the boston beer company, maker of samuel adams, was among the first to start adding freshness dates to their product line in 1985. for ten years there was a slow growth in brewers adding freshness dates to their beer. the practice rapidly grew in popularity after the anheuser-busch company's heavily marketed "born-on dates" starting in 1996. many other brewers have started adding freshness dates to their products, but there is no standard for what the date means. for some companies, the date on the bottle or can will be the date that the beer was bottled; others have the date by which the beer should be consumed.