Freshness date

From ArticleWorld

A freshness date is used, by the United States beer industry, to indicate the date the beer was bottled, or the date before which it should be consumed. Other industries generally refer to this as the ‘’best before’’ date. Beer is not legally mandated to carry this date, but it is perishable. Beer can be affected by light, air and bacteria.

History

In 1985, Samuel Adams beer was one of the first to add a freshness date to its product line. Anheuser-Busch pushed the freshness date into the spotlight when it began heavily advertising their ‘’Born-On’’ dates, in 1996. Many other brewers followed suit, adding some sort of freshness date. There is still no legal mandate or standardization, so while one brand might have the date it was bottled, another brand may choose to use a best before date. Below is a list of some brands, and the dates they use. The variety of uses is readily apparent, and some are more easily interpreted than others.

Anchor Brewing – This company has a three digit code for the bottling date that is too complicated for a two line explanation.

Atlanta Brewing – They chose no date on the bottle, but do have "Enjoy By" dates on the sixpack and the case.

Bass – They use a seven digit code for expiration date. For example, "22L64sx". The first two digits are the day of the month, the letter is the month lettered A through M (I is skipped) and the 4th digit is the last number of the year. The last three digits are not used.

Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch) – They place the "Born on" date on the back of the label.

Coors – Coors uses a standard expiration date.

Harpoon – These bottles have a Bottled On date, inked onto the bottleneck.

Rogue – These bottles have no freshness date. Some of their high alcohol beers have had bottling years on them, but not consistently.