# How old is your beer? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 27, 2018, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876 "2018-05-27T00:01:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/41 "2018-05-28T02:26:10Z")
Guys, the OP is asking for the age of the _beer_ not the age of the brewery. These are two very different things. Guiness’s brewery, for example, has been in business continuously since 1759, but the product served on tap in Irish pubs today was launched in 1960. Some of the currently-marketed bottled products are older, but none of them go back to anything like 1759. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/42 "2018-05-28T02:30:22Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > Guys, the OP is asking for the age of the _beer_ not the age of the brewery. These are two very different things. > … > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Not literally the beer in your hand, but its maker and traditions?.. > So, how old does your beer company claim to be? I’ll admit I’ve been drinking, but are we reading the same OP? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/43 "2018-05-28T02:33:54Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > Guys, the OP is asking for the age of the _beer_ not the age of the brewery. These are two very different things. > > Guiness’s brewery, for example, has been in business continuously since 1759, but the product served on tap in Irish pubs today was launched in 1960. > > Some of the currently-marketed bottled products are older, but none of them go back to anything like 1759. Reread the Op. Not what he asked. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/44 "2018-05-28T03:08:09Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Reread the Op. Not what he asked. Good point. :smack: OP is ambiguous - not the beer in your hand “but its maker and traditions”. Is that the traditions of the beer, in which case I think my points stands, or the traditions of the maker? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/45 "2018-05-28T03:08:43Z")
Can’t really say, as I haven’t had a beer since…ah…a long time ago. I think it was 33 Beer, the Beer that made Pleiku Famous. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/46 "2018-05-28T03:12:41Z")
I had a Rochefort beer yesterday. I don’t know if it was as old as the monastery, 1595. But it was pretty darn good. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/47 "2018-05-28T04:10:05Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > If so, they were violating the prohibition law of that province between 1921 and 1930. There was also a national prohibition in Canada for a couple years before that. If the company did survive those years, they must have produced non-alcoholic beverages. > > And of course, any US breweries have not have continuous operation further back than 1933, when the 18th Amendment was repealed. Yes, the answer is exactly that – breweries that weren’t driven out of business by Prohibition survived by making other products during that period, including non-alcoholic beverages, ice cream, cheese, and (in the case of Coors) ceramics. > **[How Breweries Like Coors, Yuengling And Anheuser-Busch Survived Prohibition](https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/2015/11/04/how-breweries-like-coors-yuengling-and-anheuser-busch-survived-prohibition/#99e013efabd1)** > > Only a handful of the 1,300 American breweries that were thriving before Prohibition survived the 13-year ban on alcoholic beverages. ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/48 "2018-05-28T06:25:28Z")
So I was going to relate the story of how last night our friend’s step-daughter gave him a can of Falstaff… and he was trying to decode the date because, well, he works with beer. And then he realized the can itself had a date on it in big black lettering (1984? 89? I dunno, it was across the way and it was the 80s). We all laughed. So, I guess I will say my husband, his BFF, our oldest son and the middle son all drink AB/Budweiser brews. I prefer whiskey. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/49 "2018-05-28T06:48:25Z")
Let’s see… Negev Amber Ale, Negev Breweries, 2008. One of the first Israeli microbreweries, believe it or not. The entire industry didn’t really exist here until about a decade ago. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/50 "2018-05-28T15:23:53Z")
Both of my go-to breweries got their start in 1989. Free State Brewing Company in Lawrence KS – the first legal brewery in Kansas in over 100 years! – and Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City. “Because without beer, things do not seem to go as well.” (Free State Brewing Co. motto.) ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/51 "2018-05-28T15:40:20Z")
Hoegaarden. 1445, but I suspect the recipe’s changed a bit since then. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/52 "2018-05-28T15:46:14Z")
1829 ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/53 "2018-05-28T15:51:32Z")
Reminds me of the time I put a 6 pack of Hoegaarten down on the liquor store check out counter, and the lady behind the counter said “is this beer new? I’ve never seen it before,” and I, totally earnestly, start searching the packaging for the “established” date. Seeing “anno 1445” on the handle, I reply, nope, almost 600 years old. 😛 My friend with me at the checkout snaps back, “you dick.” ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/54 "2018-05-28T19:36:04Z")
Hard to say. It’s a Blue Moon; according to the bottle it’s produced by the Blue Moon Brewing Company, a fictitious company that Coors invented when they launched the beer in 1995. So maybe 1995. But Coors started in 1873, so maybe I’ll go with that date. Except that it’s actually MillerCoors now, so do I get to use the 1855 founding date for Miller? Oh, wait, I see that the website says “MillerCoors, a MolsonCoors company,” so let’s see when Molson was founded … oh, to hell with it. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/55 "2018-05-28T19:50:28Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > Hard to say. It’s a Blue Moon; according to the bottle it’s produced by the Blue Moon Brewing Company, a fictitious company that Coors invented when they launched the beer in 1995. So maybe 1995. But Coors started in 1873, so maybe I’ll go with that date. Except that it’s actually MillerCoors now, so do I get to use the 1855 founding date for Miller? Oh, wait, I see that the website says “MillerCoors, a MolsonCoors company,” so let’s see when Molson was founded … oh, to hell with it. Since Coors and Miller aren’t beer, they don’t count in the first place. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/56 "2018-05-28T19:57:30Z")
Well said. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/57 "2018-05-29T00:33:14Z")
My daily brew used to be from F. X. Matt / Saranac (1888). Lately that’s gotten hard to find around here, so more often than not it’s Boston Brewing Company / Sam Adams (1985). ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/58 "2018-05-29T00:38:21Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > My daily brew used to be from F. X. Matt / Saranac (1888). Lately that’s gotten hard to find around here, so more often than not it’s Boston Brewing Company / Sam Adams (1985). What happened to Saranac? They use to be regional at least, their market keeps shrinking it appears. I enjoyed their Pale Ale quite a bit and their lager was good. Now all I ever see is the variety pack in my local stores. ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/59 "2018-05-29T02:00:52Z")
I am drinking a Lauganitas “Waldos Special Ale”… The Waldos predate the brewery by at least 25 years…so i’m gonna say my beer is 4:20 old. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876/60 "2018-05-29T03:32:33Z")
1829 as well. I’ve visited a lot of local breweries recently, and I very much like trying 4 ounces of this or that. In the end, however, I like plain old Yuengling the best. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-beer/814876.md?page=4)