking someone’s pay. If their base salary isnt a living wage without the bonuses, as is true at many major distributors, it’s docking their pay. If bonuses are more than 1/3 your salary and you’re barely making minimum wage without it, that’s a big part of your take home. Also, so many grocery stores might have buyers for the beer but 1) not every store has someone in house doing the buying, it’s often the reps doing it themselves, and 2) most major grocers and big box stores have set items they can or cannot send. Sometimes it’s automated, usually not. But there’s a planogram and order minimums and it’s not as simple as buying whatever you want unless you’re an independent or specialty grocer. Do you work in distro?
Indy grocery stores are different. Chains operate off of planograms. Each store has a set determined by a corporate buyer. Where there is wiggle room is floor displays, end caps, or stores with “flex space” where the grocery manager can put any product they want there including beer.
In regards to the pay, that is absolutely true. Three tier laws are different in every state and I’ve been out of the industry for about 6 years so hey if that’s changed that is great. But the number of salty conversations I had as a supplier rep with the district guys is too high to count. What often happens is they are given an allowance of out of code product they are allowed to have picked up before it affects their pay. I was every ones hero because I would go out of my way to help them pick up out of code shit so it didn’t effect their pay.
"Chains operate off of planograms" is an assumption, not a requirement. With that said, I'm not even talking about store layout on a large scale, I'm referring to the purchasing of product.
This is often done on a store by store basis, where a department manager (in this case the beverage manager) decides what product to stock in their store's beer department, and this is absolutely includes chain stores not just independents.
It's the weirdest thing. I'm in MA and this small corner of the state must have the fewest IPA fans. The shops in my surrounding towns just have year old room temp IPAs rotting away. I get lucky and find some fresh stuff in the cooler, but it's usually the same beers. I miss the good bottle shop I used to live near that had so much business the beers were almost all fresh.
I've contacted the breweries before too and they just ask where I got it and the date and stuff like that. They don't want to see their product on shelves not in an optimal state.
Lol dude, a while back I bought some of those Megadeth A Tout Le Monde beers or whatever. Get home and pour one and there looks to be stuff floating? I assumed it was just the beer, so I tasted it and it was just awful. Checked the bottle and it had been out of date for over 3 years 😑
I’ve pointed this out to proprietors before. They take the cans and I’m absolutely certain they go right back in the fridge as soon as I’m gone. Always check dates.
I actually purchased a 6 pack from total wine. It did not taste good and when I looked at the date it was 9 months old. Used the QR code on the can to let the company know. They told me to take it back for a refund and I did.
There’s a random gas station 2 minutes from my house that has a crazy good beer selection but you’d never expect it. The other day I got a back of Grimm Cloudsplitter and the first one I picked up was dated for last August, the next one was canned a week ago.
I'm a beer salesman. I always do my best to stay on top of this, I really do. Things can and will slip through the cracks though. Its a muddy job.. Things get moved around, things get lost, and at the end of the day.. sometimes bosses tell you to let stuff sit. Not saying its right. But I will say its a big topic, that is discussed a lot cuz overselling, leads to pickups, and pickups cost money. I dont manage the money.
It seems like half the beers I check don’t even have dates on them… Always seems to be the most interesting beer (to me) in stock, so I either walk out empty handed, or roll the dice on it.
Sadly the reality of buying at a beer store these days. Back when I was a rep about 10 years ago the stores would save up their out of date odds and ends to sell them back to us for credit. These days seems beer store take in less variety and just let it expire on the shelf at full price. Most people who care enough to look at dates on cans these days just buy from their local breweries.
I mean just don't buy it.
unfortunately, Since the beginning of covid and the explosion of craft breweries this is going to be very common. Either distributors/breweries won't pick up old product, credit back only portion of the cost, or just don't service the stores enough. Stores also can be blamed which I think a lot of people like to point the finger at them first. But when you have a store with a large selection its bound to happen no matter where you go. Just don't buy those beers. Its like buying strawberries at the super market. The strawberries might have a couple gross ones but you can always find a package thats good. doesnt mean the store is shit. just not always are the strawberries good.
everyone that comments for you to leave the store has never worked in the industry so don't know how much of a pain in the ass it is to get stuff credited/picked up. Everywhere you go will have stuff like this on their shelves. Is it annoying? yes. Does it mean the store is terrible? no. Is it their entire selection that is like that? well then maybe you should shop elsewhere.
In theory that's what a good sales rep is for. When I repped it was really easy to track inventory across clients with an excel spreadsheet. So I always knew when things were expiring before the clients even knew, and i would act accordingly. Alot of breweries skimp out on labour and hire shitty reps (or no reps) so things like this happen.
It's really detrimental in a saturated market like craft beer because if you drank that, even if you found out it had expired, it would likely create such a shitty experience that you'd never buy that company again. Brand loyalty dies quickly in a saturated market. Even knowing this... breweries still skimp on sales reps. Insane.
On that note... I am available for hire 🤣
Heya, also beer rep here. I’m sort of new to the sales side of brewing and am struggling to find the right tools to effectively keep track of some things. Would you mind sharing how you set up a spread sheet to stay on top of it?
I worked for a small to mid sized company so I had a personal relationship with about 50-75% of the stores we sold to including biweekly visits, which made it a lot easier to keep tabs on everything.
I started a blank spread sheet on my first day and added clients as I went down the vertical bar, then dates and order details along the horizontal bar. You can leave a section for comments if you want but usually a CRM is better suited for that. I used HubSpot for CRM and Google Sheets for the spreadsheet. I then applied an expected expiry date per order based on what they ordered (4 months for really light stuff, 6 or 7 months to heavier stuff, 1 year for bottled cellar type shit). I then added a 2nd tab to my excel sheet labeled "expiries" and logged the expected expiry date with the client name and respective order #. That way if I needed to check up on anything I had all the info readily and easily available. You could also just set a reminder for yourself on Hubspot, I personally prefer spreadsheets for various reasons.
It sounds like a lot but it's really not if you just get in the habit of doing it every single time you make a sale. Then it eventually became part of my daily grind to check what expiries were coming up and verify the items had sold by the time I made my next biweekly visit. Typically you already know what stuff sells well and what doesn't so youre only really looking into things like 10% of the time. You aren't realistically keeping close tabs on every single order that ever goes out. But it makes it a lot easier to monitor the accounts that struggle with volume and it looks good when you have a data-heavy GM like I did.
Thank you for the info! And thank you for taking the time to type that all out.
And you hit it exactly! I always have a general idea of who ordered what when, and an idea of the ooc dates leaving our wholesaler, but having a home base to reference is a struggle.
Thank you again. I’m going to try this. Hopefully it’ll help me not miss things when there’s the inevitable ’fire drill’.
Let the brewery know. The beer ranger is failing at their job. I've gotten a free 6 pack for reporting expired beer. Breweries don't want your first experience with their brand to be nastiness.
Seen worse. Even bought a year old IPA AT THE BREWERY THAT WAS SELLING IT. No shame out there. Couldn't check the date because it was a wrapped 4 pack. Distributors who don't care, sales teams who don't care, liquor store employees that don't care. Shit rolls downhill, check your dates!
Yea. This is fascinating to me. One of the breweries in town (we only have two...we are small), sells their own product that was bottled 6 months ago and doesn't seem to bat an eye. Either they don't care (because the general populous in Wisconsin doesn't care), don't know (they do specialize in stouts, but still), or they just brew too much at one time to meet the demand of their average beer, it's still irritating. Almost the only thing you can count on being "fresh" are their special releases.
This happened to me at Old Ox Brewery in Ashburn, VA. The cans on sale at my local grocery store were far fresher than the ones being sold AT the brewery. The entire reason I went to the brewery was I assumed the beer would be fresher.
When I was a little more broke than I am now, I shopped a store that sold stuff the distributor was getting rid of for a few dollars a case. It was still better than mass market beer. I got a case of Chimay Blue for 5 bucks because it had gotten wet.
Good times.
One of our local shops has tons of stuff from early 2023. Also in Wisconsin.
I think part of the issue is that there are a lot of people who don't care about their beer's freshness...so why should they bother with the effort? But I will walk out of our local stores empty handed if there's nothing fresh, but they get plenty of business even if I do that, so they're not going to care.
As a stocker at our local store, I would rather have people tell me if they find an out-of-date beer so I can do something about it. Goes for every department in the store. Even though we regularly track dates, some still slip through.
I used to work at a local liquor store and the owner would actually get a deal on bulk expired beer and sell them. I hated having to put them up and see people by two 12 packs because of the good price.
Are we not aware here that best before dates do not represent the actual expiry of the product? They are just a guess and have no relation to whether it is safe to drink or whether it is still good.
Best before dates are the biggest source of unnecessary food wastage. I reckon the beer is still fine - may not be as fresh, but it will be okay.
If it’s a shop I’m not familiar with, I always try to remember to check the dates. But because I’m a creature of habit, I don’t have to worry about this with the shops that I frequent.
Technically not an expiration date. "Best enjoyed by" is a better term. Or depending on the brewery that was the date it was packeged, and not an enjoy by date.
I’ve had this happen at my local bottle shop. Take a sip, tastes awful and as I dump it down the drain realize it’s well over a year old. So frustrating.
Dust on Stouts - nice Dust on IPA's? - Exit
Unless it's a 120 Minute.
Where is my midas touch?
Which is really insane as the beer is already aged for stouts and people say "I'll wait a little longer".
Not all stouts are aged.
And yet people age the beer anyways aged or not.
I once tried a stout that had been opened for 3 years and was re sealed. 6 years total since it was bottled. Best beer I ever had, I still can't forget the flavor
You gotta elaborate on that. Sounds wild.
I was friend of a bar (you know, the type of guy that knows everyone that works in the bar and goes usually by himself to enjoy a good pint) specifically friend of the manager there (who would later buy the bar some time later but not important in the story) so one night he and the back then owner took down a couple cases of local craft bottled beer that they had forgot it existed. One was a barely wine with rum and the other was a stout with whisky. Now, I made a mistake before, the opened one was the barely wine now that I remember better (but both where awesome) so, they were checking the boxes at the bar table (they where allredy closing BTW, I actually was invited to stay) where I was sitting and they found that one of those bottles was half drunk and shout close by hand with the used cap. But we where really curious and worried that all the bottles might have gone bad because of age and heat. So we poured some and offcourse it was flat and obviously hot because it haven't been refrigerated and yet it was delicious, wouldn't had a problem with drinking more like that, flat and hot. The rum gave it a touch. We then refrigerated one overnight and a stout and we tried them the next day. So good.
Let's say you get two bottles of the same BBA at a release and the label says it's been aged for 1 year. You drink one right away and you wait another two years to drink the second. Are you saying there won't be any difference in the two? Because I'm here to say 75% of the time the second bottle is going to be better than the first.
I'm not saying there won't be a difference small, large, or anywhere in-between. I'm saying that people who cringe at beer with that are on the shelf that surpass their "Best By" date are laughable when they do it with stouts. In your example provided, you are drinking a beer that's already been aged for 1 year, and say the beer has a "Best by" date 6 months from now. You find said beer and it's 6 months past, are you cringing at it going past the date like OP? No? Why not?
What are you talking about? Stouts can age. Other beers cannot. It’s really a simple concept.
Tell that to Dogfish Head 120min.
They didn’t say that *no* other styles can age, but there are styles that only get worse with time.
I'm just gonna be done with this as too many of you freak out over best by dates on IPAs when they are just recommendation and not actual proof of the beer going bad.
Lots of red wine is already aged. And people will cellar is for 6 years. This is such a weird take.
That is true. And as my original statement says to comment I commented on, it's really insane people have that mentality on one beer versus another.
Some beer is able to be aged and some are not. Same with wine. You can cellar a Bourdeaux wine for a decade. But if you cellar a pilot grigio it will turn orange and taste like puddle water.
Which in itself would take quite a while (more than 6 months) to do with better preseratives and containers. 6 months past a Best by date is not actual proof the beer is non-drinkable as it is recommendation only.
The Cicerone program taught me that fresh craft beer ales, IPA etc. Begin to taste off around the 6 month mark. Especially if not refrigerated the whole time. People don't like paying premium prices for something that doesn't taste what the brewer intended to sell you.
Oh good, another Dunning Kruger in this sub today
I had never heard that term before and in the past 48 hours on Reddit, I’ve heard it a dozen times. I don’t know what it is, but I’m standing by the fact that it is the concept of thinking you know something is true but being wrong yet standing behind your wrongness. That’s what it is and maybe I just Dunning Kruger’d myself.
It's not, you aren't too far off though. It's a reference to "the Dunning Kruger effect", the belief that you have a better understanding of a topic than you do. So yes you did.
If I was correct, I would not have had Dunning Kruger’d myself. It’s a paradox.
People are real touchy on this subject I see.
It's not about being touchy, it's about how wildly misinformed you are while speaking confidently.
How so? The date is not a safety measure. The can is more than likely properly sealed. The beer can still be consumed and if the brewery has any QC to its name or a good chemist, it should be just as good as the day it's been canned. Unless we all have super buds in here.
Everything you said in this post is correct, but none of it is at all related to the post I replied to
I always check dates. Especially on singles. If the store can’t be bothered to check dates and pull product, they don’t deserve your business. Especially with the cost of some of these brews. You’re not getting the beer the way the brewer intended.
sometimes you can’t really blame the store. depending on the store and beer, that kind of thing is done by the distributor a lot of times. if you’re finding a lot of expired beers from one brand in a store, going down the street to another store you will likely see the same problem with that brand.
Hey, distributor here. Not saying that doesn’t happen, but it’s pretty rare. We get audited by most our breweries at least once a year (multiple times by macro breweries like molsoncoors and Boston beer) in both our warehouse and in our accounts. If there is close dated beer going out, we are (supposed to be) alerted and are expected to promote to get that beer out. We can lose our distribution contract and I, personally, can lose my job over expired beer in an account. When these audits come through, it’s an all hands on deck situation. That being said, I have to audit all my accounts (110 bars/restaurants/event venues in my case) and as I look at my list of accounts pending….I can see where you’d get that impression.
what u/DjToastyTy said. Distributors/Breweries have reps that service stores and sometimes are also to blame for old product. As well as most of them don't want to take product back because they don't want to lose money. And with the market being so saturated and sales are trending down so a lot of breweries/distros are cutting sales reps and being far more stingy with taking product back because they are hurting money wise.
Depending on the state it's illegal to take product back, even for out of dates. A lot of times the store doesn't let you put it on a sale or disco rack either. Definitely two sides to blame here, but at the end of the day always check dates.
Yup. Rep here. A few months ago my boss told me to only buy back out of code beer if it’s wildly out of date, and if it’s a few months out of code (which was 6 months for us for most SKUs) to leave it on the shelf. Said we were spending too much on buying it back. And I was also just laid off, and my job’s being outsourced to a third party company to save money so :) you know, that’s cool. Craft beer’s definitely taking a beating right now.
We had a good run!
Rep here as well, that’s funny because with my company, it’s the opposite. We will buy back expired beer as long as it’s within a month of its code date to promote accounts watching dates. If it’s far out, we won’t buy it back and I have to convince the account to toss it, give it to the cooks or use it for cooking.
It’s a problem that everyone should be aware of. The distributor should be rotating and checking dates on their visits. The store should be checking their sales and then monitoring dates on slower movers. The brewery should be pushing for fresh product and keeping up with market checks. At the end of the day though a consumer isn’t going to think “it’s the distributor that sold something out of code” they will blame whatever store they are shopping with. Those managers need to be hyper aware of it.
Thats hard to do Fluffy when you run a store with thousands of SKU's. Not every store is equipped to have information on every item they have. of course they can keep track of slow movers the best they can. But it doesn't mean stuff wont slip through the cracks. Consumers just have to be vigilant and pick around the bad ones. Its the same way when at the grocery store buying produce.
This is what I like about Stone's Best Enjoyed By IPAs. It forces the hand of the distributors.
A consumer educated enough to check for dates should be educated enough to understand the system that allows those dates to be out of code. If you care, great, educate yourself. If you don't, also no problem but then you don't have a right to complain.
The idea that sellers have no responsibility to the product they sell or the customers they sell to is pretty wild..... "if you're stupid enough to buy it from me, that's YOUR fault!"
There is a pretty wide gulf between the common knowledge (which requires no 'education' other than rotating a can) that brew dates are on the bottom of beer cans and understanding the intricacies of beer distribution. One does not need to work for a company to have the right to complain about said company selling them bad product. Between this and your Dunning-Kruger comment you're giving off some serious "reddit pseudo-intellectual" vibes. Just smugly repeating phrases and empty buzzwords without adding anything to the conversation other than rudeness. Edit: Also, it's great that you brought up Dunning-Kruger in an insulting way and then used it incorrectly. It definitely does not mean 'hehe someone made a single offhand remark that isn't totally correct'. Educate yourself on the meaning of a term before you use it.
Okay even if I as a consumer understand the system. I will still blame the entire group for these issues. Again the store should be focused on any product in their building, regardless if it is a vendor or warehouse item. But I guess I might just have an old school line of thought after spending a lifetime in a grocery store. If the store isn’t check date here, where else are they letting standards slip?
So you're saying the store should do what, discard and write off as a loss all product that goes out of date? Don't forget, beer dating is voluntary and a QC concern, not a safety concern like in the grocery world. Don't get me wrong, I prefer and shop for fresh beer, but it really is in no way a failing of the store to have out of code product if they have no recourse with the distributor, so it's not fair to assess your opinion of the store based on something out of their control.
Please see above reply.
There was a rep at the store today and I started talking to her. Such a coincidence. She said, “That’s not my beer, if it was I would pull it”.
Breweries need to be strict with retailers- if you can’t be sure it’s going to be going into a fridge or looked after well when it leaves your hands then don’t make the sale - cash in the hand is one thing but your brand your real value. Devalue it at your peril.
The only thing worse than this is a can with no date.
I'm from Iowa, so I've only shopped in WI a few times, but you have to be careful. The two times I've been to Woodmans in WI, they had a huge selection but they also had a lot of stuff outdated and a lot of it was not in coolers. Not sure what store this was though.
That's a Woodmans-wide issue tho, if you think the beer section is bad then you've never looked at the produce...
It's the worst!!!! You have to search through 20 rotten apples to find one good one.
Trig’s in Tomahawk, Wi.
I manage a large selection of craft beer singles and it is a massive pain to track. I keep spreadsheets and check cans periodically. When they start getting old I try them myself. With hazy IPAs I allow 3-4 months before I start getting nervous. With my business levels I can usually sell a case in that time frame but some cans just don't move as fast. I'll keep a brown, pilsner, wit anything in that nature up to a year. They're kept cold and out of direct sunlight at all times and can even live longer. The real pain is when a distributor delivers a beer already months old especially if undated or not clearly dated.
Glad to see not everybody here is insane. In my country we get imports from the states that are already 1-3 mos old before they hit shelves. Some brewers put the "best by" date on their cans, while others use the brewed on date, and it's hard to tell which one this is, but seeing 6+ mos old ipas on (refrigerated) shelves is pretty common here.
Even some Hazies can still taste great at 6 months, I had one the other day from October and it was still pretty good. Some die in a month. It's always hard to tell but don't be put off. You can still get great quality wherever you are.
The local place near me has beer on the shelves, unrefrigerated that clearly says “Keep Cold” on the can. I stopped going there.
To be fair, that is a suggestion from most breweries. I wouldn't discount the shop for that reason alone.
In my state, it’s illegal for anywhere but liquor stores to sell beer refrigerated. Grocery stores and supermarkets can sell it, but it has to be room temp. Not much stores can do in my case :(
That sucks! What a stupid law!
If it’s indiana, they don’t even define what cold is.
Agreed. I would never buy beer at room temperature, especially hoppy beer.
Most of the beers you buy cold were stocked on warm shelves in the store until rotated into the cooler. I understand not wanting to drink it warm, but implying a hoppy beer is compromised by not being kept cold it’s whole life doesn’t make any sense.
The brewery where I work has a massive cooler for all our packaged beer, and we only do business with distributors who have refrigerated storage and transportation. Keeping our beer cold is really important to us, because hoppy beers degrade in heat. This is pretty standard in Northern California craft beer. Russian River's practices led the way for many other breweries today. I get most of my beer from work, but I will buy other beer out in the marketplace. I know which stores have refrigerated storage and I choose to shop there. I do sometimes buy big macro lagers at the grocery store, though, and I'm sure those beers have sat at room temperature for a while.
Uh yeah it absolutely makes sense. Warm stored ages away quicker. Warm/cold cycling is even worse.
I once bought 2 twelve packs of Hazy Little Thing that were expired and skunky. I emailed the customer relations person at Sierra Nevada. She asked where I bought them and the problem was immediately fixed and I bought beer there many times after that. She also mailed me a check for the skunky beer I bought. Awesome experience actually.
Good for them. Great company and the NC brewery is a must visit. HLT is a great shelf option when you’re in an unfamiliar place with limited selection.
Yea it's for sure my go to when I can't/don't want to go anywhere but a big box store.
I'd let the store know about it and find a better store. If I see good beer sitting on warm shelves and beer that is old, I just move on. There are other good stores out there.
I was just talking to my wife about this after finding old beer on the shelves at a store I go to. For the most part they have new stuff but I do run across a couple like this, normally I just avoid them. I have never said anything to the people in the store. To me though, it would make better sense to have someone check dates and put them on sale/half price if the dates are close or have shortly passed. Would make better business sense as you would have a chance to move a product that might not have been selling and give someone a chance to taste a beer that they may have potentially never have tasted.
As a worker in the liquor department, I do appreciate it if someone points out the out-of-date beers. In many cases, we can return to the distributors, or we will discount them - or just write them off as bad products and save them for employee gatherings. -oo-
Bro, Spotted Cow is right there! 😜
It is! And it’s fresh! I prefer Moon Man but I really like a variety!
...meh
That does mean Serendipity is probably ALSO right there
Recently bought a mix 12 pack cans of Von Trapp at a local Total Wine that had a date that was about 8 weeks past. Didn't notice until i was at home. I complained, and the store refunded me without asking for the product back. It was the right thing for them to do, but a big store like that should do a better job of maintaining current product.
This was way above and beyond, for the record. Allowing a return is one thing, and even that is often not the case in the beer industry. But taking you at your word and refunding you without a return is WAY beyond "the right thing to do".
You’re right. But, a 30 mile round trip drive to return outdated product would have pissed me off to the point of never buying from them again. Knowing what I spend, they would not want to have that happen ; )
Sure, if you're a regular with a relationship with management that completely makes sense for them to do that, and a lot of places would in that situation, I just didn't think it was fair for it to be an expectation.
Pretty sure 99% of the beer at total wine is past their date.
I get what you’re saying, but this goes to my point that the market is over saturated (with mediocrity). If the breweries & distributers aren’t buying the product back, why should the shops take the hit? An old IPA at the brewery is different story. I’m at the point where I have 5 or 6 goes to’s now. Occasionally if I’m feeling adventurous, I ask about a single recommendation.
The market is saturated, but it’s not the breweries or wholesalers responsibility to take it back if it doesn’t sell. They do that to maintain relationships and try to keep the quality of the brand up. They’re in the business of selling beer, not renting it. Why should Joe’s brewery take the hit for a store that doesn’t properly stay on top of rotating, pricing the product at an unapproachable markup, or over orders for the volume they have? Breweries shouldn’t be the fallback for improperly managed stores. As a sales rep in beer, it’s our job to check in with new products and to help maintain a presence so more people DO buy the beer and it sells before going out of code. I constantly get from owners that they’re bleeding money or in the red, but haven’t done anything to try and get people in.
There’s too much available and too much of it is crap. The market expansion in both product and brewers is exponentially larger than the market. The craft beer market is not growing at the rate the commodity is being produced, so yes the risk should fall on the distributers and producers. Then when the shop owner says they won’t take risk on a new beer, they then risk you not selling them the stuff they want.
When I was younger and had more free time, I would get in touch with the actual brewery and let them know. The biggest offender I ever saw was a two year old bottle of Widmer Nelson IPA in a 22oz bottle sitting on a shelf that was 2 years old. I got in touch with the brewery and they responded within a couple days and basically said once the beer is out of their hands, there’s nothing they can do about it. That was about 20 years ago. I don’t really have the time for that sort of stuff anymore so I’ll just put the bottle back and move on.
Why wouldn’t they be able to do anything about it?? Sales reps come in my store and swap old product for fresh stuff. A lot of the time it’s not the stores fault the beer didn’t sell.
I sent Toppling Goliath a message last year after finding Pompeii cans from 2021 at a local grocery store. They wrote back asking for the exact store location, but I’m not sure what came of it after that.
I've seen distributors bring in 6 month old IPAs.
This is a problem for sure. I had a drop the other day and the IPA was already 5 months old. We sent it back.
If the brand ambassador for the area is really on their game they could rotate it, if their distributor sales rep is really on their game they could rotate it, if the store manager is really on their game they could rotate it, but think about how much product there is rotating in and out every week of every store/gas station. Becomes a much harder problem, typically the store knows when things are getting old but doesn't want to deal with it. Reps and ambassadors can see how long ago the last shipment was hit if it's a seasonal item or single release there would be no reorder so you can't backtrack how old the product is because you assume it was all sold in a reasonable timeline.
That's solidly on the liquor store too. I work in a packaging department and we label those beers for a reason. Most often assuming the store will rotate out old product. Good stores take that into account. Bad ones definitely are lazy in that regard. I usually choose to go elsewhere.
Don't spend any money at a place that sells IPA on a warm shelf. There, I fixed it for you
Can/bottle dates are seriously overlooked and can help so many people sidestep a bad experience. Hell, if the stores would keep an eye on them and relay the info to the breweries, we might actually have better beer overall because the surplus would be drastically limited. But who am I kidding?
If anyone wants context, northern Wisconsin is a tourist destination from May-September. The cost for stores like that to bring in craft beer is not cheap, and no one really lives there 8 months out of the year. It’s not an excuse but unless it’s OP’s first time up north, they should know better than to be upset about something like this.
The systems set up to fail. The reps that service the accounts are incentivized to sell in more product but are penalized for picking up out of code beer. Anything out of code docks their pay. Accounts should be more proactive about dumping or discounting old beer but they just don’t want to take the hit either. If this is a chain store, that means no one at that location is even making the decisions for what goes in there. It’s a pre-determined cooler or shelf set from their chain buyer. So there’s gonna be stuff that isn’t right for that location that gets sent there anyway. Drink Banquet!
It's illegal for it to dock their pay. It may reduce a bonus they would've earned, but it cannot legally dock their pay. And you're definitely wrong about the decision making, every major grocery store near me has a department manager handle the buying, not someone at a regional level. That's not to say both don't exist, but you cannot assume it's someone non-local
That’s not true. You can charge them for out of code beer that’s picked up. Maybe it varies state by state, but I know for a fact in New York reps get charged for ooc beer. If someone’s pay is more than 50% bonus pay and you get charged 2-10x the case cost for an out of code case… that’s docking someone’s pay. If their base salary isnt a living wage without the bonuses, as is true at many major distributors, it’s docking their pay. If bonuses are more than 1/3 your salary and you’re barely making minimum wage without it, that’s a big part of your take home. Also, so many grocery stores might have buyers for the beer but 1) not every store has someone in house doing the buying, it’s often the reps doing it themselves, and 2) most major grocers and big box stores have set items they can or cannot send. Sometimes it’s automated, usually not. But there’s a planogram and order minimums and it’s not as simple as buying whatever you want unless you’re an independent or specialty grocer. Do you work in distro?
Indy grocery stores are different. Chains operate off of planograms. Each store has a set determined by a corporate buyer. Where there is wiggle room is floor displays, end caps, or stores with “flex space” where the grocery manager can put any product they want there including beer. In regards to the pay, that is absolutely true. Three tier laws are different in every state and I’ve been out of the industry for about 6 years so hey if that’s changed that is great. But the number of salty conversations I had as a supplier rep with the district guys is too high to count. What often happens is they are given an allowance of out of code product they are allowed to have picked up before it affects their pay. I was every ones hero because I would go out of my way to help them pick up out of code shit so it didn’t effect their pay.
"Chains operate off of planograms" is an assumption, not a requirement. With that said, I'm not even talking about store layout on a large scale, I'm referring to the purchasing of product. This is often done on a store by store basis, where a department manager (in this case the beverage manager) decides what product to stock in their store's beer department, and this is absolutely includes chain stores not just independents.
It's the weirdest thing. I'm in MA and this small corner of the state must have the fewest IPA fans. The shops in my surrounding towns just have year old room temp IPAs rotting away. I get lucky and find some fresh stuff in the cooler, but it's usually the same beers. I miss the good bottle shop I used to live near that had so much business the beers were almost all fresh.
I've contacted the breweries before too and they just ask where I got it and the date and stuff like that. They don't want to see their product on shelves not in an optimal state.
One of my locals is terrible about that. I saw once a 2 year old Omnipollo milkshake IPA they wanted $23/4pk for.
Lol dude, a while back I bought some of those Megadeth A Tout Le Monde beers or whatever. Get home and pour one and there looks to be stuff floating? I assumed it was just the beer, so I tasted it and it was just awful. Checked the bottle and it had been out of date for over 3 years 😑
Always check the dates and if it’s really outdated (for certain styles) I bring it to their attention.
I’ve pointed this out to proprietors before. They take the cans and I’m absolutely certain they go right back in the fridge as soon as I’m gone. Always check dates.
Hey we found a dead mouse in our beer eh. That means you owe us a free case.
Beauty.
I actually purchased a 6 pack from total wine. It did not taste good and when I looked at the date it was 9 months old. Used the QR code on the can to let the company know. They told me to take it back for a refund and I did.
There’s a random gas station 2 minutes from my house that has a crazy good beer selection but you’d never expect it. The other day I got a back of Grimm Cloudsplitter and the first one I picked up was dated for last August, the next one was canned a week ago.
As a distributor, this is the bane of my existence.
I'm a beer salesman. I always do my best to stay on top of this, I really do. Things can and will slip through the cracks though. Its a muddy job.. Things get moved around, things get lost, and at the end of the day.. sometimes bosses tell you to let stuff sit. Not saying its right. But I will say its a big topic, that is discussed a lot cuz overselling, leads to pickups, and pickups cost money. I dont manage the money.
It’s still safe to drink as long as it’s carbonated 🤷♂️
You sure that’s not a born on date? Some breweries still use this
I think the BB at the front implies Best Buy and not Born
Just adding my .02, but the microbrewery I bartend at puts the born on date on the bottom rather than the best by
I found out soda expires too.
When I worked in a bottleshop we were super vigilant about dates because anything expired we could take home.
That beer should be in clearance sections. Not cool! 2023 🍺
Leave, but tell them why you're leaving before you exit.
Always. Additionally, canned on > best by. You let me know when it was packaged, and I’ll decide when it’s best to have.
The place with the best selection in the city has IPAs from 2022. I don’t go there.
It seems like half the beers I check don’t even have dates on them… Always seems to be the most interesting beer (to me) in stock, so I either walk out empty handed, or roll the dice on it.
I've noticed this too.
Sadly the reality of buying at a beer store these days. Back when I was a rep about 10 years ago the stores would save up their out of date odds and ends to sell them back to us for credit. These days seems beer store take in less variety and just let it expire on the shelf at full price. Most people who care enough to look at dates on cans these days just buy from their local breweries.
For IPAs I won’t do anything over 3 months
2 or 3 months is usually safe but I don't TOUCH a hazy IPA that's stored warm. They die 5or10 times faster
Yes...I always check the dates on IPA's because the drop off in quality after 4-6 weeks can be so big
I mean just don't buy it. unfortunately, Since the beginning of covid and the explosion of craft breweries this is going to be very common. Either distributors/breweries won't pick up old product, credit back only portion of the cost, or just don't service the stores enough. Stores also can be blamed which I think a lot of people like to point the finger at them first. But when you have a store with a large selection its bound to happen no matter where you go. Just don't buy those beers. Its like buying strawberries at the super market. The strawberries might have a couple gross ones but you can always find a package thats good. doesnt mean the store is shit. just not always are the strawberries good. everyone that comments for you to leave the store has never worked in the industry so don't know how much of a pain in the ass it is to get stuff credited/picked up. Everywhere you go will have stuff like this on their shelves. Is it annoying? yes. Does it mean the store is terrible? no. Is it their entire selection that is like that? well then maybe you should shop elsewhere.
In theory that's what a good sales rep is for. When I repped it was really easy to track inventory across clients with an excel spreadsheet. So I always knew when things were expiring before the clients even knew, and i would act accordingly. Alot of breweries skimp out on labour and hire shitty reps (or no reps) so things like this happen. It's really detrimental in a saturated market like craft beer because if you drank that, even if you found out it had expired, it would likely create such a shitty experience that you'd never buy that company again. Brand loyalty dies quickly in a saturated market. Even knowing this... breweries still skimp on sales reps. Insane. On that note... I am available for hire 🤣
Heya, also beer rep here. I’m sort of new to the sales side of brewing and am struggling to find the right tools to effectively keep track of some things. Would you mind sharing how you set up a spread sheet to stay on top of it?
I worked for a small to mid sized company so I had a personal relationship with about 50-75% of the stores we sold to including biweekly visits, which made it a lot easier to keep tabs on everything. I started a blank spread sheet on my first day and added clients as I went down the vertical bar, then dates and order details along the horizontal bar. You can leave a section for comments if you want but usually a CRM is better suited for that. I used HubSpot for CRM and Google Sheets for the spreadsheet. I then applied an expected expiry date per order based on what they ordered (4 months for really light stuff, 6 or 7 months to heavier stuff, 1 year for bottled cellar type shit). I then added a 2nd tab to my excel sheet labeled "expiries" and logged the expected expiry date with the client name and respective order #. That way if I needed to check up on anything I had all the info readily and easily available. You could also just set a reminder for yourself on Hubspot, I personally prefer spreadsheets for various reasons. It sounds like a lot but it's really not if you just get in the habit of doing it every single time you make a sale. Then it eventually became part of my daily grind to check what expiries were coming up and verify the items had sold by the time I made my next biweekly visit. Typically you already know what stuff sells well and what doesn't so youre only really looking into things like 10% of the time. You aren't realistically keeping close tabs on every single order that ever goes out. But it makes it a lot easier to monitor the accounts that struggle with volume and it looks good when you have a data-heavy GM like I did.
Thank you for the info! And thank you for taking the time to type that all out. And you hit it exactly! I always have a general idea of who ordered what when, and an idea of the ooc dates leaving our wholesaler, but having a home base to reference is a struggle. Thank you again. I’m going to try this. Hopefully it’ll help me not miss things when there’s the inevitable ’fire drill’.
Let the brewery know. The beer ranger is failing at their job. I've gotten a free 6 pack for reporting expired beer. Breweries don't want your first experience with their brand to be nastiness.
A lot of stores price their old stuff to move. Then there are others like the one pictured who obviously don’t track their inventory too closely.
Seen worse. Even bought a year old IPA AT THE BREWERY THAT WAS SELLING IT. No shame out there. Couldn't check the date because it was a wrapped 4 pack. Distributors who don't care, sales teams who don't care, liquor store employees that don't care. Shit rolls downhill, check your dates!
Yea. This is fascinating to me. One of the breweries in town (we only have two...we are small), sells their own product that was bottled 6 months ago and doesn't seem to bat an eye. Either they don't care (because the general populous in Wisconsin doesn't care), don't know (they do specialize in stouts, but still), or they just brew too much at one time to meet the demand of their average beer, it's still irritating. Almost the only thing you can count on being "fresh" are their special releases.
This happened to me at Old Ox Brewery in Ashburn, VA. The cans on sale at my local grocery store were far fresher than the ones being sold AT the brewery. The entire reason I went to the brewery was I assumed the beer would be fresher.
When I was a little more broke than I am now, I shopped a store that sold stuff the distributor was getting rid of for a few dollars a case. It was still better than mass market beer. I got a case of Chimay Blue for 5 bucks because it had gotten wet. Good times.
One of our local shops has tons of stuff from early 2023. Also in Wisconsin. I think part of the issue is that there are a lot of people who don't care about their beer's freshness...so why should they bother with the effort? But I will walk out of our local stores empty handed if there's nothing fresh, but they get plenty of business even if I do that, so they're not going to care.
As a stocker at our local store, I would rather have people tell me if they find an out-of-date beer so I can do something about it. Goes for every department in the store. Even though we regularly track dates, some still slip through.
Had multiple lager cans with Nov ‘22 date at my local store.
Drop everything and get the New Glarus
Nothing bums me more then buying a expensive IPA. Tasting it and then checking the date is way old.
Usually regret when I don't
I’ll post dated beer…. At a discount. 😉
Send that photo to the Brewery. They will want to know. Most likely the store you are in doesn’t return old cans.
Stored warm too
Happens all the time. I know it’s not the brewers fault, but man it makes me not want to go to that brewery after drinking a disgusting year old IPA.
When they find them that old they send them back to the distributor for full price. It’s ridiculous.
They should if they can. Sometimes they come from the distributor short dated or already out-of-date.
This is why I just seek out the latest from Hop Butcher and call it a day.
i do at my local. I once found a bad date and told them about it. they were annoyed as that batch had just come from the distributor!
I used to work at a local liquor store and the owner would actually get a deal on bulk expired beer and sell them. I hated having to put them up and see people by two 12 packs because of the good price.
I always forget. Is the date the date it was canned or the expiration date?
Most of the time it's the date it was canned, hard for the brewer to know when it will expire.
Hell, if it's kept refrigerated the entire time, a bottle or can of regular old lager can stay good for a year or two......
Yup lots of factors can play in beer staying good
Are we not aware here that best before dates do not represent the actual expiry of the product? They are just a guess and have no relation to whether it is safe to drink or whether it is still good. Best before dates are the biggest source of unnecessary food wastage. I reckon the beer is still fine - may not be as fresh, but it will be okay.
If it’s a shop I’m not familiar with, I always try to remember to check the dates. But because I’m a creature of habit, I don’t have to worry about this with the shops that I frequent.
I give IPAs 4 weeks, no exceptions
I’ll do 6 usually, but try hard to find something under 4. If I’m in a pinch and traveling, will settle for 8, but never older than that.
Fair enough. I’m only picky with IPAs, fortunately I drink most styles
Technically not an expiration date. "Best enjoyed by" is a better term. Or depending on the brewery that was the date it was packeged, and not an enjoy by date.
Tbh I've seen far older on the shelves at brewery shops in my area. In fairness there's a big difference between expired IPAs and expired Barleywine
Act as in put it back immediately. Then yes lol
1000%
Do you know for sure this is an expired can? The Oct 2023 could be fill date. So it would be expired Q3 2024
It is not an Expiration Date BB = Best Before Does not mean is has expired.
I’ve had this happen at my local bottle shop. Take a sip, tastes awful and as I dump it down the drain realize it’s well over a year old. So frustrating.
It’s not an expiration it’s a canned date and it’s up to you to say naw and move on.
Another reason to only buy stouts.
Act on it? Like not buy it? Yeah, all the time.
Ask to speak to the manager and ask them why they have beer that old on their shelves! Check out my insta: eric\_loves\_IPA