Expiry Dates

[Bobbyok]

The Candian Food Inspection Agency requires beers to have either a "best before date" or a "production date" either will do and neither has to be decipherable by the public. With our General List products we're trying to move to production date coding as far too many people treat best before dates as though they're drinking milk. In the case of high ABV double-fermented Belgians, the dates are meaningless.

Ah, okay. I didn't know the CFIA required it. My comments were in regard to Belgium's rules, not ours - most of which I find meaningless anyway.

If that is the case though, why do the big brewers get away without production or expiry dates? Are there date codes somewhere on bottles of Keith's, Blue, Canadian, and the like? I suspect that cans get stamped on the bottom, but I can't ever recall seeing a date code on a bottle of one of those.

[irishkyle21]

esprit wrote:
The point I was also trying to make about the chunks is that they are not like orange juice pulp...pulp I can detect...yeast chunks I can't. Leaving the beers to settle for days, weeks or months to me doesn't make a lot of sense unless you're looking for the effects of ageing on the beer. If it's only the sediment, close your eyes and enjoy!
As for variations from batch to batch, they can be very dramatic with these types of beers...some bottlings can be almost crystal clear, others can be like mud...that's the nature of these hand-crafted products as every batch is going to be a bit different.

I have a few bottles of Brasserie Des Roc Grand Cru and I can definitely notice the sediment when I drink (in fact their is so much that I usually filter it) the beer still tastes fine with or with out. I might have overexagerated when I compared it to pulp, the sediment breaks down in your mouth and the pulp wont.

[grub]

I have a few bottles of Brasserie Des Roc Grand Cru and I can definitely notice the sediment when I drink (in fact their is so much that I usually filter it) the beer still tastes fine with or with out. I might have overexagerated when I compared it to pulp, the sediment breaks down in your mouth and the pulp wont.

i was going to mention that. everything i've had from BDR has been like that. it's like getting globs of jello or something. really weird mouthfeel. they seem solid, where in other cases the yeast seems to be powdery and not really noticeable. i had a their triple imperiale the other night and was shocked when i was about 1/2 way through pouring the bottle and hadn't seen any sediment. then there was a big "plop" as a gumball sized yeast wad fell into the glass. much bigger chunks than usual in this one that are really odd when you drink them.

[El Pinguino]

I've got some Unibroue bottles that have aged soem years - Fringante, Terrible, Quelque Chose and La Fin du Monde.

They've all got clear dates on them except my one bottle of Fin du Monde. (i.e. Terrible is from May 2004)

So...how the heck do I tell how old the Fin Du Monde is? There is a cryptic alphanumeric thing on the neck....which is H13071446Q (??) I got it from Quebec more than a year ago.

Can't find anything else on it....

[irishkyle21]

I found this thread from a couple of months ago.

robinvboyer wrote:

Ok, i'm pretty sure this has been mentionned before, but i can;t see to find the thread. I just picked up a 6 pack of Trois Pistoles, and it looks OLD. Typical for the beer store in my town, the six pack along with the bottles are covered in dust. So i'm thrilled, thinking, hey i've got some aged Trois Pistoles on my hands! Well i can't figure out the brewed on date on the back. I used to be able to read them, but i'm just confused now.
All my bottles have C155 on the back of it. I know the letter has something to do with the month, like A is for January, B is for february, and so on. I think what this is telling me is, it was bottled on March 15th 2005, butdoes anyone know for sure? Could anyone shed some light on this please?

And Jonah Hex wrote:

Looks like you're right. Here's info from Unibroue's site:
http://www.unibroue.com/beer101/date.cfm
Quote:
How to find and understand the bottling date

The beers we produce undergo a secondary fermentation in the bottle and in general have an extremely long shelf life that varies between beer styles. For example, the life durations of our beers are: Blanche de Chambly 1 to 2 years, Maudite 3 to 5 years and Trois Pistoles 5 to 10 years. Even beyond these periods, we have regularly found our beers that conserve their quality and may still be described as excellent*. For this reason, we cannot justly impose a "best before" date and prefer to mark the date on which the beer was bottled.

How to find and understand the bottling date
This is situated on the lower left part of the back label, printed in light grey about 1/16 of an inch above the bar code. The code has one letter followed by three figures. The letter A denotes January, B denotes February and so on. The letter I is not used in order to avoid any confusion with the figure 1. For the three figures that follow the letter, the first 2 give the date of the month the beer was bottled and the last number denotes the year.

For example: M191 = December, 19, 2001

*In the case of the 750 ml bottle, the expansion and hermetic qualities of the champagne cork are important factors for the conservation of the product.

[Belgian]

The way to avoid big chunks of floaties is to break them up, and you get more flavour anyway.

Gently shake the bottle, so the semi-solid stuff disperses. Drink it a day or two later -- some of the sediment will remain in suspension adding to the 'body' of the beer - the rest will line the bottom of the bottle in a small layer. This layer will not have time to cake together and get globby.

Just my experience with Rochefort, hey it works for me.

[El Pinguino]

Thanks irishkyle21.

So I'm looking at an August 13, 2000 date for the La Fin du Monde then? If I read that system correctly. (First I read 07 as the year, but I knew I bought this before August 07, so I re-read to see just 1 digit for year)

OR...maybe it is 1980, he he. Any way to differentiate decades?

[schomberger]

Thought I'd revive this thread from '08 rather than start another....anyway, I'm concerned that Aromatherapy beers have no date codes of any sort on their cans---why not???? Being able to determine freshness is essential for craft beer, imo. It's often a deciding factor for me when choosing a selection of brews. So I bought 2 Aroma ipas and 2 pale ale projects, no dates but I had to try based on rep. The first pale ale I tried wasn't good; I was getting a latex paint aroma and taste of soap. A quick review of online ratings and descriptions indicates that my experience was atypical (to say the least). So, I assume it was aged, past its prime. A best before or prod date would have been nice though. So what's with this brewery? I can't think of any other Ontario crafts without some form of date code.

[portwood]

I can't think of any other Ontario crafts without some form of date code.

LOL
Plenty of Ontario crafts WITHOUT any form of date codes... The most loved of them all - Bellwoods - doesn't use date codes!!!!

Others I've had of late without dates:
5 Paddles, Little Beasts Brewing, Town Brewery, Blood Brothers

[Belgian]

Hey Schomberger,

To be fair to you, most Ontario beer at the LCBO seem so to comply with the convention of BBD marking on products.

I had one Aromatherapy IPA and just assumed it might be a few weeks past its prime, it's an Ottawa area brew. Gosh knows how prompt the distribution is.

[darmokandjalad]

This bugged me when I tried several of their beers (including Aromatherapy and Pale ale project) a while back. This was in January (and I had purchased them in London in December), so if your cans were from the same runs then they must've been at least 8 months old minimum. Yuck.

Based on your comments I'd be wary of buying BTP stuff again, if the cans remain undated in the future. This is despite the fact that I actually really enjoyed Aromatherapy (and the Saison Tropicale) at the time. I live in SW Ontario so there's definitely no reason for me to assume they're fresh; I just got lucky last time.

Seriously, dating your beers is not that hard. Doing it manually is not that labor intensive... you can get one of those date sticker applicator things, like the Goodwill uses (and place the sticker on the base) if you're a small operation with no other feasible way of doing it. I don't usually worry about beers purchased at the brewery itself, but If you're a brewer sending stuff off to the LCBO then it's an absolute must.

Maybe it makes expired/very old stuff impossible to move, in addition to being (slightly) more work. It's sort of a double-edged sword. I guess it's a choice between that or pissing off paying customers who unknowingly spend money on old, sub-par product.

[schomberger]

Portwood --- l should have been more precise --- my concern over bb dates is shopping at lcbo. I've never thought about checking bellwoods since they do small runs and I'm getting it from the source. The other brews u mentioned I've never had but thanks for the examples. My fav brews at lcbo do have dates . So my feeling is that dates are the norm based on my experience. I expect date codes. I only gambled on Aroma because of exceptional reputation. I would not bother with lesser unproven brews without dates. Thats how important bb dates are to me.

[schomberger]

Also to be fair to Aroma the iPa were great. The second pale was ok much bettrr than first .

[Russell v R]

....anyway, I'm concerned that Aromatherapy beers have no date codes of any sort on their cans---

BTP stamp their cases. Aromatherapy at Yonge+Eg was canned Apr 03

[schomberger]

That still doesn't guarantee whats sitting in the flat hasnt been mixed up from odds and ends----seen this situation many times. But I guess its better than nothing...