They’ll prevent light strike.
Definately true, but I guess I’d consider that a separate problem.
The trouble with “best by” is it doesn’t tell you when it was bottled. Fuller’s beers have a “best before” date, but it must be a year or more after bottling. The last time I bought their ESB, it was oxidized and nothing like the beer I’ve had in England.
I had a 120 minute IPA that was over four years old. Cloyingly sweet, but then it’s pretty damn cloyingly sweet when it’s fresh too. I’ve had about ten bottles of it ranging from 4+ years old to as fresh as it gets. I can’t say I have a preference in that one, TBH.
I had a one year old bigfoot ale that was still damn delicious. It’s very hoppy fresh, and was still pretty hoppy after a year. But that’s barleywine.
Now aged pliny would be a sacrilege… 
Two-hearted and hopslam would be wrong to age, although again, aging pliny would be a crime against humanity.
As a general rule, I agree that IPAs should be fresh.
fundamentally, i am sick of ipa’s. it seems that the places around here carry 4-5 different brewers of ipa and they all taste like old asparagus. Apparently the good Lord has forbid them from carrying a bock, or dunkel, or even much in the way of amber ales, porters etc
[quote]The trouble with “best by” is it doesn’t tell you when it was bottled. Fuller’s beers have a “best before” date, but it must be a year or more after bottling. The last time I bought their ESB, it was oxidized and nothing like the beer I’ve had in England.
[/quote]
Founders has “bottled on” dates, which is nice. I’m with you on the Fullers beers, though
And really, no brewery is going to print a best buy date that is within a month or 2, or even 4, of production, which is what’s needed. It would kill them.
Well that is just not true, Stone has it at 90 days on some beers and 120 days on some other beers. They are in the process of opening the largest restaurant in San Diego. Here is a link, I’m sure you will find more breweries that do it also. https://sites.google.com/site/freshbeeronly/u-s-breweries
Budweiser has been doing it for at least 14 years. And they will pull out of date stock.
Many breweries stamp a number on the can or bottle that signifies the day number of the year, some are 5 digit numbers with the last 3 digits being the numerical day of the year that it was bottled! for instance 19324, meaning that it was bottled on the 324th day of the year! So there is a reference as to how old or how fresh the beer is! Firestone Walker stamps bottled on dates right at the start of the neck on their bottles and is very hard to see unless you hold it up to the light but it is there and many other breweries do this as well! The problem is that the print is so small and hard to see that many of us never know that its there!
Wow! Good for them!
Good for them, but keep in mind that they move the kind of volume where you can get away with this. A much smaller brewery may not be able to pull this off.
Very true!
I suggest again, you guys check the list. A good number of breweries Do " pull this off"
Interesting to read through that list and find out that while before this thread I had never looked at a best by date on a beer, all the breweries that I love most do include brew date info. Perhaps there is a link between breweries that are willing to provide this information and their mentality about producing (and selling) good quality beer.
Forgive my ignorance of the nuances of the 3 tier system, but does the distributor not purchase the beer from the brewery, then sell it to a retailer? So if the beer sits and goes out of date, one would assume that either the retailer or distributor would eat the cost (assuming they actually pull the product, which has not been my experience) instead of the brewer?
I’m not saying I know one way or the other, just making assumptions
6 -7 week rule is about the same for me, probably with a little longer of a window. I find that IPAs in particular tend to get gradually better for 6-9 weeks, then start to degrade quickly thereafter.
Not sure about alcohol, but many distribution contracts for perishable products include clauses that say that if the product doesn’t sell and goes out of date then the distributor doesn’t have to pay for it. If not perishable, the distributor can often return the product later. That, and the brewery will often end up paying because they care the most about maintaining freshness.
Speaking of. All I wanted for Christmas was Stone’s Enjoy By series which is supposed to be the freshest IPA you can get. I heard it was the best IPA ever tasted. But, how would I know? I didn’t get a chance to taste it.
There is something to be said about making a high gravity phenol concoction and aging it overtime to reduce the fire flavor.
That said, when I brew an IPA, I drink it ASAP.
If IPAs are better fresh, which I totally agree with, this Stoudts Double IPA should be great!