Best Before Dates

In article , Ian writes

If it is a BCA it will continue to improve for some years afterwards; if it is not a BCA it will get worse.

Bottle conditioned beer like Fullers Vintage will effectively never go off. It's taste will change as it matures, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. EU rules require a BBD to be printed on the label. It's also a useful guide as to how long the beer will taste 'normal'.

Pasteurised beer deteriorates reasonably steadily after bottling and is likely to taste increasingly stale after the BBD, but it won't harm you if you drink it.

HTH, Paul

-- Paul Sherwin Consulting

A bottle kept in a dark cool cellar will keep better than one in a brightly lit place where the temperature varies widely. It also depends upon the ABV."Use by" dates are pure guesswork on the bottler's behalf!

Surely "use by" dates are just a requirement of government (EU?) regulations, and bear no relationship whatsoever to how long the beer might last - which in the case of BCAs (like fine wines) is far longer. Although clearly how long it will last will depend on how well you treat it!

Brian

Assuming the seals are intact. A friend was advised by a brewery to get a really old BCA re-sealed.

I'm still chuckling because my nephew's 18th birthday present was condemned out of hand by his mother because it was "out of date" - a bottle of Hobgoblin, no less! Steve and myself are going to try a bit of family subversion in order to remedy this slight.

Christine a écrit :

I know a pair of french brothers who got their resources together to put together a crate of beer to keep until their newborn nephew and niece will be old enough to drink them (ie. 16). Now these will be severely out of date by then !!! :o)))

I'm still drinking bottles of my own home brew that have been cellered for over 15 years. They are still (well no, not really still) great. They continue to sparkle, plenty of hop, plenty of malt.

This age thing is not a problem.

chuck