The Bar Towel

Had the goose on tap in Kingston, was palettable and better than bottles I bought in the US about a year ago. Maybe the beer isn't conducive to bottle format?

Picked up a 6 of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at the Bloor & Ossington store this morning. Staff report that it's flying off the shelves. The bad news is that the Best Before date is 25/03/15.

TwoPint wrote:Picked up a 6 of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at the Bloor & Ossington store this morning. Staff report that it's flying off the shelves. The bad news is that the Best Before date is 25/03/15.

It's no wonder there's such hesitancy from U.S. brewers to come to Ontario. Seen this many times before.

what the.. it's already expired?!

edit: you sure that's not the brewed on date? would make a lot more sense

from SN's webpage: "All Sierra Nevada beer is dated when packaged. This code represents the production date and can be found on all our bottles, cartons and kegs."

Cass wrote:

TwoPint wrote:Picked up a 6 of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at the Bloor & Ossington store this morning. Staff report that it's flying off the shelves. The bad news is that the Best Before date is 25/03/15.

It's no wonder there's such hesitancy from U.S. brewers to come to Ontario. Seen this many times before.

That would make sense that it's the brewed on date, since the case I grabbed my 6-pack out of had a large "Best before 22/08/15" stamped on it.

Halfway down the back label it says "BEST BEFORE - SEE ABOVE / MEILLEUR AVANT - VOICI CI-DESSUS". At the top centre of the same label is stamped the 25/03/15.

spinrsx wrote:what the.. it's already expired?!

edit: you sure that's not the brewed on date? would make a lot more sense

from SN's webpage: "All Sierra Nevada beer is dated when packaged. This code represents the production date and can be found on all our bottles, cartons and kegs."

I think it says on their website that product that is exported is marked with a best before date - just double checked; cases for export are stamped with a 'Best Before' (if I'm reading this correctly - click on the view our date decoders link on the following page: http://www.sierranevada.com/faq). It states that bottles for export are stamped with a 'Best by date'

Page 13 of the date code guide explains that exported bottles with a best before date are bottled one year before the listed best by date. So presumably these bottles are over a year old. This March 2015 story says SN has been brewing at their Mills River, NC location "for over a year now," so these bottles are likely among the first that were brewed at the new location. Yum!

Has anyone tried it? Does it drink like it's old?

It pours clear with no haze or sediment but it's not bowling me over. I haven't had the pale ale in eons so I have no means of comparison and can't tell you if it's on or off.

Hopefully someone from the importing agency or the brewery can clear this up. I picked up a six-pack today with the same 25/03/15 code mentioned earlier in the thread. That date is on the back label of every bottle, and (at least with the bottles I picked up) someone has gone out of their way to strike out each one with black marker - poorly, at that, because I can still read the numbers through it. Also, the same code is stamped on the glass of the bottle itself, so that's a Double Fail.

I'd prefer to think that they just had a lot of extra labels that they didn't want to waste, and the dates stamped onto the 4x6-pack cases (rather than the info on the bottles) are accurate. But marking over expiry dates makes me inherently suspicious.

this is probably a dumb question but is the sierra nevada (and coming stone) a one time thing or is it going to be ongoing?

basically, am i going to be drinking this all summer long as god intended or is it going to be bought up within a couple weeks and i'll curse myself in august for not stocking up?

It's supposed to be ongoing.

darmokandjalad wrote:I'd prefer to think that they just had a lot of extra labels that they didn't want to waste, and the dates stamped onto the 4x6-pack cases (rather than the info on the bottles) are accurate. But marking over expiry dates makes me inherently suspicious.

Even if that is the case it is still very old. Best before 08/2015 was brewed in 08/2014, according to the material quoted by cratez from the SN web site.

jeremyg wrote:this is probably a dumb question but is the sierra nevada (and coming stone) a one time thing or is it going to be ongoing?

basically, am i going to be drinking this all summer long as god intended or is it going to be bought up within a couple weeks and i'll curse myself in august for not stocking up?

I was told that there was 1 more order in place so it might not be ongoing.

I was going to buy some but with all this controversy and what it retails for in the States, although with the CDN $ now that kinda goes out the window.

I finished my 12 of Goose and it all was like Cratez's Saturday bottle, good stuff, and at that price point for a 24 and the freshness, I'm confused now. First batch was D02 and the latest I bought was D09.

I know I will probably cave once I see it on the shelf.