So I looked at the Yuengling at my local supermarket today. Some was just over 3 months old, but most was almost 6 months old. I’ll have to look at another store, but I presume this is a distributor issue and not just lack of turnover in the market.
Something I’ve come to realize via checking dates is how seasonal some beers are here.
Yuengling cans sell like made through the summer and fall, then kinda trail off some through the winter/spring. Still sells enough to be available reasonably fresh though. Bottles are just about always fresh.
Sam Adams Boston Lager sells really well through the fall/winter, stale stock usually is all there is to be had spring/summer.
SNPA is decidedly a spring/summer beer here. Those packs canned in May? They’ll likely be on shelves till March/April. Must be a popular cookout beer, because outside of summer good luck finding it fresh.
Guinness Draft, of course, is easiest to find fresh about middle January through the end of March.
What I’ve been universally unable to find fresh lately is anything from Dogfish Head, Bells, Victory, Firestone, Sweetwater, Hofbrau, Weihenstephaner, Stone, Fat Tire, and the list goes on. Seems to all prove that the fresh beer goes to the area around DC, and that distributors are pulling old stock off the shelves there an selling it here.
I get it, it’s not like this area is known for it’s taste in good beer. Budweiser is still so popular here that we’re the only place that gets it in 10oz. cans. (Which is a brilliant idea, but I digress) But there’s still enough interest in craft beer that we deserve fresh stuff.
'Tis the season - 2021 Celebration is out. I just picked up a sixer (in cans no less) from TJs.
The Mills River cans I picked up this week have a fantastic flavor.
I just picked up some that was brewed in Chico. I can’t say anything about the flavor of the cans, but the beer inside was great 
I was tempted to respond to the thread about CostCo beer advent calendars by saying that CostCo is carrying my favorite beer advent calendar, even though it’s the same beer for 24 days…