The Bar Towel

If you see a bottled on date printed on a pale ale, IPA, pilsner etc do you have a rule of thumb for what you consider to be acceptable freshness from the date of bottling? I ask because I spotted a whole shelf of Cameron's RPA with the date stamped E3013 or May 30/13. I tried it once a while back, I liked it but didn't notice the bottling date though.

I passed on picking it up today, if it had been stamped June 15 I'd buy without thinking twice but it seems unreasonable to have freshly bottled beer on the shelf after having been trucked hundreds of km's north.

So what's your rule of thumb deciding to buy beers with bottled on dates? And for those in southern Ontario, could anyone check their stamped bottle?

You balked on a beer that was 7 weeks old? But a 5 week old bottling would have been A-OK? Lord help us all.

markaberrant wrote:You balked on a beer that was 7 weeks old? But a 5 week old bottling would have been A-OK? Lord help us all.

Actually at the time of purchase it would be 8 weeks old. I was just wondering what people thought about buying fresh i.e. do you overlook the bottled on date or do others have a 'yardstick' in weeks/months to determine what's acceptably fresh to buy.

So pardon me, your highness.

It really depends on the beer I think. Some beers seem to last 3+ months in the fridge and be fine. I find Founders Centennial lasts like this. Still tastes as good 3 months after LCBO purchase, which was already probably a few months old.

It's hard to say for beers you haven't had before. Generally I don't buy IPAs if they've been sitting on a non-cold shelf for more than 3 months if I don't already know that they'd be OK.

FWIW - the May 30 bottles of RPA are drinking really nicely, and I'm not sure you'd be able to tell the difference from a 2-3 week old bottle. I've been drinking them for the past couple weeks and still have a couple left in the fridge.

And as Andrew said, it depends on the beer.

I find that RPA usually holds up really well for a 2-3 months.

Thanks guys. I think I'm biased because when the more perishable Ontario craft beer finally does appear on the shelves here, I frequently pass on it because I make the assumption that it's older stock that won't sell in the more populated areas. Great to hear that it's drinking well, I'll pick up a few this weekend.

Beer'n'gin wrote:Thanks guys. I think I'm biased because when the more perishable Ontario craft beer finally does appear on the shelves here, I frequently pass on it because I make the assumption that it's older stock that won't sell in the more populated areas. Great to hear that it's drinking well, I'll pick up a few this weekend.

Cameron's has been pretty good, delivering a new batch approximately every six weeks. Even so, as I said I wouldn't worry abut a two month old bottle of RPA.

JeffPorter wrote: I find that RPA usually holds up really well for a 2-3 months.

Has anyone been to the brewery lately and picked up decently fresh RPA? All I can find from Grimsby to Burlington in the LCBO or Beer Store are sixers packaged from last August.

I stopped by the brewery in January.
All 6-packs were labelled H1914 ( August ?)
I bought one anyway, silly me. The beer was well past it's prime.

I emailed them to express my disappointment. No response.

RPA is off my list until I see some really fresh stuff.

hopdevil wrote:I stopped by the brewery in January.
All 6-packs were labelled H1914 ( August ?)
I bought one anyway, silly me. The beer was well past it's prime.

I emailed them to express my disappointment. No response.

RPA is off my list until I see some really fresh stuff.

All I can get is H. Did they stop making RPA fer a while?

As far as freshness goes, the weirdest thing is probably Great Lakes My Bitter Wife. On the side of the bottle it says " Carrie says Drink this IPA Fresh!". But there is no production date or anything on the bottle so you have no idea if it is fresh or not.

i was in Buffalo.
They had Stone's Enjoy By on sale.
It was March 14. They had $1 off the Enjoy By March 13.
They had $1 off Enjoy By Feb whatever the day was.

i wonder if anyone will buy a beer called "Enjoy By" after the printed Enjoy By date.

atomeyes wrote:i was in Buffalo.
They had Stone's Enjoy By on sale.
It was March 14. They had $1 off the Enjoy By March 13.
They had $1 off Enjoy By Feb whatever the day was.

i wonder if anyone will buy a beer called "Enjoy By" after the printed Enjoy By date.

Isn't there a thing on the Stone website where you can report that you saw Enjoy By on the shelf past the sell by date. I think Stone figures out where they ship it to by how much demand there is.

I was in upstate NY in February and on February 13th I believe, I saw Enjoy By February 14th on the shelf. I bought a bottle, but I imagine considering how many they had it was probably still on the shelf February 15th.

The last two six packs of RPA I bought were quite disappointing. Never bother d to check the date.....just figured they may have change the recipe. But now it makes sense I suppose. It's off my radar for the time being also, which is a shame because I used to love it.
I wonder if the freshness issue is because they're just not selling enough through the beer store to move product fast enough? I can't see it being very popular with the BS crowd. I wish they would distribute more 6ers through the lobo,or at least bring back bombers to lcbo. Maybe then we could get the good,fresh stuff