[brewmonkey]

Now this won't work with your run of the mill beers like anything made by AB, Coors, SABMiller or say the regular beers made by pubs like Pale Ales or wheats. They are generally good for about 90-180 days from the bottling dates depending on how they were bottled.

The best beer would be that on tap at the pub as it is usually on a cycle. I know that when I brewed "run of the mill" beers from the day I brewed it till the day it was gone was generally about 7 weeks. That is 1 week primary fermentation, 1 week in secondary, 1 week in bright tank and 4 weeks on tap. Once the beer was moved from the bright tank to the serving tank I had to start the next batch or I would not have any when the first batch was gone. That is what you call fresh beer!