I certainly wouldn't turn down a beer that's a couple years past the "best by" date. Beer that's two years past peak, is still usually pretty darn good.

At San Francisco's Camp New Harmony (the week after Christmas every year), the most popular event is the John Barleycorn Workshop, where we play beer snobs for an afternoon and sample the annual Christmas Ales from legendary Anchor Brewing Company. Camp Chairman Charlie Fenton hoards the stuff, and opens three bottles for every year he still has in stock - usually 15 years or so. Everyone has a plastic cup for tasting. We pass each year's bottles around in succession, taking time between years to study the labels and share beer snob comments on the year's batch.

Beer that's over ten years old starts tasting a little "elderly," but it's still drinkable. When we've finished all the Anchor beer rationed for us for the session, we have a free-for-all beer potluck, tasting varieties that people have brought to share. At the end of the hour, we all proclaim in unison:

It's all good shit!

After that, we have pub song and sea song workshops, and the beer sampling continues. The happy revelers then head off for dinner.

-Joe-