New beer store sold me old beer

[neko]

There's a new tiny beer and wine store near my house so I thought I'd go check it out to see what they had. The guy working there was eager to help me out with the selection, but I could tell he didn't really know anything about what he was selling. He pointed to random beers and said how it was a good summer beer (but it's March) and he asked if I had tried Molson because he thought it was really good. They had empty boxes stacked up for Lost Coast and Ninkasi so I asked if they had any of those. After looking around he couldn't find any. I got some Abita Amber since I hadn't tried it before and went on my way.

I started drinking one when I got home and noticed on the box that it said "Best if consumed by 12/14/09". That's three months ago and the beer tasted alright, but it's just sketchy. I know that beer "expiration" dates are not the same as food, but are there some sort of laws about selling past the date? Where does this person buy beer that is older than his store?

 

[suprchunk]

Lol at best by dates. Seriously, your beer is still fine. If the best by date was a couple years ago I might worry. But I'm worried more about you buying Abita and wondering about the date on it.

 

[scinerd3000]

shady but its happened to all of us. If anything it may have come across slightly thinner with a bit less of a bittneress........not a deal breaker for me

 

[springer]

I started drinking one when I got home and noticed on the box that it said "Best if consumed by 12/14/09". That's three months ago and the beer tasted alright, but it's just sketchy. I know that beer "expiration" dates are not the same as food, but are there some sort of laws about selling past the date? Where does this person buy beer that is older than his store?

beer is fine . He would get his beer from the distributor like everyone else .

 

[GNBrews]

A has already been said, the beer is normally fine. I've had some hoppier beers like Sam Adams Imperial Pilsner and even Summit EPA start to take on a funky flavor if drank past a certain age, but it's not very likely to get you sick or anything like that. If you haven't already drank the whole lot of them, bring back the remainder and ask for your money back. He won't know that the distributor sold him old beer unless someone tells him, and I can't imagine he'll be a dick about it.

 

[bschindl]

I bought a 12-pack of Widmer's Hefeweizen that when I got home I realized that it was 2 years past the date on the box. When I drank them they still tasted great.

 

[Brew-boy]

Happens all the time. Try this one get really ripped and go back in there and say "All this beer is out of date" Damn my wife was pissed when I did that.

 

[SwampassJ]

Not to bad, went to this new store about a year ago. The old liquor store closed up for almost a year and a half and then this new one opened in its place. They sold me a Stone Ruination that had 06 listed as the best by or drink by date.

The entire time I'm trying to wonder why it wasn't kicking my teeth in. Then I begin reading the bottle and see the numbers ever so fainly on it.

 

[jiggs_casey]

The only time I think I've had 'bad' beer was in Germany. I bought it from the 'class six' (on post liquor store). They had single beers for sale that were laid underneath all the package beer in the cooler. I took it home, opened it and was repulsed by it. The expiration date was a year before I opened it.

Then it dawned on me. "Soldiers don't buy 'single beers'".

 

[KingdomBrew]

I might be going too far to call beer expiration dates a myth. I certainly don't have enough widespread experience to say so for sure.
BUT I have had 17 year old commercial beer (Budweiser) that had been in a river bed for all that time.
Tasted fine. Nothing skunky or spoiled... but I would be hard pressed to call it good. Not much to taste there. I guess I should have done a side by side.

I recently found some old homebrews from 2002 about 9 years old.
They are delicious!

I think perhaps one of the reasons people have had bad experiences is due to improper storage. These homebrews have been in a cellar (no light and consistently cool temp) for 9 years.

The one I had the other day was in a Corona bottle (ie. clear) that should have been bad to according to the light damage factor but if you never expose your bottle to sunlight I guess it's fine!

Cool!

Final rule of course if it tastes at all funny or bad don't drink it but that hasn't happened to me yet!

 

[Clann]

I might be going too far to call beer expiration dates a myth. I certainly don't have enough widespread experience to say so for sure.
BUT I have had 17 year old commercial beer (Budweiser) that had been in a river bed for all that time.
Tasted fine. Nothing skunky or spoiled... but I would be hard pressed to call it good. Not much to taste there. I guess I should have done a side by side.

Found a corrona in a riverbed on a cannoe trip, Didn't look for a date and drank it anyway. Guess it was fine for a corrona.

 

[HerotBrewer]

With all the discussion of cellaring beer and aging it, I wouldn't be too upset, as long as it didn't taste noticably "off" like skunked.

 

[Maxkling]

I might be going too far to call beer expiration dates a myth. I certainly don't have enough widespread experience to say so for sure.
BUT I have had 17 year old commercial beer (Budweiser) that had been in a river bed for all that time.
Tasted fine. Nothing skunky or spoiled... but I would be hard pressed to call it good. Not much to taste there. I guess I should have done a side by side.

I recently found some old homebrews from 2002 about 9 years old.
They are delicious!

I think perhaps one of the reasons people have had bad experiences is due to improper storage. These homebrews have been in a cellar (no light and consistently cool temp) for 9 years.

The one I had the other day was in a Corona bottle (ie. clear) that should have been bad to according to the light damage factor but if you never expose your bottle to sunlight I guess it's fine!

Cool!

Final rule of course if it tastes at all funny or bad don't drink it but that hasn't happened to me yet!

Anyone notice the brought back from the dead?

Some call best by date a myth, some don't. If it tastes good drink it.

 

[Hang Glider]

IPAs are more susceptible to age-related issues, in my opinion. I like them fresh. They're fine and drinkable months later than the date, but put a fresh one next to an older one (I absolutely have done this) and there is a remarkable difference. The hop aroma and flavor are almost gone on the older IPA.


One-year-plus is a good start for zombie thread kudos, but certainly not a winner...

 

[C-Rider]

There's a new tiny beer and wine store near my house so I thought I'd go check it out to see what they had. The guy working there was eager to help me out with the selection, but I could tell he didn't really know anything about what he was selling. He pointed to random beers and said how it was a good summer beer (but it's March) and he asked if I had tried Molson because he thought it was really good. They had empty boxes stacked up for Lost Coast and Ninkasi so I asked if they had any of those. After looking around he couldn't find any. I got some Abita Amber since I hadn't tried it before and went on my way.

I started drinking one when I got home and noticed on the box that it said "Best if consumed by 12/14/09". That's three months ago and the beer tasted alright, but it's just sketchy. I know that beer "expiration" dates are not the same as food, but are there some sort of laws about selling past the date? Where does this person buy beer that is older than his store?

Here in the islands "dated" beer is often sold at 1/2 price. They don't day it's "dated" but looking at the dates tell all. Never had a bad one. But since I home brew it's been a while.