Stupid Beer Selling Gimmicks!!!

[FishermanTim]

I always thought, much with fine wines and spirits, that the older they are, the better they will taste. SO with this "born on dating" gimmick, you're telling me that 1.) beer does not get better with age, or 2.) ONLY BUDWEISER turns to crap if not drunk within a specific time frame? Does this prove (to me, that is) that Bud is pure crap? Maybe so. I'd rather drink toilet water than ANY Bud beer.
I prefer Rolling Rock, Coors, Sam Adams IPA, Smithwicks, or Guiness.
All the sales gimmicks are geared towards one goal: get people to drink more beer as quickly as possible. Why don't they work on improving the quality of the ACTUAL BEER?

[spence]

Most beer doesn't get better with age, although there are some exceptions with the bigger higher alcohol beers. Bottled beer will react slowly with light and CO2 can leak out over time. So while the beer might not "expire" on a certain date, after a period of time, perhaps 6-12 months the quality will likely diminish.

With wine it's a bit different. Many wines are stored by the producer and sold around the time they're best for drinking. Some special (and often bigger and expensive) wines will get better as they get older, but only to a point. Each wine will have it's own zone where the drinking will be ideal. Opening up a very old bottle can be quite an experiment unless it's a known vintage. The chance for spoilage also goes up over time.

-spence