New Belgium Beer Shelf Life

Get Fresh with Your Beer - Understanding Shelf Life


Quality and shelf life are very important to us here at New Belgium.
Fun fact: we were actually one of the first breweries to print best-by dates on our beer!
We have unique best-by dates chosen for each brand based on several factors, including raw materials, alcohol content, consumer studies, and our expert taste panel data. 

If you are unsure where to find the best-by dates, we have more information in our Help Center about where to locate package codes. 

Why best-by dates and not born-on/packaged on dates?

We choose to print best-by dates for transparency and ease for our customers. We want you to be confident you are getting fresh product so you can focus on enjoying the beer instead of deciphering confusing codes.

We chose best-by dates because a born-on date only tells you when a beer was packaged, not when it is at its best. Every beer ages differently based on its ingredients, alcohol content, and brewing process. Without that information, it is difficult to know how long a beer will maintain the flavor profile we intended.
There is an exception though, because we will print “born on” dates with some sour beers from our Foeder Forest. We’ve noticed those get... well, more unique with age and our fans have fun seeing how those beers age with the confidence that that’s what we’ve intended!
Our commitment to freshness goes beyond the date printed on the package. Our field quality team works closely with distributors and retailers to help ensure our beer is stored properly, kept cold after a short display period, and removed from shelves once it reaches its best-by date.

But I really like knowing when my beer was born... 

While we stand behind the best-by dates and are confident your beer will have the intended flavors within that timeframe, we get it- and we are here to help! 

Many of our beers typically fall into different buckets of 21, 26, or 52 weeks, whichever one ensures the freshest experience. To estimate your beer's "birthday", simply subtract the shelf life from the best-by date!

Here are the current shelf-life windows for many of our core brands:

21 weeks/4.75 months:
  1. Fat Tire Ale
  2. Voodoo Ranger IPA
  3. Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze IPA
  4. Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA
26 weeks/6 months:
  1. Voodoo Ranger Juice Force
  2. Voodoo Ranger Fruit Force
  3. Voodoo Ranger Tropic Force
  4. 1554 Black Lager
  5. Mountain Time Lager
  6. Old Aggie
  7. Voodoo Ranger 1985 Mango IPA
  8. Dominga Grapefruit Paloma
36 weeks/9 months:
  1. Trippel
  2. Honey Orange Tripel
52 weeks/12 months:
  1. Voodoo Ranger Hard Charged Teas
  2. Fruit Smash Hard Seltzer
  3. Voodoo Ranger Atomic Pumpkin
  4. Oakspire
We regularly review shelf-life recommendations and frequently introduce new beers and seasonal offerings. If you are not seeing a brand listed above, feel free to contact us! We will do our best to provide the information if it is available.