this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023

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Mildly Interesting

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My 48yr old unopened bottle of beer. (Circa 1975) (i.imgur.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/mildlyinteresting

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I saw the String cheese post so I thought I'd share my own "slightly beyond best before date" consumable. I used to have two of them that I had found in my attic under some insulation, but the other one froze in my garage and broke open. (No, it did NOT smell pleasant. I'm pretty sure whatever vile liquid is in that thing does not resemble beer in any way, shape, or form.)

It's perched on a flashlight to try and show the sediment that's built up on the bottom of the bottle.

Advertisement for the beer https://stubby.ca/view-ad.php?id=19

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[–] RickAllensLeftArm 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)

As someone born in the 70s, I have to correct you - 1975 was not 48 years ago. 30 maybe. 35, tops.

[–] FlyingSquid 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was born in 1977 and it's been the 90s for decades now as far as I'm concerned.

[–] RickAllensLeftArm 11 points 1 year ago

My wardrobe agrees.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

I like your math. I'm from 72, So I'll have to agree with you there.

[–] FlyingSquid 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A storage room in the basement of my parents' house had a huge amount of liquor and wine. They weren't alcoholics, professors just always bring a bottle of something with them when they come over for dinner. Because they weren't alcoholics, most of it sat there for years. I remember they had cans of Michelob from the 70s when I was in high school in the 90s. They still had pull tabs instead of pop tabs.

I stole a lot of that liquor as a teenager, but I left that beer alone.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

One set of foster parents I lived with had a bar in the basement. My foster brother and I used to sneak shots of the hard stuff, then top up the levels with water to make it look like it wasn't touched. Thankfully they didn't really drink either so we didn't get busted for a long time doing that.

[–] haulyard 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So your saying you did get busted? I’ve got a spare minute for story time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Mike (my foster dad at the time) had decided to relax one eve and have a drink when he noticed it was looking a lot lighter colored than it should as he was pouring it and commented on it. (It was probably nearly 50% water at that point, as were several other bottles.)

Of course we denied any knowledge of what could have possibly happened but he pretty much figured it out on the first sip. After his screaming rant he ended up grounding us for I think a month(?) (I was in grade 7, this was a long time ago.) not that it mattered to me.. I was a bit of a dick back then and just wouldn't come home after school anyway. I lived there for a couple more months before my foster mom had a nervous breakdown (not entirely related to that particular incident) and I was shipped to a different home outside the city.

[–] haulyard 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for sharing. I can’t imagine the challenges of going through the foster system. I would have had my ass handed to me if I tried something like that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

There wasn't anything in foster care that could surpass the reasons I was in foster care to begin with. I kind of liked it to be honest... I could swap out foster parents/group homes whenever things got rough, and I was kind of a tough kid to deal with. After 7 homes, I ended up living on my own since I was 17.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

My parents had a can of tecate in their fridge dating to a 4th of July party we had in 1985... until finally around 2004, my brother's friend drank it. He didn't really have much of a comment on the quality.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is that because he's dead?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

You know, not to ruin the joke, but it might have worked out better if the Tecate did kill him back then. He's currently in prison for 45 years for stabbing his wife to death.

[–] ThatWeirdGuy1001 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Jesus fuck that took a turn

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

we weren't really expecting it either...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well I was not expecting that reply.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

It shows how bad the judgement is of someone who would drink a 19 year old Tecate!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Oof.

[–] Dkarma 3 points 1 year ago

Tecate is trash when it's fresh. I can't imagine one almost 20 years old

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

[–] musicworld 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How does it taste?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If I tried, i probably wouldn't survive long enough to tell you.

[–] musicworld 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not even for science?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'll save it for..uh... a special occasion. Like the day I meet my maker.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

enjoy

[–] Johniegordo 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You know, there are some kinds of beer that are intended to be aged. I have one bottle of a Russian Imperial Stout that I brewd 7 years ago. But the beer you referred in you post is definitely not the aging kind. In fact, it's supposed to be consumed as fresh as possible. A sample with that age have definitely gone bad.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have a suspicion that this stuff was probably pretty bad the day it was bottled.

[–] Johniegordo 3 points 1 year ago

Hahaahahahhahah indeed!!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Some beers are bottle conditioned, but generally liquor, wine and beer are aged in barrels and don't continue to mature in the bottle.

[–] Johniegordo 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not quite right though. Beers like Dubbel, Trippel and Quad, Barley wine, Russian Imperial Stouts, Acid beers and so on keep maturation when bottled. One can try this experiment: get yourself 2 bottles of Orval, drink one right way and take notes. Than, drink the other one 2 ~ 4 year later. You'll get a completely different beer. For my taste, 2 years is the sweet spot. In fact, the only way to keep the bottled beer to maturate is pasteurization, which is not a good practice taste wise.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Dubbels and Tripels etc are examples of what I said - bottle conditioned. And sure, other beer spoils, but it doesn’t age in a bottle in the same way as it can be aged in a barrel. Spirits like whiskey certainly don’t either since the barrel aging is really about contact with charred wood.

[–] thorbot 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Crack it open and chug one for the team

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

If this one smells anything like the other one that broke, I'd be launching my cookies the second the cap came off.