HOP-HEAD

Recipes 

Dumb question...

Is the born on date of a beer the day that the wort was first created, the day it left the primary for a better life in the secondary, or the day it saw the inside of a bottle?

I guess I'd assume the first, but the last might be also viable?

tranceamerica

Recipes 

Considering these "beers" are usually of the BMC crowd, I'd say "who cares?"

Really, these big breweries have tried to convince the drinking public that "young & fresh" beer tastes better - so they can sell beer that hasn't properly aged. Aging is time that their investment is sitting idle, so they want to minimize the aging time.

Homebrewers know that beer tastes better when it's aged...

But to answer your question - it's probably the date it went into the bottle. That would be the very last point they can stamp a date on it, and in their marketing scheme, younger is better...

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Zion Nanobrews

Primary: beer, mead, cider

Drinking: beer, mead, cider

Ryan

Recipes 

I recently started to put dates on my labels. I put the date that I brewed the beer, not bottled it. This way, when someone asks me when I brewed my beers that need a good amount of aging, I can just look at the label instead of referring to my software.

HOP-HEAD

Recipes 

Pretty much where I was going with the question.

Panzermann

Recipes 

+1


And they have also convinced the majority of Americans that Bud Light etc is actually "Beer".

Sad but True!

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folgen Sie die Reinheitsgebot oder die Deutschen reinheit gesetz?


***No longer have time to keep up with all my batches***

Ryan

Recipes 

Well hopefully I was able to help you out then

histo320

Recipes 

Born on Dates are the dates that they are bottled. I know it doesn't make any sense to me, I believe a beer is born the minute you steep!

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Red Light Brewery

Drinking: Magic Hat #9 (clone)

Primary: Air

Past Brews: Haw Creek IPA, None More Black Vanilla Stout, Cranbeery, Dark Thunder (Scot Stout), Gaelic Ale (clone), Nacirema APA, Bee Funky IPA, Cream Ale.

Nurmey

Recipes 

Born on date is only important when you have dead beer (BMC) which is ironic because it should be died on date instead.

Live beer (like we make) improves with time, dead beer decays rather quickly.

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Batch 1 Brewing
The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.

Homercidal

Recipes 

LOL! I think that the born on date is not a bad thing if you drink that beer. Firstly, it's most often used on the yellow fizzy stuff, which it necesarily goign to benefit from aging like bigger beers are.

The biggest benefit, though, is that the consumer is able to see when the beer was bottled, so he can avoid purchasing really old beer from the corner store. Plus, the stores can more easily rotate their stock to help keep really old beer from happening.

I've recently seen a commercial where Sam Adam's owner has gone to stores and checked the dates on the labels and actually bought back the old beer. I think I've seen where they use it in a dunk tank at their company picnic...

Personally, I'm a fan of born on dates, because it lets the consumer know when the beer was bottled, and they can then make an informed purchase.

Danek

Recipes 

I'd love to be at the marketing meeting where that idea gets pitched. "Budweiser - the beer that only died very, very recently".

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Bottle conditioning: Pliny the Elder clone; Tramp's Overcoat Barley Wine
Next up: Vanilla Porter