So, what's up with the "freshness date"?

It seems that we should keep our beer bottled longer to help it finish... so why is it that the commercial beers have a "freshness date". If the seal hasn't been broken, why wouldn't it be "fresh"?

Joe

I think its really because they're not kept in a nice warm cellar and some don't have nice brown bottles to keep out sunlight etc, so if they're fresher they taste better. Also from what I know, aging beer a really long time is really only good for some types. I'm not an expert, but usually the big beers etc. In actuality after you've gotten past the "green beer" phase, beer is best consumed as soon as possible after that point. If not, it can get too much light exposure, etc and get skunked.

I have also heard that because the beer has had all the yeast filtered out, it does not have the ability to improve with age. Basically the flavor profile is locked in at the time of filtering on and can only get worse after that, if that makes sense. I have heard and read the difference filtering makes a million times and I still can't remember how it works....

Well commercial beers are brewed almost without any hops or grains so if they sit too long any flavor they might have had would be long gone..

Also they are filtered to within an inch of their lives.. Craft brewers actually use hops for what they were intended, preservative and bitterness.. Big brews are meant to be drunk within a month so any aging would be bad..

There was a microbrewery round here that during the busy summer months woud cut back alittle on the hop bill knowing their kegs wouldn't have time to mellow like they could in the winter..

Because people dumb enough to drink BMC, are dumb enough to toss out beer past it's freshness date.

I remember when the big brewers bragged about how long their beer was aged.

jblaven said:

It seems that we should keep our beer bottled longer to help it finish... so why is it that the commercial beers have a "freshness date". If the seal hasn't been broken, why wouldn't it be "fresh"?

Joe

Click to expand...

It all depends on the character of the beer. Some beer you want to be as fresh as possible. The balance of hops and malt or whatever they are trying to emphasize are going to change. Now, I'm not going to talk about a beer like Bud, but let's take one with a date that makes sense.

Pliny the Elder is best fresh. The newer the beer, the better the flavor profile will be. The hops will lose character with time, so this beer makes total sense to date accordingly.

Now, I know we're mostly talking about ****ty BMC beer, but they also have taste thresholds that they like to maintain. We may not appreciate or understand it, but they have impeccable quality control, and that is all part of it. Of course, it is more about marketing than anything, but there is fact behind it, even if it doesn't make much sense for a beer that isn't very good to begin with.