The Bar Towel

I refuse to buy any GLB cans with smudged/illegible date coding.

Nice to see Immodest here in Windsor. Total surprise. Couple weeks old. Drain pour AMIRITE?

Agreed. I refuse to buy an IPA if I can't read the date code, or know when it was packaged through social media. That goes double for imported stuff from USA.

ercousin wrote:Agreed. I refuse to buy an IPA if I can't read the date code, or know when it was packaged through social media. That goes double for imported stuff from USA.

Important PSA:
Instead of throwing out any IPAs you may accidentally find in your fridge that are more than 10 days old...or heaven forbid any IPA that is not being refrigerated and may be hazardous...I encourage you all to donate them to me and my "save the IPAs" campaign. I accept all old IPAs, regardless of their age, origination, temperature or light sensitivities.
The hate must stop!

No one said 10 days old.

IPAs frequently make it to LCBO shelves that are 3-4 months old on release day.

In had a lone pine ipa last night that was around 3 months old and honestly I was surprised how good the beer was behind the faded hops. Oddly I felt like it had some sort of a bubble gum flavor hiding in there.

I don't disagree, it's an issue that needs to be corrected, but I wouldn't avoid these specific Octopus cans. They're max two weeks old if you go by GLB's social media posts (which is unnecessary, I get it). The real issue will be 6 weeks from now if they roll out a fresher batch and it gets mixed in with this one. So I'd say buy and enjoy it now, it's quite obviously fresh.

The IPA freshness thing that cracks me up most is when people buy a ton of one, only to have it lay around for months at home.

Was recently at someone's house. I'd classify them as a hipster more than a craft beer geek. They are of the "fresh IPA or bust" mindset. They bought a case of Life Sentence back in December and brought a friend with them that day to buy a 2nd case.

Now...more than 3 months later? They still had about a dozen cans stashed away, none being refrigerated. My guess is it's just a sort of bragging rights thing to have that beer for show.

To me, that's cool...do what you want with your beer...but I did find it amusing that they were doing the exact same thing they bitch about the LCBO doing.

Hey everyone,

A couple things based on your comments about our date codes.

We've heard you. Date coding on our cans hasn't been the best lately. We pride ourselves in producing and offering the freshest craft beer and having date codes on our cans is a reassuring measure that we take seriously. Please note that we have been and will continue to work on a solution to remedy this. We value your patience and thank each and every craft beer drinker out there for your unwavering support.

That being said, any can of Octopus that you see out there isn't even two weeks old yet. Most of the first run of printed cans went into our retail store. Secondly, we use a third party distribution company to deliver all of our products to LCBO and ALL beer is stored in a massive cold room (fridge).

Cheers,
Troy

Thanks, and this level of PR confirms that GLB is Canada's best brewing operation.

Now plz send Robohop and octopus to Kingston...

ercousin wrote:Agreed. I refuse to buy an IPA if I can't read the date code, or know when it was packaged through social media. That goes double for imported stuff from USA.

I think my local LCBO staff must hate me. They have two flats of Headstock on the shelf. The one on top is something like 3 months old, and the one on bottom is about two weeks old. I keep taking cans from the bottom one and getting dirty looks.

napoleon wrote:

ercousin wrote:Agreed. I refuse to buy an IPA if I can't read the date code, or know when it was packaged through social media. That goes double for imported stuff from USA.

I think my local LCBO staff must hate me. They have two flats of Headstock on the shelf. The one on top is something like 3 months old, and the one on bottom is about two weeks old. I keep taking cans from the bottom one and getting dirty looks.

I'm just glad you can read the Nickelbrook canning dates again. It was very bad for almost half a year. Black ink on black can...

napoleon wrote:

ercousin wrote:Agreed. I refuse to buy an IPA if I can't read the date code, or know when it was packaged through social media. That goes double for imported stuff from USA.

I think my local LCBO staff must hate me. They have two flats of Headstock on the shelf. The one on top is something like 3 months old, and the one on bottom is about two weeks old. I keep taking cans from the bottom one and getting dirty looks.

Standard grocery store procedure. At least that shows your local staff has some understanding they need to move fresh product. It's when you find older stock as you dig deeper that you realize they really most of the staff have no clue...

Speaking of grocery stores. My local loblaws regularly has 1-2 week old canned IPAs on the shelves. They turn over the stuff so quickly that it's always fresh. Plus now they have a 12 door bank of fridges.

Yes, I've heard from more than one senior LCBO person that the supermarkets are selling tons of LCBO product, enough leverage to soon demand more product, namely IMPORTS

And a quick follow up from our earlier post today.

We weren't lying when we said we were continuing to find solutions...

The brewery will continue to tweak as needed.

And, just to confirm, the date on the cans (and cans out there in the market) references the PACKAGED ON date.