It's an 8-digit code stamped on the label (YYYYMMDD).Indeed:Uses abottlingandborn ondate on all their packaged beer. Lost in translation? It seems like theyve just increased their brewing capacity in some way. Side Projects and SpecialReleasesare style-dependentThird Street Brewhouse (MN):Uses aproduceddate.Thomas Creek:Uses aproductiondate. It's on the left side of their labels. There should be a date burned in the glass on the bottom of the side under the label. The first two numbers in the sequence represent the year, the next three numbers represent the day of the year. It's on the crown, i guess they mean the bottle cap. From the brewer: It's on the side of the face label of the beer bottle and it stamped on the mother carton for the case of beer. Format is MM/DD/YY and is 6 months from bottling. From the brewer: There is a date on the back label as a "best by" date. The date code is similar to a price sticker and is usually applied on the inside of the box on the opening flap. Founded in 2005, Consumerist is an independent source of consumer news and information published by Consumer Reports. This is the bottling date, not the best before date. The date stamped is the day the beer is bottled. Laser etched on the bottle. Format is MM/DD/YY. On the top of the end panel of the case boxes. It's on the master carton only. A beer typically lasts six to nine months after it has been labeled as expired. Beer Works:Uses abottlingdate. Anderson Valley:Uses a Julianbottlingdate in small print on the bottle neck. But with the help of industry insiders and analysts, we cracked the codes, studying bottles purchased across the country to determine the key dates for 18 big brews. Printed clearly on cases boxes only. Cases:Example1339 1728 means beer was packaged on the 133rdday of 2009 (Julian Calendar) at 17:28 (Military Time = 5:28 pm). Format is MM/DD/YYYY. Sand Creek:Uses apulldate. Best consumed by 4 months. Lion (PA):Uses abottlingdate on their cases and bottles. Format is MM/DD/YY followed by the batch number. Take Sapporo, a Japanese beer we purchased in Los Angeles, which was imprinted with "K1205FL" on the bottom. Adelbert's:Uses abottling dateandbatch numberon each label. Harpoon:Uses abest bydate. When it comes to that 10-month-old Bass, the company says its beer is good for a year. The taste of most commercial beer deteriorates as it matures. A production code is imprinted on the majority of beers sold in North America. Olde Mecklenburg:Uses abottlingdate on all their beers.Old Schoolhouse:Has dates on their cases only. If we decipher the code above, it translates to the 123rd day of 2012, aka May 2, 2012. 1 = Year (2011), 049 = 49th day of the year (Feb. 18th 2011) and 1154 - Military time (1154 Hrs). On the bottles, this info is on the neck. Golden Road:Uses acanned ondate.GoodLife:Uses abottlingdate. Hermitage:Uses abottled/packed ondate on the bottles and cases. Some of the batch info is on the website but you can always email the brewer for specifics. Independence:Uses abottlingdate. McMenamins:Uses apackagingdate. Example JUN 29 2009. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Printed on the glass below the label, usually towards the back label. They also have apackageddate on the cases.Four Peaks:They use apackagingdate. Format is MM/DD/YY. For products manufactured in March 2020, the expiration date will be February 2021. Ale Industries:No standard freshness info but they change the artwork for their labels seasonally giving the beers a 3 month window. Mayflower:Uses apackaged ondate. $(document).ready(function() { will also have them (Sept. 2013). Claiming that Maris Distributing had resold beer beyond its 110-day shelf life rather than destroying it, Anheuser-Busch ended its distribution agreement. Most manufacturers will use their own coding system. Month/Day/Year'. If you look on the side (usually right) it will have a little notch for what month it was bottled in. Aug 20, no year given. 24). The label reads BEST BEFORE: J F M A M J J A S O N D 12 13 14 so there would be 1 notch under a month and another under a year. Milwaukee Ale House/Brewing:Uses abottlingdate. Spoetzl:Uses anexpirationdate. From the brewer: We notch the best enjoyed by month and year on our bottle labels. Some of the batch info is on the website but you can always email the brewer for specifics. Lost in translation? From the brewer: Our 12 packs are stamped on the bottom when they were canned. Gordon Biersch:Clearly shows thebottlingdate.Grand Canyon:Uses abombed on(bottling)date on their bombers.Grand Teton:Uses abottlingdate. Then we hold that beer in our cooler for ten days as a kind of quarantine, just to make sure everythings ok.Breckenridge:Clearly shows thebest beforedatenotched directly on the bottle. Christian Moerlein:Uses abottlingdate. The longer expiration date was made possible by improving ingredients and production methods. From the brewer: We notch the best enjoyed by month and year on our bottle labels. Printed around the neck or shoulder of the bottle. Yazoo:Bottlingdate on the label.Yellowstone Valley:Uses abottlingdate. Underneath that, the number is stamped, example SEVEN. The first five numbersprinted are the Julian date. The packaging date is on the bottom of each can and on the side of each six pack. Format is MM/DD/YY. Format is MM/DD/YY on the bottles. All Asia-Pacific It's printed on the shoulder of the bottle and the bottom of the can. Even though beer is not dangerous to drink, the taste will deteriorate over time. Format is DD/MM/YY. Cigar City:Uses abottlingdate. Nagumo said Yebisu beer, Sapporo draft beer kuro-label, and mugito-hop were among the 21 brands of beer with the new extended shelf-life. From the brewer: Our bottled beer has a date stamped on the case boxes giving the born date. Nothing appears on the bottles since April 2013. Best before date - The "best before" date does not guarantee product safety, but it does give you information about the freshness and potential shelf-life of the unopened food you are buying. Checking The Date For the bottles, it's printed on the top shoulder, on the glass. Labelled on each bottle with month/day/year. Urban Chestnut:Will use apackagingdate very shortly. Gritty McDuff's:Uses aBest if used beforedate. We are working on rebuilding the date coder that attaches to our labeller. bottles is notched. It's a sticker on top of the 6-pack topper only, not on the individual cans. Lonerider:Uses abest bydate. It's on the mother carton only. Ex: 11B25B14 would be Nov. 25, 2014. Church Brew Works:Uses abottlingdate. It also says "06:45" above the date but that can't be the time; that would be taking it too far. The letters and numbers after that indicate a brewery and packaging line. Sprecher:Uses abottlingdate. Then across the top of the label you have to pretend it has the 30 days in the month up there. google_color_bg="EBE0C8"; Brewers take elaborate steps to minimize the amount of oxygen left in their bottles before they get sealed up. Their draft beer has a neck collar saying when it was packaged which corresponds to its filter/transfer and co2 volume check. The air you pump in to push the beer causes a bland taste and makes staling faster. Also cases are stamped with the date before they are palletized. The first 3 numbers are the day of the year, and the last digit is the last number of the year. Also, their 6-pack carriers have an NFC inlay which allows NFC-enabled cellphones to read the specs of the bottle (ABV, IBU, brew date, bottle date and brewer`s and bottler`s initials. Paper City:Uses abest beforedate. Marked on case boxes only. Silver City:Uses abottlingdate. vOut += aTags[i].trim().replace(reg, '-').substring(0,40); 155 = day of the year & 9 = the year itself. It's on the bottle neck in yellow ink in the format MM/DD/YY. Furthermore:Uses abest bydate. First linehas 3 digits followed by a space, then one more digit. Odd Side Ales:Uses abottlingdate. Ellicottville:Uses abrewed ondate. }); Currently, manufacturing details include the year and month of manufacture, as well as whether they were made in the early, middle or later part of the month. From the brewer: On our Amber Ale and Blueberry beers we have a "best before date". Listed as month/day/year and is 120 days out. Beer usually lasts six to nine months after the expiry date on the label has passed. date. Blue Pants:Uses abottlingdate. From the brewer: On the shoulder of the bottle there should be two rows of numbers. It's a Julian date code followed by the year. Their social media often touts the #FreshGLB hashtag to emphasize this focus and they have boasted that 99% of the beer they make stays in Ontario so that they . Backcountry:Uses abottled ondate. Letters from A-M represent the month of the year. Their beer is best within 3 months of that date but some of their bottles are cellarable and the runs are very small. In 1996, the giant brewer began putting plain-English born on dates on bottles and cans of Budweiser. DC Brau:Uses acanned ondate. Spoetzl: Uses an expiration date. It's on the angled silver part of the bottom. They just wanted to buy the rights to Americas Oldest Brewery in my opinion. It reads the 69th day of 2010 the 8 on the end is the batch that it came out of. From the brewer: The date stamped on our cases, bottom of mini-kegs and labels of the quad and Trippel, is the packaged on date. On the bottle necks, there should only be the six-digit date (mm/dd/yy) of packaging. It's a different version of the Julian date code. Tuppers' Hop Pocket:Uses abottlingdate on the cases only. Saint Arnold:Uses apackagingdate. Mother Earth Brewing:Uses abottlingdate. Used to be a notch on the label, now it's a Julian date on the neck of the bottle. Central Coast:Uses abottlingdate. Halfway up the neck of the bottle in Julian format: DDD-YY. No date stamps on the bottles.Black Diamond:Uses aborn ondate which is notched on the side of the label. var aTags = gptValue.split(','); Yasuhiro Nagumo, manager from the firms corporate communications department said: (We want) to help consumers deepen their understanding and interest in the importance of reducing waste loss.. Format is MM/DD/YY. It's a sticker on the top of each six-pack, format is MMDDYY. Julian date code which is written in black on the neck of the bottle. Format is MM/DD/YY. From the brewer: We code our bottles with the drink-by date, which can be found on the small white box on the side of label. Join 8,027 readers in helping fund MetaFilter. There might still be some with the date on the labels. Although the beer within hasnt gone bad, its no longer deemed brewery fresh, and most businesses wont sell it. The date is stamped on the case only. It's stamped on the bottom of the cans and is also on the 4-pack tray. Format is MM/DD/YYYY. Example: 267 8 would be the 267th day of 2008. Icicle Brewing:Uses abottlingdate on the cases only. They will havebatch numbersthat you can look up on their website to get PDFs of brew logs, cellar logs and packaging logs. O'so:Uses abottleddate. Lost in translation? From the brewer:Every bottle has a label notch on the left hand side showing month and year of bottling. I guess Bud's really onto something with those stupid metallic bottles. For all their bottles, it's notched on the side the month it was packaged and the numbers on either side show the yearodd numbers equal odd year like 2009 even numbers equal even years like 2008. Format is YYDDD. 2nd Shift:Uses abottled ondate. It is day of the year 1-365, year, and batch. Marble (MA):Uses abottlingdate. Most brewers don't really want consumers to know when their beer was made. Epic Ales:Uses abatchnumber. St. George:Uses abottlingdate on the cases only. It's printed on the label directly above the UPC code. Laurelwood:Uses abottlingdate on the cases andborn ondate for bottles. It seems this function is disabled on their site.Justice:They are in the middle of a label change. Format is MM/DD/YYYY. Format is MM/DD/YY.Sam Adams:See Boston Beer Co. It's in a MM/DD/YY format on all bottles between the neck and the shoulder of the bottle. The second row is the best by date. From the brewer: We stamp the bottle (on the barcode) with our bottle date. From the brewer: We intend to print the date on which the beer was bottled directly onto the neck of the bottle. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Anchor:Uses abottlingdate. Badger Hill:Uses abottlingdate. "We don't go out of our way to tell everyone how old it is.". Example: 06/04/13. This code is 120 days from the date that it was bottled. Red Brick:Uses abottled ondate. bottles, it's hand stamped on the label. Sometimes it is also on the packaging, but not always. Beer may be refrigerated for up to two years after it has passed its expiry date. From the brewer: On the bottom of each 6 pack there is an expiration date. Soon we will print them on the bottle. Also, certain beer seem to have a Julianbottlingcode. We use Julian dates. From that date, we guarantee the quality for three months. In the case of Sapporo, the first letter represents the month of manufacture: "A" for January, "B" for February and so on, through "M" for December. Most of our seasonals do not have this due to their limited availability. The first three numbers are the day of the year the beer was bottled. From the brewer: Our 12 packs are stamped on the bottom when they were canned. There is no expiration date but our beers are not pasteurized and have a shelf life of about six months, longer if refrigerated. Format is a bit odd. Each brewery specifies when its beers should be pulled from the shelves. Pig's Eye:Uses aproductiondate. For the year-round & seasonal brews, the month (JFMAMJJASOND) and week (12345) are notched on the side of the label. The suspect suds reared their not-so-foamy heads at a wide variety of stores. bottles have it. Also, certain beer seem to have a Julian. Cases are stamped and kegs also on the collar.Portsmouth:Uses abest beforedate. Some makers, like Asahi, say their beer tastes just fine for up to a year. Augustiner - LDDD##YY## (L153072033 = L means nothing, 153rd day of 2020) Ayinger - LYDDD (L8108 = L means nothing, 108th day of 2018) Frh - DDDYY. The first three numbers are the day of the year which would be 180 days after packaging, and the last two numbers indicate the year. From the brewer: It is date stamped for 90 days after bottling on both cases and bottles. date. The packaging date is on the bottom of each can and on the side of each six pack. Format is MMM/DD/YY. Highland:Uses abottled ondate. Southern Oregon:Uses abottlingdate. From the brewer: We date our beer for ten days after bottling. For the year-round & seasonal brews, the month (JFMAMJJASOND) and week (12345) are notched on the side of the label. Beer an alcoholic beverage brewed with hops, malt and barley; once referred to by Keats as sweet liquid bread has a half life of about three months. In the case of Sapporo, the first letter represents the month of manufacture: "A" for January, "B" for February and so on, through "M" for December. In fact, beer will last anywhere from 6 to 9 months after the expiry date shared on its label. Each one is hand applied so sometimes the location varies. There are now more bottles of beer on the store wall than ever more than 2,000 domestic brands alone making it harder for stores and consumers to steer clear of the stale stuff. They started rolling it out on their new bottles. Shmaltz:Uses abottlingdate. Their other beers are made to cellar and have the year they were blended on the bottle. date. It's on the cases and should be on the bottles and cans. We are working on rebuilding the date coder that attaches to our labeller. The next two digits, "12," refer to the day of the month, and the two numbers after that, "05," are the last two digits of the year. We are phasing into Julian with yyddd. Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues. I sort of goofed up the link. It is positioned next to the UPC bar code.The date is 150 days from bottling. Example: 0839 would mean it was bottled on the 83rd day of 2009 (Mar. The second row is the best by date. There are two lines in total. Format is DD/MM/YY. Each case is stamped with a "beers are good for at least one year from date stamped" stamp on each case. Format should be DD/MMM/YYYY. The first two numbers indicate the month and the last two numbers indicate the year. Stamped on six-packs and case boxes.Sound Brewery:Date stamps its cases only. Format is MM/DD/YY. Ballast Point:As of April 2013, uses abottlingdate. For instance, "101320" represents an expiry date of October 13, 2020. Twisted Pine:Uses abottlingdate. For example, if the code on a bottle or can of a Coors product reads "NOV14 111B" or "NOV1411132B", then November 14 is the day the product should be removed from a retailer's shelves. Alesmith:Uses abottlingdate on the cases and bottles. Format ismonth spelled out, day, year. It's stamped only on the outside of the cases boxes. Ex: 071 13 would be the 71st day of 2013. Also has abottlingdate. Shelf life of some beers: Hop Devil 5 months Prima Pils 5 months, Victory Lager 5 months, Hop Wallop 1 year (this beer is bottle conditioned), Headwaters Pale Ale 5 months, Summer Love 5 months, Golden Monkey 3 years, Storm King 5 years, Old Horizontal 5 years. It's on the neck of the bottle in black ink. The date is the month only. Rush River:Uses abottlingdate. KettleHouse:Uses acanned ondate on their cans and cartons. Find your product type in the table below and locate the label that looks similar to the example image provided. Only the year is written on the label. We dont go out of our way to tell everyone how old it is.. Kuhnhenn:Uses abottlingdate. Liberty Street (MI):Uses amanufacturingdate on their bottles. Belfast Bay:Uses abest beforedate. Ignore the L; just the first four numerals matter. Other than that we have a # generally over the UPC like 9P54. Sprecher: Uses a bottling date. It's on the bottom of the six-pack. 603 Brewing:Uses abottled ondate which is handwritten on the bottle. Because temperature and motion can also affect the rate of oxidation, there's no simple answer to how long it takes a beer to go stale. bottles now have the date also and soon, the 22oz. It`s on the label next to the UPC code. YY: Year, DDD: Juliandate. It is typically on the left side of the label. The code is standard Julian dating. Which would be the 54th batch of Pale Ale of 09. Fire Island:Uses aborn ondate. Iron Springs:Uses abottlingdate on the bottle itself. Karl Strauss:Uses abottlingdate. You can email Sean (the brewer) with the # to find out when it was made. Night Shift:Uses abottlingdate on all their beers. Sockeye:Uses acanningdate. Starr Hill:Uses apackaged ondate. Only the year is written on the label. It's on the neck of the bottle in black ink. The fact is simple: a chemical reaction happens when UV light reacts with bitter hop chemicals in a brew, resulting in a musky fragrance. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The suit was settled out of court last year. First 3 digits are the day of the year, next 2 is the year and the last 3 are the batch number. Clearly marking the date of manufacture on bottles is so unusual, in fact, that Anheuser-Busch turned date-labeling into a massive marketing campaign. Sapporo is the oldest beer brand in Japan founded in 1876 and top selling Asian beer in the US. Last week my wife had a few pale ales that were sitting in storage since 2003 and she said they were awesome. Arbor:Uses abottlingdate. It's on the bottom of each can and also on the cardboard flats the beers come to the store in. No wonder it wasn't the best tasting Bass Ale. The 6 packs come on a flat which is also stamped with the production date. From the brewer: We don't have dates on the 12 oz. To identify when bottles and cans need to be yanked from the shelves, many brewers imprint them with cryptic letters and numbers that distributors can translate. It's a hand sticker on the bottom of the bottle, format MM/YYYY.3 Dachshunds:Uses abottlingdate. Oskar Blues:Uses acanneddate. Beverages From the brewer: Laser printed born on date on each bottle.Three Creeks:Uses abottlingdate.Three Floyds:Uses abottlingdate printed on the bottle. 0689 1219 means beer was packaged on the 68th day of 2009 at 12:19. date on cases only. Ex. It is a Julian date that will read, for example, 9121. that is the 121st day of 2009 or May 1. From the brewer: All of our beer has a date etched into the neck of the bottle. From the brewer: We date our cases but not the bottles. You could just buy beer that is open dated, instead of the brands listed above. As such, you must read the code as the month, day, and last two digits of the year in a successive manner. 24, 2010.Rubicon:Used abottlingdate on their old labels. Foolproof:Uses apackagingdate on each six-pack and keg. Should be on the base of the neck of the bottle as well as on the case box in the same format. It's just on the packaging boxes. It's on the side in the month/ year format. Red Oak (UT):Uses abest beforedate. Ale Asylum:Uses abest bydate. Format is month/day/year. Most beers have a 6 month shelf life except the Wassail which has 1 year. Evolution Craft Brewing:Uses abottleddate. So if a label has three notches in the bottom left hand corner then it is the third bottling in Sept. for that style of beer. date. Jack's Abby:Uses abottlingdate on all their bottles. They also use abest beforedate on their cases which is a year out from the bottling date. From the brewer: On the 12 pack I have a date it was packed and a best by date. High Water:Uses abottlingdate. Excerpted from evansale.com/skunked_beer.html. Each brewery specifies when its beers should be pulled from the shelves. Rockmill:Has abatch numberon the bottom of the bottle that tells them internally what date it was bottled. It's on the cases only. It's on the bottom of the can. The day of the month is expressed numerically. Then across the top of the label you have to pretend it has the 30 days in the month up there. Lucid:Uses abottlingdate. An example of a date code would be January 20, 2012 = 2JT." See? Wormtown:Uses abottlingdate. Their bottled beers are mostly strong so they can age for a couple of years. Five numbers should appear on the top line. Eagle Rock:Uses abottlingdate on the cases and very soon the bottles.East End:From the brewer: 100% of our bottled beers are getting either abrewed onorpackaged ondate, with the exception of our Gratitude Barleywine which is color coded by year and all our kegs get tagged with a packaging date on the keg cap. Palo Alto:Uses abottlingdate on all their bottles. Undecipherable without going. DDDY, where DDD = Julian Production Date ; Y=last digit of year.Southern Prohibition:Uses anEnjoy Bydate. Omission:Uses abottlingdate. bottles (via Matt in Utica, NY) are dated - "Best Before (Month) (Year)" and then what looks to be the Julian date of bottling stamped on the shoulder of the bottle in yellow. Lost in translation? Rocky Coulee:Uses abornondate. It's inked in black on the neck of their bottles. (As if the system weren't complicated enough, this one, like many of these codes, has an extra twist: The month code skips over the letter "I" and uses "J" for September.) The date is on the side of the labels.Pedernales:Uses apackagingdate. For example, 0639 is the 63rd day of 1999. Their bottled beers are mostly strong so they can age for a couple of years. Has a drink by month of date. The 6 packs come on a flat which is also stamped with the production date. M= December (A=January, B=Feb, etc. A loaf of bread has it. From the brewer:There is a bottling code stamped on the neck but the year is on the label and it is a beer that inproves with age up to 3 years. For their kegs, uses aborn ondate with 90 days after that. In 1997, the family of baseball great Roger Maris found itself embroiled in a dispute over these strict requirements. Caldera:Uses apackaged ondate. Bottles are usually on the necks, but sometimes the date is on the label. Left Hand:Use abottled ondate. date. Clearly written on the back label, ex: 072912. DDDY, where DDD = Julian Production Date ; Y=last digit of year.Ghost River:Uses abottlingdate on their bottles and cases. They only do small batches of barrel-aged brews in bottles. For example, if the first 4 numbers on the bottom of the can are 1481, this means the beer was born on the 148th day of 2011. date. On the outside of the cases only. Underneath that, the number is stamped, example SEVEN. High Point:Uses abest beforedate. Kona Brewing:Uses apackagingdate. Format is MM/DD/YYYY. It's a 4-digit Julian code. Only on the cans. It'sstamped on the bottle shoulder. There should be small notches in the paper below the corresponding month and week when the beer was bottled. RedHook:Clearly shows thebottlingdate. Back Forty:Uses abest beforedate. From the brewer:We mark the month and week bottled on the label, though I am thinking of switching to a 'best before' system. Printed around the neck or shoulder of the bottle. However, Heineken puts the one-digit year before the date. Also cases are stamped with the date before they are palletized. Jacob Leinenkugel:Uses apulldate. On the box case only. Alaskan:Uses abest beforecode. Stillwater Ales:Uses abottlingdate. Mammoth:Uses abottlingdate. 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