I have come into possession of some old liquor–my grandparents had a stash that they used for Bar Mitvahs. I’m guessing this stuff is 20 years old.
It includes vodka, gin, and whiskey among other items. Is it safe to drink? Will it taste nasty?
My WAG is that if the bottle has never been opened, it is likely to be fine. I did have a bottle of Irish Cream that had been opened and in the fridge for a year or so…it went bad.
Some of them have been opened, and some have not. But your post raises another question: Does Irish Cream contain cream?
Irish cream does indeed contain cream, but the alcohol stabilizes it and it does not need to be refrigerated. I’ve had bottled that I’ve had open for more than a year, and never had a problem with them. 20 years, though… eek!
Unopened, they may be drinkable, but why bother? Unless they are really expensive bottles of single-malt, pitch them. They are likely stale.
Thanks everyone.
Distilled liquor doesn’t go stale. It also doesn’t improve with age; if you put a bottle of aged 18 year old scotch on the shelf for forty years, you do not get 58 year old scotch. Whiskey in the bottle is a finished product, and ceases to ‘age’. The only thing that could possible cause the liquor to change is exposure to strong light or high temperatures. Booze kept in a dark, cool cabinet won’t go stale.
Read the OP. They used the stuff for Bar Mitzvahs, so it has probably been opened. Even if it hasn’t, the owners don’t sound like the people that would store booze properly. Who knows what conditions the bottles have been kept in? I’d keep a single-malt, just because it is a good scotch. The rest isn’t worth the trouble.
So what? It still won’t go ‘stale’.
Now that’s alcohol abuse. 
For mixing, I’ve had no problems with the 15yo booze that I salvaged from my parent’s basement.
Didn’t last long, but it was fine as a mixer. I don’t drink a whole lot of “straight” booze, so it worked for me. This stuff was a combination of vodka, rum, midori, and similar alcohol.
As for anything living in it, if it’s high enough proof (80+), then I’d say those would have to be pretty hardy germs, and perhaps they’d help me live to a ripe old age! 
A local liquor store has a few old bottles of stuff…I’ve lawyas wonderd what the stuff would taste like:
-an 1869 Bottle of Grant’s scotch whiskey
-a 1939 bottelof French gognac
-a bottle of Armahnac, bottled in 1903
-and 1827 bottle of Port wine
would this liquor be drinkable?
Are you sure that the dates are when the liquor was bottled?
As Fear Itself said above, bottled liquor is a finished product and does not improve. Typically fine liquors are aged in casks and then bottled shortly before being sold (1-5 years). This is probably the case with the liquor above. If this is the case, I am sure they would be drinkable as they would have been tasted during the bottling process.
Recently I was lucky enough to have some port aged since 1925. Talking to the bartender about it he said it had been bottled this year. The port was much better (I was surprised how much better) than a 30 year old port of the same label that I had in the same sitting. I don’t know if it was the aging or just a difference in styles (even though they were the same label, the were very different).
IIRC, Port salvaged from the Titanic was still drinkable.
-BWB
The first three I’d buy if I won the lottery. The port will either be wonderful or total crap. Wines, even fortified wines, change and age. I see by a cursory search that there are some surviving ports of that vintage that are still drinkable, so it would depend on the storage and provenance of the bottle. 
In the interest of fighting ignorance and helping my fellow dopers, mail the booze to me, and I’ll give you an evaluation.
I believe it does. Another thing about it is that it’s not very strong, usually having a far lower proof than the 80 which is typical of standard booze. Alcohol does act as a preservative, but Irish Cream doesn’t contain enough of it.
How long before alcohol goes bad? Usually about 10 hours after I drank it, in the morning. 
A bottle of Rumba* got opened, stored in dark conditions, unti I opened it again 2 months later. Had changed colour and tasted differently. The effects were disasterous to say the least.
I would say things in alcohol can go off. No-one else will believe me of course :smack:
*Sort of coconutty flavoured ‘rum’ alcohol, horrible horrible stuff. Maybe 12-20% can’t remember.
That wouldn’t surprise me. My comments pertain to straight distilled spirits in the 80 proof range, not liqueurs and aperitifs of lower proof.
I’ve found that if there isn’t a cork underneath the screw top, hard liquor doesn’t taste right if it’s been open more than a year. It tastes watered down, like the alcohol evaporated more than the water.