Newcastle Brown Ale production codes?

November 14, 2007 8:43 PM

Newcastle Brown Ale production codes? On the back label are the production codes. Can anyone decipher them? Im looking to see if it gives the production date or expiration date. The codes on the bottle are: 30 06 R L168 59 16
posted by freeflytim to food & drink (7 comments total)

arghh.. this is regarding Newcastle Brown Ale.
posted by freeflytim at 8:45 PM on November 14, 2007

arghh again (sorry)
"30 06 R" is on the top line and "L168 59 16" is on the bottom.
posted by freeflytim at 8:47 PM on November 14, 2007

I had to learn this stuff when I worked retail, but I never learned Newcastle specifically, because the store I worked at didn't sell it. Still, I see two possibilities, both for the "L168" section:

1) It's a day-of-the year (168 should be sometime in the summer). If that's it, it's probably a production date. Your beer would old by North American standards, but OK by most of the rest of the world's.

2) It's a month (January = A, February = B, etc.), day, last-digit-of-year. L168 would be November 16, 2008 (assuming they skip "I"as a month to avoid confusion with "1," which most breweries do) That would have to be an expiration date, since it's 2 days in the future.

Uh, you've 2 days to drink your beer, man. Bottoms up!
posted by faster than a speeding bulette at 9:03 PM on November 14, 2007

"30 06 R"

That sort of looks like--to me--born on the 30th day of 2006. All manufacturers (unfortunately) use a different sort of method for creation/expiration dates.

Cigarettes use the Day/Year method ie
"177 07 G" would mean rolled the 177th day of 2007.
posted by M Edward at 9:49 PM on November 14, 2007

It just so happens I polished off the last of my Newcastle several minutes before reading this question. Here are the codes from mine, purchased 2 days ago in Santa Cruz, CA:

31 08 R
L233 59 21

posted by contraption at 1:16 AM on November 15, 2007

How about contacting them?

Here's their contact information:
Gallowgate
Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1RA
Telephone: [phone]

from this page.
posted by plinth at 7:58 AM on November 15, 2007

This information might help. Many companies use Julian Dates or even their own system for handling code dates.
posted by catseatcheese at 11:26 AM on November 15, 2007