We can’t emphasize it enough: Beer tastes best fresh! The fact is that beer is a perishable product with a shelf life much closer to milk or eggs than wine or spirits. Like other perishable beverages, beer degrades over time and when exposed to light, heat or oxygen. To enjoy at its best, we recommend always storing beer cold and drinking it within the code dates published by the brewer. While beer past its “best by” date will not spoil and is perfectly safe to consume, the vibrant aroma and taste that define a fresh beer have likely dulled or disappeared. Sadly, what should have been a memorable beer drinking experience has turned into a mediocre one.
At East Rock, we tailor our operations to ensure our consumers are enjoying the freshest beer possible. For instance, our batch size is relatively small so we are regularly brewing new batches resulting in a pipeline of fresh beer for distribution. In addition, we work closely with our retail partners to ensure inventory is stored cold and limited to what an account can reasonably sell. We also currently limit our distribution footprint to our home state of Connecticut, where we can deliver beer from the brewery to our retail accounts within days, not weeks. Collectively, these efforts help us put fresh beer onto package store shelves and on tap at your local restaurant or bar.
At East Rock, we code all our beer with clear, legible, and consumer friendly code dates. On your next trip to the package store, we encourage you to double check our code dates to ensure our beer is fresh prior to purchasing. To do this, follow the arrow on our neck label to the area on our bottle where we print our “bottled on” and “enjoy by” dates. The date may not be directly below the arrow, but it will always be printed below the neck label on the shoulder of the bottle.
If you encounter our beer past the 90-day window or an account that is not displaying our keg date stickers, please drop us a line at getfresh@eastrockbeer.com.