Beer Freshness Dating List

Here you’ll find the list of breweries, their dating methods, and what, if any, cipher there is for the cryptic string of numbers or punched code on the label. Keep checking back as this list will be updated often as I come across strange new techniques breweries use. And if you know of one that’s not listed here, please email it to me! You can find my email under the Contact Us drop-down menu. (Additionally, to get my take on why this is important, read this article.)

Anchor Brewing Co., San Francisco, CA

• 3-character punched code on back label.
  • The first character represents the last digit of the year, second character is always alpha and represents the month by using the first letter of the month unless that letter has already been used: January: J, February: F, March: M, April: A, May: Y, June: U, July: L, August: G, September: S, October: O, November: N, December: D. The third character in the code is either alpha or numeric and tells the day of the month. The first 26 days are represented by the alphabet with the remaining days listed as: 27th through 29th = 7 through 9, 30th = 3, 31st = 1. An example of a date code would be: January 20, 2012 = 2JT

Atwater Block Brewery, Detroit, MI

• Packaged-on date in the form of Month and year notched on front label.

Bell’s Brewery, Inc. Comstock, MI

• Batch number and packaging date printed on back label in black.
  • 10716 <PKGD 10/06/11 A (beer has 6 mo. shelf-life)

Boston Beer Co. (Samuel Adams), Boston, MA

• “For brewery-fresh taste, enjoy before month notched” on side of label.
  • 6 months listed, APR notched

Central Waters Brewing Co., Amherst, WI

• Vintage year printed on neck label for four pack beers.
• “Bottled On” with month notched on side of label
  • 2011 / “Bottled On” December notched on label.

Clown Shoes, Ipswich, MA

• Bottle during printed on label above UPC.
  • Bottled 11/2011

Duvel Moortgat, Puurs, Belgium

• Best Before: printed on back label.
  • 05 2014 printed in white on black.

Founders Brewing Co., Grand Rapids, MI

• Black or yellow “Bottled” date on neck below neck label, above shoulder.
  • “Bottled 11/08/11″ (in yellow)
  • *to my knowledge, older vintages were in black ink. It’s been switched.

Green Bay Brewing Co. (Hinterland), Green Bay, WI

• No known bottled date.

Great Lakes Brewing Co., Cleveland, OH

• Clear date printed on front label.
  • “For freshest taste, please enjoy by: 05/05/12″

Lakefront Brewery, Milwaukee, WI

• “Bottled During:” notched with month and week beer was bottled on side of label.
  • Oct, Wk4

New Glarus Brewing Co., New Glarus, WI

• 4 digit coded printed in red on neck / shoulder area of bottle.
  • 0821 – Julian date; First three digits indicate the day of the year, the last digit indicating the last number of the year it was produced.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA

• 9 digit “bottled on” code printed in white on label just above bar code. The first four numbers are the Julian Date.
  • 135012000, 1 (first number) = last digit of year, 350 (next 3 numbers) = day of year. In this case, Dec. 15, 2011. Next digit represents bottling line and last four represent time; bottling line 1, 20:00 (8:00 PM)

Sprecher Brewing Co., Glendale, WI

• 4 digit code printed in yellow on neck / shoulder area of bottle.
  • 0821 – Julian date; First three digits indicate the day of the year, the last digit indicating the last number of the year it was produced.

Rochefort Brewery, Rochefort, Belgium

• 6 digit code printed in black on front of label. Code is best by date in DD MM YY format. Best By dates are 5 years after bottling.
  • 010616, (Best By June 01, 2016.)

Victory Brewing Co., Downington, PA

• Clearly printed date on front label.
  • “Enjoy by: MAR 14 2012″