Born on Date - which date to use?

Pretty trivial question, but I've started putting a date on my beer labels to remind myself when I made it, but what date would you recommend using? Brew date, end of fermentation, bottling date, something else?

At first I was putting brew date, but then I switched to bottling date, but I had an imperial stout that aged in secondary for 4 months, so that made me wonder what I should really be using.

Always means bottling date.

I use all of the above.

On mine I put brew date, bottle date, OG, FG, and any other information I think might be handy.

The date most people would think of is the brew date. When we talk about aging beers, or how "old" a beer is, we're talking about the brewdate.

If I'm drinking a beer at 21 days, that means from the day I made it as an example. A beer that is 6 months old may have been in the bottle 5.5 months or 1 month, so a bottling date really is meaningless.

mrrshotshot said:

I use all of the above.

On mine I put brew date, bottle date, OG, FG, and any other information I think might be handy.

Click to expand...

I agree on this one, put both, Born on Date(Brew Date) and Bottling Date. Even more if you have the room for the above info.

I put both

plus, this one was brewed for my niece's first kid, so I added an "uncorked" date

came || this close to adding "brewed: 7/18ish/2012" but took it out at the last minute

Seems to me it was the bottling date on commercial beers. I use bottling date,since I know how long my beers take to go from pitch to rack on average. So bottling date gives a good idea to me of how long it's gunna be good to drink before it starts going down hill.

Well, I go the exact opposite. I put the targeted end of carbonation date to let me know when I can start drinking them.

I've never heard of anything other than bottling date. That's when the beer was "freshest" and still drinkable.

woozy said:

Well, I go the exact opposite. I put the targeted end of carbonation date to let me know when I can start drinking them.

Click to expand...

Is that what you call it on your bottle consumable date?

jflongo said:

Is that what you call it on your bottle consumable date?

Click to expand...

Don't know. Never gone out with a woman who let me eat bottles.

mrrshotshot said:

I use all of the above.

On mine I put brew date, bottle date, OG, FG, and any other information I think might be handy.

Click to expand...

Ditto.

I even put my recipe in fine print up the side of the label.