Does Alcohol Go Bad?

[sattie]

My MIL cleaned out her goody cabinet and sent home with hubby 2 boxes full of spirits. 1 Bottle is some sort of canadian whiskey unopened. Point is, some of this stuff is old.... several years at least.... everything from vodka, tekillya, gin, whiskey, and rum. Basically we have a stocked bar now if any of that stuff is any good. There was also a small bottle of triple sec and some sort of Italian liqueur... Frangelico... smells wonderful what ever it is!

Any advice on the matter is much appreciated!!!!

 

[TATTRAT]

Booze NEVER gets old if you ask me!

Fact of the matter is, No, booze....the hard stuff, just ages. Beer and such will get "skunky" or such.

Liquor ages gracefully. So long as it has remained sealed.

 

[skilletlicker]

My MIL cleaned out her goody cabinet and sent home with hubby 2 boxes full of spirits. 1 Bottle is some sort of canadian whiskey unopened. Point is, some of this stuff is old.... several years at least.... everything from vodka, tekillya, gin, whiskey, and rum. Basically we have a stocked bar now if any of that stuff is any good. There was also a small bottle of triple sec and some sort of Italian liqueur... Frangelico... smells wonderful what ever it is!

Any advice on the matter is much appreciated!!!!

Ship the bottles to me and after repeatedly and carefully sampling each item I will report back to you on the quality of each.

 

[TATTRAT]

Ship the bottles to me and after repeatedly and carefully sampling each item I will report back to you on the quality of each.

LOL!

HEY! That's my job!

 

[bright]

Liquor ages, but it never gets "old." Beer will get nasty quick though.

 

[jkath]

Frangelico - hazelnut liquor. Quite tasty in coffee!

Some alcohol does really go bad. Case en pointe: A couple of Christmases ago, my mil offered me a cordial. She then proceeded to her cupboard and poured out a small glass of baileys. That is, she attempted to. What came out had the consistency of heavy custard. Not pretty. I'm guessing she'd opened it, then put it into the cupboard for a year or two.

 

[YT2095]

the alcohol molecule C2H5OH (God bless the stuff) is really quite stable, and unless it`s exposed to oxidising agents such as Air, it`s fine, it`s a preservative.
kept in a cool dark place (UV light can spoil it), it will outlive you

 

[lulu]

I think it depends on the type of alcohol and how long age is (presuming most of it has been opened and then stored correctly)

We did a clear out of our cabinet last summer. It had left over stuff from my parents in law, and recent additions from my s-i-l too. Some of the p-i-l stuff was fine...stable traditional drinks, well closed after use and was very drinkable. My s-i-l stuff mainly went. They tended to be the sweeter things, like midori rather than whiskeys and brandies. We also were left with loads of different vodkas.

I have to say, the tasting method was employed. We also went on the basis that if neither of us cared to taste it it went...because it was eithr so revolting looking it was spoilt or because it looked ok but we would never drink it.

 

[ronjohn55]

Distilled spirits, once in the bottle, really don't age. There's one type (either scotch or bourbon) that I thought I saw a note on Thirsty Traveler that it did still age in the glass, but I've never been able to confirm it. If it's an unopened bottle, it's still good (but not necessarily better or worse than when it was bottled).

Liquors have sugars and sometimes flavorings mixed in, and these WILL age and oxidze over time, especially once opened.

Beer and wine will both age in the bottle (or can). This is again due more to the other stuff (sugars, hops, tannins, etc.) than the alcohol. Some styles will age better and more gracefully than others (some just flat out go stale). Beer will not skunk from age, it skunks due to exposure to light (particularly UV light). It's a reaction between the light and the isomerized alpha acids in the hops that causes this. Darker bottles (i.e. brown) help guard against this. Miller Brewing uses a hop extract in their beer, which is why MGD can be sold in a clear bottle without skunking (unlike Corona).

Any type of alcohol is best stored in a cool, stable environment. Hot temps can be bad, but large and frequent changes in the temperature are even worse. Darker places will help with issues relating to light.

Yes, I do spend FAR too much tim learning about this stuff....

John

 

[Sephora]

Baileys goes bad ~ that is for sure. We decided "the cream" portion is what turns.

Beer does not need light to go bad! Age and heat ARE factors. Beer should be consumed 120 after bottleing for the best flavor as long as it hasn't been exposed to heat ~ i.e. don't keep it in your trunk in the summer.

And if you ever see someone who collects beer cans, have them remove the beer. I was working for a man who builds car washes. We had just about finished up when the owner started moving in. He had a 6 pack of Dale Jr. Budweiser cans and they fell from the box they were carrying. I thought I was going to die from the smell. And the mess. It went everywhere. We had to pull up the new carpet and redo it (at the owners expense because he dropped it). The cans weren't that old, but they had definitely gone WAY bad.

 

[ronjohn55]

Beer does not need light to go bad! Age and heat ARE factors. Beer should be consumed 120 after bottleing for the best flavor as long as it hasn't been exposed to heat ~ i.e. don't keep it in your trunk in the summer.

I have to kind of disagree about the 120 days thing. I definitely agree about the heat though.

The thing is, beer is just like (if not worse) than wine. The description "beer" fails to take into account all the different variations in styles.

While a Budweiser may not age gracefully (or even well), a barleywine or belgian trippel (if stored under stable, cool conditions) can age and change much like a fine red wine. There are groups of people who will buy a beer with the sole intention of againg it for a year or more, sampling bottles along the way and noting changes in the flavors. (Yes, I am guilty of doing this )

John

 

[Sephora]

I have to kind of disagree about the 120 days thing. I definitely agree about the heat though.

The thing is, beer is just like (if not worse) than wine. The description "beer" fails to take into account all the different variations in styles.

While a Budweiser may not age gracefully (or even well), a barleywine or belgian trippel (if stored under stable, cool conditions) can age and change much like a fine red wine. There are groups of people who will buy a beer with the sole intention of againg it for a year or more, sampling bottles along the way and noting changes in the flavors. (Yes, I am guilty of doing this )

John

High falutin' beer ~ gotch ya. I guess when it comes to certain things, there is never an ALL YES or ALL NO answer.

I'm a cheap beer with bunches of lemon person. Although, that's more about necessity based on location now. I used to go to a great restaurant in CA that was also a microbrewery and have their specialty beers, but here, that doesn't happen. It's grocery store beer here. No high falutin' stuff.

 

[Constance]

Beer doesn't last long enough around here to go bad.
In regard to the Bailey's, we always keep ours in the fridge after opening. It doesn't last long either, though, as Kim loves it in his morning coffee.

The hard stuff lasts forever.

 

[mish]

Yes. If you have a 12-year-old bottle of Scotch, send it to me.

 

[sattie]

Yes. If you have a 12-year-old bottle of Scotch, send it to me.

That is more than likely the case here!!!! Some of this stuff I would venture to guess around 8 years old? Do they put dates on this stuff?????

Ship the bottles to me and after repeatedly and carefully sampling each item I will report back to you on the quality of each.

LOL!!! I get it, so give it a try and see if it is worthy.... something tells me that after the 4th or 5th taste test, I won't care about what the rest tastes like!!!!

Thanks to all.... I always appreciate your feedback!!!!

 

[jkath]

I used to go to a great restaurant in CA that was also a microbrewery and have their specialty beers.....

which one did you like? (always on a hunt for something new)

 

[Sephora]

which one did you like? (always on a hunt for something new)

My friend was manager at McCormick and Shmicks in Irvine. Free is fun! They did that chocolate and rasberry thing and other beers that didn't taste like beer. Oh, and we were weekend flyers to San Diego so I did my fair share of sampling at Sea World.

 

[TATTRAT]

I have an un-opened bottle of Crown from 1976. This thread is tempting me more and more to answer this question first hand.

Is it 5 o'clock yet?

 

[FryBoy]

Make sure the lid is on tight with spirits, and keep it away from the light. If the lid is loose, the alcohol may evaporate, and light can hasten the breakdown of the other elements that give flavor and character to the booze.

Wine is a different problem, as I can attest after having collected it for about 35 years. Although the alcohol in wine is unlikely to breakdown unless the cork is bad, the other elements do change over time, sometimes improving the wine initially but eventually causing it to go bad for one reason or another. All wine will eventually lose its appeal, tasting flat, fruitless, and even nasty.

White wine rarely improves with age, or improves only slightly. Top-end Chardonnay, for example, is usually best at 3 to 6 years and may keep for another decade or more, but most white wines are over the hill by the time they're 10 years old. Dessert wines, however, such as Sauternes (the real stuff, not what they sell on Skid Row), may improve for many years and can keep even longer than reds due to their high-sugar content.

Reds, especially very tannic wines such as Cabernet, often need 6 to 10 years to mellow out, but they MAY keep continue to improve for a decade beyond that and then keep for another decade or two, but only a rare few are good for much longer.

However, the idea that the older the wine, the better it is, is simply false. It depends on the type of wine, the wine itself (i.e., Two-Buck Up-Chuck ain't getting better without divine intervention), how it's stored, and other factors such as the quality of the cork (infection caused by bad corks is one reason that screw caps are making big inroads in the wine industry).

For long-term storage, meaning over a year, wine should be kept in the dark, at cool temperatures (ideally 55 to 60 degrees -- anything colder will pretty much stop the aging process, but there's no problem with leaving it in the refrigerator), in moderate humidity to protect the cork from drying out, and lying on its side to keep the cork wet so that it maintains the seal. Heat and light are wine's biggest enemies.

As a generally rule, if you don't have a proper storage place, you probably should drink any wine you buy within a couple of years of the date on which it was bottled.

 

[mish]

My MIL cleaned out her goody cabinet and sent home with hubby 2 boxes full of spirits. 1 Bottle is some sort of canadian whiskey unopened. Point is, some of this stuff is old.... several years at least.... everything from vodka, tekillya, gin, whiskey, and rum. Basically we have a stocked bar now if any of that stuff is any good. There was also a small bottle of triple sec and some sort of Italian liqueur... Frangelico... smells wonderful what ever it is!

Any advice on the matter is much appreciated!!!!

IMO, you're pretty safe if the bottle is unopened. Once it's open, try to drink it/use it up ASAP. I have a gadget (for champagne/wine, etc), you insert into the top of the bottle, and press down, after the cork is removed to keep it for a little while.

*Wine is a whole different ballgame. I'm not too wine savvy, but, age does matter, i.e. wine cellars, correct temps, and storing it on its' side -- seemingly, the older - the more expensive - all unopened. Hope that helps.

Note: Send me your Chivas too. lol.

*