Is there a shelf life on this product? Or, like most alcohols, can this sit for years on a shelf and still be drinkable?
And to extend this a bit further, do any alcoholic products have shelf lives? (assuming of course they are sealed.)
Thanks,
SFP
Well, it is cream and whisky. The whisky part won’t go bad, but the cream will. You have about six months if you keep it in a cool place.
AFAIK, it has a pretty much unlimited shelf life. Of course a bottle of the stuff has absolutely no chance to age much in my house, but that’s a different story. It does contain cream and eggs, but I believe the alcohol content (17%) is high enough to prevent bacteria from growing.
Beer has a definite, short shelf life. It doesn’t stay drinkable indefinitely even when stored properly. Wine, liqueurs, and spirits have indefinite shelf lives if sealed and stored properly. One typically stores them in a dark, temperrature controlled environment. Those things that are sealed with corks are stored horizontally in racks so that the cork doesn’t dry out and loosen.
Mmmm, Baileys 
Doesn’t Baileys have an expiration date on the bottle somewhere?
The bailey’s website is down right now so I can’t check, but I’ve read that for cream based liquers you can estimate a year from the time of purchase if unopened.
I happen to have an empty bottle (two, actually) right here. On the back label it says “BEST TASTE BEFORE 12 2004”. It doesn’t say “DO NOT USE AFTER” or “SELL BY”, so I’m assuming that while the taste may suffer some after that date, it’s still safe to drink.
Bailey’s is good.
But there is an African liqueur called Marsala Fruit Cream which is even tastier.
I’ve got a bottle with a ‘best taste before’ date too. The date on it is 18 months after I purchased it. Somehow I don’t think it’s going to be an issue, but if it ever were, it would be a risk I’d be willing to take.
I can tell you from experience that after several years, the “creme” in Bailey’s Irish Creme turns into one thick clump.
nitpick: You mean Amarula, which is made with Marula fruit essence and cream.
Bailey’s does “go bad”, but only in the sense of tasting lousy. It shouldn’t develop contamination unless most of the alcohol has evaporated, which takes a lot longer than a year or so. However, anything containing milk or egg byproducts does carry some risk, even if it’s minimal in this case.
Lets’s start with the specific answer. Bailey’s Irish Creme does have an expration date. It’s printed on the label. According to www.bauser.com it’s the only Irish Creme to have one. The “creme” part won’t go off. It’s stuffed full of sugar, then ultra-pasteurized. Everything is hermetically sealed, presumably with a nitrogen cap above the liquid.
Regular, sex in the bottom of a canoe, beer has an expiration date. Because it’s rubbish basically.
Real beer, on the other hand, doesn’t (or at least shouldn’t). One of the main flavours of beer is hops. They are one of nature’s best preservatives. There is only one man who can answer this question properly Michael Jackson. No, not that Michael Jackson, the other one.
Wine. Really, this is the same answer as for beer. Wine is full of acids, alcohol, (if red) tannin and maybe sugar. For example, Christie’s sold a bottle of 1727 Rüdesheimer Apostelwein which was described as “thrillingly enjoyable”. And a bottle of 1641 Tokaj was drunk in the 70’s.
Fortified wine. Madeira and Port. The best examples of this are made with the intention of being aged for a long period. The additional alcohol add longevity. I’ve had a bottle of 1963 Quinta de Noval - it wasn’t mature after 30+ years. I’ve seen (solera) Madiera from 1886 on sale.
Spirits. There is no reason for sprits to go off. The 40%+ alcohol content should kill all known germs dead. But there is little point in maturing them, as they are, well, dead, when they bottled.
Quick slightly related question:
Does Bailey’s get marketed in the US as “Bailey’s Irish Creme” rather than “Bailey’s Irish Cream” ? Does it have a different label in the US? (than this one?)
The bottle I have here in the U.S. says “Bailey’s Irish Cream”.
I had some Irish Cream that was in my liquor cabinet for about 2 years. When I cracked it open this past christmas, the milk was “curdled” and definetly not in a new condition.
I prompty dumped it.
My Canadian-labeled bottles (in addition to being bilingual English and French) say “ORIGINAL IRISH CREAM”. I have a “Best Taste Before / Meilleur Goût Avant” date, but no expiry as such.
Of course, a bottle of Bailey’s in my house never lasts long enough to test such labelling. Yum.
Not true at all. SOME beer - highly hopped beer mostly - lasts for a long time, but rarely forever. For example, India Pale Ale (IPA) style beers are a very hopped up beer. Why were they hopped up? Because they were originally being shipped to India from Britain. They hopped 'em up so they stayed good longer.
However, most microbrewed or crafted beers definitely have a “best by” date. I don’t think it’ll hurt you to drink them after that date, but in general, most beers are best within 6 months or so of being bottled. Check the bottles - they’ll tell you the dates in which to drink them. Most reputable breweries go out of their way to get old beer off the shelves long before they go out of date.
Athena, the Michael Jackson link I posted agrees with you in almost every respect.
it is cream and ethanol; only a relatively small proportion of the alcohol comes from whiskey…
The problem isn’t going bad as in rotting, the problem is going bad as in curdling.