Fresher is Better!

Beer is a perishable product best enjoyed as fresh as possible — sort of like milk. This is mainly due to one of beer's main ingredients: hops. While some beers use tetra-hops, a hop extract that resists light’s aging effects, many brews begin to degrade as soon as they enter a glass bottle or aluminum can. Light, temperature, and oxygen cause the fragile oils from hops to break down, dulling their natural flavors and releasing byproducts that make beer taste skunky and stale.

In a perfect world, everyone could get their beer fresh from the brewery's tap. Unfortunately, that’s not usually the case. Most people buy their beer from a liquor or grocery store where freshness can vary widely. That’s why some breweries have begun printing “bottled on” dates on their labels, letting customers know exactly how old their beer is.

Stone Brewing even sells a beer that celebrates optimum freshness — the “Enjoy By IPA” — with an expiration date printed boldly on the front. However, not every brewery makes it so easy. Some use internal coding systems that can be tough to decipher. While it doesn’t apply to all breweries, a common method uses the first 12 letters of the alphabet (A–L) to represent the month, followed by four digits for the day and year, and the last two letters for the state of production.

To help decode these brewery codes, visit www.beerdates.com, which has an extensive list of how different breweries mark their bottles and cans.

Many craft beers are meant to be enjoyed sooner rather than later, so don’t wait — Carpe DiBeer!