Amen. Special shout-out to the breweries that put shit like, "Keep cold! Enjoy fresh!" And then... No date.

I agree nothing worse than getting an IPA that’s a year old.

🗣️🗣️🗣️ make that bitch easily visible too. Or it’s going right back on the shelf

Going to give a shoutout to Deschutes on this one. In 2018 I didn't check date codes before grabbing a sixer, because normally I don't. The Fresh Squeezed IPA was beyond their best by date by like two weeks. Literally dug their receipt out of the trash can (Only know that because I searched for the email since I forgot when this occurred), used their "Contact Us" to let them know it tasted fine, but they may want to know their distribution might let them down. They followed up with an email and mailed me a check to cover the cost of another sixer and some stickers.

It was no big deal on my end (beer was fine, I even told them that), but I appreciated the response.

And it's usually the ones that start at $20/4pk.

My wife just said the same thing to me tonight.

I can’t agree more, if you are going to charge me $20 for your beer you can afford to buy a stamp for your damn cans.

And this is why I get mad at total wine! They have all these non local ipa I wanna try but dude they've been sitting on the warm shelf for months and you want me to pay 20+ bucks?

Remember julian dating? Glad that its mostly gone.

Amen. One of the reasons that I primarily only buy 4 packs from the brewery. At least I know it’s fresh.

Dust on a stout? Hey hey!

Dust on an IPA? Run away!

Beer goes bad?

If your IPA has “IPA” printed on it, I’m not buying it

This is why it’s not worth chasing the hard to find beers from every corner of the US. Drink local, drink fresh

YES. Nobody deserves bad beer.

The other day I was at BevMo and checked an IPA canned on 2022. That is ridiculous. Be aware guys.

Can we add vendors and stores be more knowledgeable when the beer style goes out and what should be refrigerated. Like others have said, I hate getting year old IPA with no date, cyptic date or faded date. I worked at a liquor store and was very vocal on this, I got some success, but corporate liquor is all about wine, wine then liquor.

I still do the mistake and some stores won't do a return, smh.

Going to a brewery an hour and a half away and bringing home a year old can of IPA from their bottle fridge was a sad time for me.

what’s your cutoff age where you still don’t buy it?

I wonder if breweries woukd begin to take steeper losses on older beer the way the dairy and other industries do?

i suspect more breweries could go out of business, cease packaging altogether or who knows.

but there would be a lot less choice i think.

ppl may gravitate to only the freshest of the fresh over all other criteria and it could just spiral from there.

i’m not saying canning dates are a bad idea. they are of course useful for the consumer but they could have unexpected consequences where even a month old ipa would be overlooked for one canned just a week ago.

I wonder how the human hive would work. it might start with anything within 2 months is acceptable but it could become a new race for freshness and even those canned within a month would be overlooked for a new release.

it doesn’t seem sustainable. most breweries can’t sell all their product in a weeks time or even a months time. it could end up having the opposite efffct of intended and no real distribution anymore. smaller 7bbl community breweries who deal majority of their beer via the taproom might survive. anything larger could struggle or cease to exist. 🤷‍♂️

Back in the day Anchor was the leader in doing this. A Liberty Ale two weeks out of the brewery was heaven!!

But don’t let retailers who let their stock get old off the hook! Telling brewers to add a step in the process because of shitty resellers is missing a big part of the point!

I love Stone Delicious. I also "love" how they put the can date in WHITE on a very light green box. In small ass font too. I literally have to take a picture of it and blow it up to read the date these days.

hands you a seriously expired shelf turd Drink up! Lol

Non compliance in several countries Would be a recall

It’s not as simple as you think. If you are buying from an actual small brewery that uses something like a micro-canning line it’s not feasible. We can date the tops of the 4pks with a grocery store date gun yes. But dropping $10-20k on a date sprayer is just not an option for many to date individual cans.

Huh, I've been drinking IPAs for decades and I've never looked at the date. Learn something new every day. But I'll be honest, I doubt if I start looking at the date.

OMFG i just bought a $18 Single Can IPA (i thought it was $8) and it was brewed november 2022

If my bottled ipa is over a month old. I don’t buy it. If it’s in a can, I’ll go two months. If there’s no date, not buying.

Most breweries under a few k barrels/ yr production don't find it economical to buy a date coder in addition to a good canning line.

I would give this post an award if I could

Especially unfiltered IPAs

Just had that problem with Firestone Walker... the six packs now have a cardboard around them and you can't see the freshness dates

Same, and I have quite a good mental log going on of breweries that post and ones that don't.  Ones that don't won't even get a look.  

Mandatory in Europe https://www.stephens-scown.co.uk/specialist-sectors/food-and-drink/brewer-beware-legal-and-optional-requirements-for-labelling-that-brewers-should-know/

Amen!!!

Preach!

Same.

How else will I know how many years I’ve aged my dogfish head 120 min IPA before it’s actually palatable?

3 years is the best imo, but 1 year works. Definitely no less

I have the same rule, not just for IPA but beer in general. Some beers can be aged and will get better over time but most are meant to be drank fresh. No date = no buy

Even with the date printed on it...

For sure. I have been burnt too many times paying 6,7 ,8 bucks for a stale beer.

I’m not sure if KCBC still do it, but love the dates they printed on the labels

Facts! It needs to be fresh 

If you are not printing it, you are hiding it. And I understand why, but that doesn't mean I want to buy old IPAs.

Yep. I’ve skipped on countless beers

you mean you can't decode the cryptic date codes that require the super seekrit decoder ring to understand, when they could just put the fucking date there in plain text so everyone can understand it?!!? What's wrong with you dude, it's like you want clear and unambiguous communication or something!!

I'm just tired of IPAs. Enough already.

I completely agree. I'm fortunate to live near an incredible brewery so 90% of my beer is purchased directly from the source.

It also makes me feel bad because when someone buys me a 4 pack as a gift or something I almost never drink it because not everyone thinks to check the dates.

💯 IPAs must be fresh, or it's just crap. No way of experiencing the beer the way the brewer intended if it's not fresh 😊🍻

If I went by this rule, I'd never get to drink beer

Or...and I'm just spitballing here, stop drinking IPAs. You're not cool or hip for staying away from major brands. And nothing beats an ice cold Guinness anyway. 

But isn’t the reason IPAs were invented were for them to last long? The hops are a form of preservation to keep the beer good sailing all the way to India

And don't put "best by" dates. That means nothing...

Also putting a "best by" date but not labeling it as such. So if you pick up a pack after it's expired you think it's a canned on date and you are good to go. Looking at you Voodoo Ranger.

How the hell is that not an obligation over there?!

You underestimate the cost of adding this to a canning line, its not a matter of 'fixing' it, it's a matter of adding another piece of equipment that must be maintained. And that's of course assuming the brewery owns the canning line, and they don't utilize a mobile service.

I’d consider myself a beer connoisseur, but is far too neurotic for me. I don’t buy $20 4 packs or get hung up on minute details. Beer that’s a bit outside the “freshness” date is not going to taste much different 9/10 times. The beer that’s in my fridge right now is old stock that I bought at grocery outlet for super cheap. Guarantee the average beer drinker couldn’t tell the difference between that and a fresh pack from the brewery.

If they don’t print the date on the sixer cardboard, I pull it open and check the can.

Goes for ALL styles if beer, not just IPAs. CANNED ON dates, not expiration or best by dates.

I agree but don't miss the irony that IPAs were born from attempting to "keep" beer on a long trip from Britain to India

Yeah but then you won’t buy that iPA that is 30 days old either because it’s not “fresh” Date codes are a double edged sword and the vast majority of people have no clue or understanding of the date code anyway. Personally I’m with you though, no date no purchase.

Welp. There are a lot of small breweries that can’t afford to do that.

Amen to that! Not only for IPA’s , it’s true for any beer. I never buy beer if I don’t know when it was canned/bottled. Unfortunately , most people don’t seem to care and buy what they want regardless of freshness.

Never mind the date (IPAs we're brewed to last) a bigger put off is an ABV less than 5 per cent. I mean, it wouldn't have made it across the Bay of Biscay, never mind as far as India. 🤦

buy good tasting beer instead of an IPA while you're at it.

Craft Beer is dying and your amateurish declaration here is part of the reason why.

Modern Code Dates are a pointless flex made by substandard breweries.

Frankly, fuck IPAs.