# Does booze " go bad " ?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 21, 2018, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553 "2018-05-21T12:56:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2018, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/21 "2018-05-22T17:50:39Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> In general, high proof alcohol does not change in the bottle. It will stay good through a wide range of temperatures and storage conditions. Cream liquors like Bailey’s are an obvious exception. Wine will go bad if stored improperly or if it wasn’t made to be aged (this is true of most mass market wines).
No. If left out in the sun or heat, it does get “skunky” which effects the taste. It will be still _safe_ to drink.
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### Author:  [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2018, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/22 "2018-05-22T22:49:49Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#):
>
> … it was really thick and disgustingly sweet …
IOW, identical to Amaretto bought yesterday.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2018, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/23 "2018-05-23T00:04:56Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> No. If left out in the sun or heat, it does get “skunky” which effects the taste. It will be still _safe_ to drink.
What will get skunky? That’s a beer thing, due to the way hops break down in the presence of light. Vodka, gin, tequila, etc., ain’t gonna skunk.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2018, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/24 "2018-05-23T00:05:56Z")
> [@Xema](#):
>
> IOW, identical to Amaretto bought yesterday.
Heh. Exactly what I was thinking. 🙂 (But, no, I get it. It will concentrate over time as it evaporates so it will be a bit sweeter and thicker.)
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2018, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/25 "2018-05-23T00:36:24Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> What will get skunky? That’s a beer thing, due to the way hops break down in the presence of light. Vodka, gin, tequila, etc., ain’t gonna skunk.
I have a bottle of 12yr old single malt that went what I can only call “skunky”. :(:(☹
Not vodka, no.
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2018, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/26 "2018-05-23T03:01:19Z")
I think 5-10 year open bottles are really common. Back in the day, it was a thing to have a well stocked bar in your home. I knew people who had basement bars with 20 opened bottles of various liquor in stock so they could make any exotic drink you wanted. I’m betting some of the bottles that the host didn’t care for had been open for a decade or more.
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### Author:  [@Perderabo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perderabo)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2018, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/27 "2018-05-23T04:38:55Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> I have a bottle of 12yr old single malt that went what I can only call “skunky”. :(:(☹
Me too. I can’t remember the brand but it was an excellent highland single malt. I had about a quarter of a bottle stashed away that I forgot about until I moved. The bottle was stored in a nice wooden presentation case. The scotch had gone cloudy. It didn’t even look right sitting in the bottle. I tried to open the bottle and failed. It had a cork stopper and the stopper broke leaving cork in the neck of the bottle. I useda corkscrew and mostly got it out, but the remaining cork disintegrated and fell into the scotch. I strained some of the scotch off and tried it. It was awful. I threw it out.
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### Author:  [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2018, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/28 "2018-05-23T10:25:15Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Dump them. Life’s too short to drink compromised booze. If the bottles are more than 50% depleted, you start running into serious oxidation problems which can negatively impact flavor. You obviously (as stated above) don’t value any of the spirits, so down the drain they should go.
>
> **gnoitall** - Most booze writers and distillers recommend killing a bottle of single malt once it gets down to 30% or so, for the above reasons. You might be in need of throwing a party or two.
Surely thats what teenagers are for?
My experience with even quite nice bottles of wine - I’m very partial to stickies - has been that its better to drink now rather than run the risk of leaving some and forgetting to polish them off until the mega-spring cleaning of the booze cupboard brings them to light a decade later.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2018, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/29 "2018-05-23T13:25:04Z")
Some (spirit-based) liqueuers improve with age - I have bottles of sloe gin that I make most years - when they’re about a year old, the drink is purple-pink, slightly astringent and fresh-fruity; when they’re five years old, they will have turned a sort of tawny brown colour and have flavour notes that are like prunes and raisins - it’s as though the fruit continues to ripen after being infused into the liqueuer.
I compared a freshly-made batch with a ‘vintage’ bottle in this video: [Random Stuff - Sore Throats, Sloe Gin and Spicy Noodles - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pxXfdHXJuM)
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### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2018, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/30 "2018-05-23T16:49:12Z")
I have no palate, so I don’t worry about the liquor being old. After the third drink, it all tastes the same anyway.
Regards,
Shodan
PS - [John 2:10](http://biblehub.com/john/2-10.htm)
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### Author:  [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2018, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/31 "2018-05-23T19:50:43Z")
How about a jug of Everclear, or some other nearly-pure ethanol? Can anything go wrong with that?
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2018, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/32 "2018-05-23T20:50:34Z")
> [@chorpler](#):
>
> How about a jug of Everclear, or some other nearly-pure ethanol? Can anything go wrong with that?
If any air can get to it, it will slowly lose alcohol content, being replaced by water, mostly.
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2018, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/33 "2018-05-23T21:39:44Z")
> [@chorpler](#):
>
> How about a jug of Everclear, or some other nearly-pure ethanol? Can anything go wrong with that?
Liver function ?
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### Author:  [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2018, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/34 "2018-05-25T00:42:07Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> Cream liquors like Bailey’s are an obvious exception.
Now you tell me. Where were you 12 years ago? I was sick for days!
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2018, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/35 "2018-05-25T02:20:11Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Dump them. Life’s too short to drink compromised booze. If the bottles are more than 50% depleted, you start running into serious oxidation problems which can negatively impact flavor. You obviously (as stated above) don’t value any of the spirits, so down the drain they should go.
>
> **gnoitall** - Most booze writers and distillers recommend killing a bottle of single malt once it gets down to 30% or so, for the above reasons. You might be in need of throwing a party or two.
Are you kidding? After my grandmother died, I took home the contents of her liquor cabinet – most of the stuff was at LEAST 15 years old, and unopened. And damn, she had some GOOD stuff. Pretty potent, too. 😃
(A Creme de Menthe that was to die for – I think that was about 20 years old or so. Some apple peach brandy, that was good too, then some blackberry brandy. The Amaretto wasn’t too bad either.)
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### Author:  [@GMANCANADA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GMANCANADA)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2018, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-booze-go-bad/814553/36 "2018-05-25T05:42:31Z")
We had a bottle of some chocolate cream liqueur go bad last year. We’d opened it about 4 years before and drank a third. It was disgustingly mouldy inside.
Just last weekend we also had a bottle of some lower alcohol berry liqueur that was bad. The bottle was about 50% consumed and it was very oxidized. No cream in this one, just alcohol and sugar and probably artificial flavours. We’d bought it a few years ago during a martini craze and my out of the blue my wife decided she wanted another one saturday night. One sniff and down the drain, back to a Bahama mama!
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