Best after date

dylbert

I was in Oz over the Christmas, drinking lots of nice beers. I was downing a few bottles of Coopers Pale and noticed the bottles have a best after date, which I thaught was a good idea but the bottles here have a best before date, strange.

BeerNut

Beers are legally obliged to display a best before date here. There are very very few beers which improve with age.

dylbert

BeerNut wrote: »

There are very very few beers which improve with age.

I was thinking the best after date was because it's bottle conditioned.

oblivious

dylbert wrote: »

I was thinking the best after date was because it's bottle conditioned.

Its dose take a few week to allow the conditioning and the C02 to equilibrate in the bottle and Old yeast wont cause any health issues, just maybe some gas;)

But over time the yeast can autolysis (cellular break down) and can come across as a beefy flavors in beer. This is not general good in light beer like coopers but there are some big 10%+ beer that are store for years that this flavors can become part of the beer.

BeerNut

oblivious wrote: »

Its dose take a few week to allow the conditioning and the C02 to equilibrate in the bottle

Yes, but the beer spends those week in the brewery, not on the shelves waiting for unwary punters. Every beer you can buy, like every wine, is ready for drinking immediately.

Hammiepeters

In Australia, there are a few ''live'' beers on the market. Little Creatures comes to mind and probably some coopers are ''live'' when released for sale.

BeerNut

Yes, but that doesn't mean they aren't ready to drink. They wouldn't take the risk of you opening a bottle and finding it was flat because it hadn't conditioned sufficiently.

oblivious

BeerNut wrote: »

Yes, but the beer spends those week in the brewery, not on the shelves waiting for unwary punters. Every beer you can buy, like every wine, is ready for drinking immediately.

True

Hammiepeters

BeerNut wrote: »

Yes, but that doesn't mean they aren't ready to drink. They wouldn't take the risk of you opening a bottle and finding it was flat because it hadn't conditioned sufficiently.

I was Queensland agent for Little Creatures and sadly, yes, on one occassion they did that with a full batch. Beer was awful and wouldn't listen to feedback. Normally it was a great beer.

rubadub

Maybe it is a marketing thing too, to show you it is fresh, like how bud have a "born on" date.

BeerNut

Hammiepeters wrote: »

I was Queensland agent for Little Creatures and sadly, yes, on one occassion they did that with a full batch.

Fair enough. Idiots. Sometimes craft breweries can be their own worst enemies.

dylbert

Hammiepeters wrote: »

In Australia, there are a few ''live'' beers on the market. Little Creatures comes to mind and probably some coopers are ''live'' when released for sale.

was in a Bar in Melbourne which had Little Creatures on tap, nice stuff.

Off topic, anyone know why theres no Bud in Oz?, not that I give a damn but my mate drinks it.

BeerNut

Outside the US and Ireland, there isn't much Bud anywhere. It has a tiny presence in the UK, where they've just closed the brewery that made it, but I don't think I've seen it anywhere else.

Australia has plenty of locally-owned crap lager brands -- it doesn't need to import them.

Hammiepeters

dylbert wrote: »

was in a Bar in Melbourne which had Little Creatures on tap, nice stuff.

Off topic, anyone know why theres no Bud in Oz?, not that I give a damn but my mate drinks it.

Dont know exact reason. Only companies who could brew it under licence would be CUB or Castlemaine and they would only interfere with their own market share by doing so. It is available in bottles in some states. But is really such a poor quality beer that in order to get a good market share quickly would need big marketing campaign. Last major import success there was Corona, because of the ''hip'' lime thing. And at least Corona is clear and refreshing. Peroni has made some inroads. Heineken also. But the bulk beer sales are VB, fosters, carlton, xxxx. Puzzles me how Irish people who drink a bit, still buy bud. I reckon it's piss.