Avoid a long perch on the bog

[mr vince]

Went to Cape Wine shop beside Supreem supermarket in Catalkoy, looking for English Beer. Yes I have a couple of cases of some Pale Ale. Just the job for a birthday present. As the bottles were being selected the proprietor said that the use by date was slightly past. July 2011 in fact...13 months past use by. Dont worry he said it will probably taste OK. You have been warned
mr vince

[BLUE BUTTERFLY]

Not a criticism, because it is my own fault, just a comment, I can't get my usual boxed wine, I like a medium sweet, which is difficult to find.

You would think at my age I would knew better, but I thought I would go to a specialist, went to the same shop as you mentioned and was assured that the sweet wine that was recommended was palatable.

SO, as it had been substantially reduced and trusting the specialist, off I went with 2 bottles of the stuff.

GROSS, I defy anyone, even with the sweetest tooth to drink more than a teaspoon of the stuff.

Anyone know where I can get a boxed, medium sweet wine?

REWARD for information, 1 bottle of very sweet wine

[BLUE BUTTERFLY]

Sorry, should have said, medium sweet, RED

[PoshinDevon]

A couple of things to possibly consider.....

Re the beer.....glad to hear the proprieter mentioned that they were out of date, albeit by a year (!)......presume you checked the dates and decided not to purchase? Its consumers choice whether to buy or not to buy - if I was after some cheap beer I may have asked just to try a bottle if it were possible, explain that if it was still OK would be back to buy some more. Go home, test the affect and decide.

The red wine....I like a bargain....probably would have been tempted and bought a bottle, gave it a try and then if really bad returned to shop with bottle and explained - hopefully they would understand and swap. Its all about the palate, some may like and some may not. Agree some wines really are not good. Did you go back and explain?

Mind you if they were both cheap as chips I would probably put it down to experience and note to self....dont buy out of date beer or cheap wine!

[Keithcaley]

...note to self....

I'm glad to see that it's not just me then...

[andrew4232]

am sure if we look at most dates here in cyprus there nearly all at or past

[Marions]

Don't go by sell by dates, or I would be deemed to be past it, and I haven't even reached it.
As far as goods are concerned, the sell by date is just a guide line to me, and cyprus is NOT Britain. I make a choice, and if I don't like I MIGHT complain, but then if it is a bargain, as someone says ' if it is free you pay twice!'.

Personally I hate sell by dates because I know that certain merchandise lasts for ever and others mature, so dates, like my birthday, are just unimportant numbers.

[music man]

In the early days, that means 2003, couldn't find guiness in the North. My neighbour had 6 cans from the south. 4 years old and tasted fine, no perching required either.As somebody pointed out me, bottled and canned beers have a natural preservative. Alcohol!

[carolhm]

what a horrible heading , you could of said loo , much better

[Soner]

We've all gone soft with the use of "use by dates". Never had them, in my childhood, on Eggs, Butter, Milk etc.etc.etc... yet am alive and kicking today. I usually use my nose if something is goes out of date - it's a great tool.

[deputydawg]

Blue Butterfly. Good to see that you can keep your sense of humour and flutter by even when denied your optimum fuel. The Wildebeest (bless her) sometimes suffers from reflux but when wine tastes too acidic will often add a little drop of sweet lemonade to taste. (If she finds out I buy her cheap wine by Sarsons I am dead !).

Hope your supply of what you enjoy is soon restored. In the meantime my suggestion, which of course will take some beating, is that in the interim you drink Newcastle Brown Ale with a spoonful of sugar per pint resulting in "is it a bird, is it a plane ? no, it is Supersonic Butterfly"

[Keithcaley]

To a large extent, I go along with what Marion says - most bottled & all tinned products are sterile when sold, and do not spoil.

With these products, the manufacturers are either just 'covering their arses' (am I allowed to say that? ) or put them on as an aid to 'Stock Rotation' for the benefit of the retailer.

Bottled Beers can tend to throw sediment after a few months (not half as much as my old home-brew used to, though!) with Gold Fasl being the chief contender in that department.

I did have a bottle of cheapish Brandy that had been in fairly bright surroundings for a few weeks, and it had lost most of its colour - it looked like Vodka, tasted OK tho'

I thought that the height of absurdity was putting 'sell by' dates on bottled water - after all, every drop of water on the planet has been around since not long after the entire ball of wax coalesced out of interstellar 'what-not' - millions and millions of years at any rate, and to be afraid that it was shortly going to become undrinkable just because someone had stuck it in a plastic bottle seemed quite laughable...

Anyway, if DD puts the Wildebeest on a diet of Newcastle Brown and sugar, we'll all have something else to worry about! - Sell by dates will be the least of it...

[BLUE BUTTERFLY]

Well deputydawg thank you for that helpful hint re the lemonade.

As regards the 'NUKE BROWN', or 'JOURNEY INTO SPACE', being a born and bred Geordie, I am well aware of the hazards of the loopy juice, having been 'rescued' on my way home, 3 or 4 times, by the friendly Whitley Bay constabulary, and given a ride home in the good old Black Maria, a twofold saving, no taxi fare and walking on my knees was costing a fortune in tights.

CHEERS

[zarafet]

Keith, it's not the water that's the problem with sell by date, it's the plastic bottle, it slowly releases toxic nasties into the water, the longer it is stored and if it gets hot as well it's worse.

[Keithcaley]

zarafet,

Thanks for the info - isn't it ironic that the very act of packaging the stuff for sale shortens its life?