I've seen it mentioned a bit that most modern craft beers are better drank fresh. Looking at cans and bottles it's rare that a brewer will include a canned/bottled on date. So I'm wondering if there is any way to tell how fresh a beer is based on it's best before date, for example would 12 months from canning be the standard for the best before date? Does it differ based on beer type(i.e. Stout, IPA, Lager etc)? Is the drop in quality even significant over the space of 12 months?
12 months is pretty standard -- chain stores will insist on it as a minimum. O'Hara's is the only outlier I can think of; they put 18 months on theirs.
