Has Bud got the fresh issue in the bag

Nigel Huddleston investigates how brewers get the perfect pint from the brewery to the discerning beer lover

No matter how carefully the brewer exercises his craft, you are not going to get a decent pint or bottle of beer unless it arrives in front of you in tip-top condition.

But how many beer drinkers know, or actually care, when the beer they’re drinking was brewed or packaged.

One of the most forward-thinking solutions to the problem has come from an unlikely source – Budweiser, not normally feted on the pages of specialist beer magazines.

Its concept of “born on” dates may smack of gimmickry, but it provides beer drinkers with an easily understandable indication of just how long the beer has been, in Bud’s case, in the bottle.

The born on date refers to the date the beer was bottled rather than any point in the actual brewing process and appears in addition to the shelf-life, or sell-by, date. The difference between the two dates is 110 days, how long Anheuser-Busch says its beer remains at the peak of its freshness.

The brewing process for Bud begins a month before the “born on” date. The first ever Bud born on date was September 2, 1996.

What’s curious is that no other brewer has followed suit in providing similar information.

Jim Gorczyca, director of marketing in the United Kingdom for Anheuser- Busch, is clearly unconcerned by rivals’ tardiness in following suit.

“Beer is like a food product, so the fresher the better,” he says. “While competitors only use the legallyrequired best before date on their packages that doesn’t give information about when the product wa.....

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By Nigel Huddleston

Section : Beer Issues

Page number : 48