It's a Julian date code followed by the year. Format is MM/DD/YYYY. Format is MMDDYY. Brewers add pressurized nitrogen to the brew during the canning process, which drips through the hole along with a little amount of beer. Recently I got some Bass Ale, and haven't thrown the empty bottle out yet. La Cumbre:Uses acanningdate on a sticker on top of the can stacker. So if you've got a code that reads 100980726 that means that the beer was brewed in 2010, the batch number is 098 and the day of bottling is 7/26. [1] Check the bottom of the product, the sides of the container, the lid, and the necks of bottles. I believe the best by date is on the beer bottle, and the bottling date is on the case. Printed on the glass below the label, usually towards the back label. Example, Mar. Format is: JUN 09 2013. Revolution:Uses apackaged ondate on their beers. It's on the cases only. Bottles have coding on packages may be read as follows: "08E09" = May 8th, 2009. There should also be a date on the outside of all non-returnable cases.Sudwerk:Uses abest byand abottlingdate. Most brewers don't really want consumers to know when their beer was made. Also uses abest afterdate on their Reserve Series. //-->,