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"R_C":28230009 wrote: Seamus - Abbott's are still doing it. They're selling Deus, for example, at €27 with an [b:28230009]expiry date[/b:28230009] of 01/01/08 which I only realised after having bought it. Numerous bottles of Rochefort 8 and Aventinus were past their expiry dates when I was there two weeks ago also. [/quote:28230009]
Are you sure it's an expiry date? I would imagine it is a 'best before' date, as I believe is legally obliged for all foodstuffs - after all don't ballygowan proudly claim that their water has been filtering through the ground for thousands of years, and then when it arrives in a bottle it has a best before date!!! Personally I have no problem with drinking beer that is past it's best by date. In my experience these are ALWAYS pessimistic, except for the usual suspects which are pasteurised and filtered. Any brown-glass, bottle conditioned beer with live yeast has been fine often years after the BBD. It's not like it's a 'poison after' date. I have a bottle of Westy12 which I'm hoping to leave down for at least 5 years if not longer. The stronger the beer the longer it will keep and actually will often get better as it mellows out over time.
Now admittedly they should probably make it known that it's past the BBD, but maybe they genuinely didn't realise?

Fair point, and it is indeed a best before date. With Deus in particular though, I've found that the fresher the better, and their storage conditions in Abbots aren't exactly the most conducive either.

World Wide Wines in Waterford city are selling out of date Sierra Nevada pale ale and IPA for €1 per bottle. I bought some and there is absolutely nothing wrong with these beers.

They actually have some interesting beers there which I have not seen elsewhere, like Heidelberger beers. [url:tqk2udbn]http://www.heidelberger-brauerei.de[/url:tqk2udbn]

I tried a bottle of the Weizen and found it to be a nice, full flavoured, estery Weiss.
[img:tqk2udbn]http://www.heidelberger-brauerei.de/images/produkte/weizen.jpg[/img:tqk2udbn]

My local offlicence marks down all their beers that are reaching (or past) best before dates and promotes them to make sure they shift. I've picked up a few nice ones along the way.

That's definitely the smart way to do it, though I'd say not many would be willing to take that hit.

Well SNPA isn't exactly a beer you would lay down, so I guess they have to cut their losses on the smaller beers before they go so far out of date that they can't give them away.