Answers.Body: <p>The pH of beer is low enough that no known pathogens can survive in it. That's why you never hear about botulism problems with home-brewed beer like you do with home-canned foods, for example.</p>
  
  <p>Beer slowly changes over time. High gravity beers, like barley wines or imperial stouts benefit from this, and acquire richer flavors as they slowly oxydize. Belgian styles, like lambics do as well and the wild yeasts and bacteria continue to grow. However, even those have a limit -- eventually they will begin to taste very stale. </p>
  
  <p>Low gravity beers begin to taste stale much more quickly. If you are keeping them refrigerated, they may last for 6 months or more. Seven years is definitely way too long.</p>
  
  <p>So it won't make you sick or harm you if you want to taste it. But it is extremely unlikely that you will enjoy it.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2014-08-11T14:32:55.323Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-08-11T14:32:55.323Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: jalynn2
Answers.Body: <p>It won't be harmful, but neither will it taste any good. Pale low-alcohol beers don't age very well, and a beer that was low on flavour to start with is not going to improve with time. You'll get lots of wet cardboard flavours and a very thin body. I would pour it out.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2014-08-10T18:16:48.700Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-08-10T18:16:48.700Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Lars Marius Garshol
Answers.Body: <p>I've drinked beers that were 2 years past the <em>sell by</em> date. They tasted normal (although i´m not a beer sommellier) and nothing bad happened to me, as other answers have pointed out. </p>
  
  <p>If i were you I would see this as a unique oportunity to test how 7 years of bottle aging change a Lite American Lager. Buy a brand new Bud Light, refrigerate it to the same temperature, open both bottles, pour into equal glasses and see. If they look similar (same color and foam) and the old one doesn´t smell bad, give it a small sip. If it tastes normal, there's no reason for you not to try it!
    In case you really compare them, can you share with us the differences in color, smell and taste between the new and the 7-years old Bud Light?</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2014-12-26T19:07:52.860Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-12-26T19:07:52.860Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: gmauch
Answers.Body: <p>No pathogens can survive in beer. But the beer may taste off. Remember that the Pilgrims survived the journey across the Atlantic because they had beer, not water, since beer stays drinkable much longer due to the alcohol and hops that act as preservatives. Nothing will happen to you if you drink that beer.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2014-11-11T01:41:23.793Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-11-11T01:41:23.793Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: tinypriest
Answers.Body: <p>In college we found a miller high life in the basement of a rental house that was at least 15 years old judging by the can design. (This was 2004 and it was a 1980s era can) A pledge drank it and he didn't die so if say you're fine. </p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2015-09-30T21:08:43.043Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2015-09-30T21:08:43.043Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: user4572
Answers.Body: <p>I would drink it, if it wasn't Bud Light ;-)
  I had old beer before, probably 2 years after expiration. If the pressure is still there when you open it and if the can/bottle has no dents/rust/etc there shouldn't be an issue.
  They found a WWII food can and it was still edible when they opened in 2013, tested by a lab. Obviously taste is a different issue. There may be some deterioration. If it smells like vinegar you'll know it's bad </p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2014-09-15T20:44:39.523Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-09-15T20:44:39.523Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Lucas65
Answers.Body: <p>This is a couple years behind the topic.  What the heck.  I've got 3 aluminum long neck bud's, Not that light stuff either, from 2006.  I'm straining them through a coffee filter just in case.  1st thing I noticed was the color. Much darker than a new bud.  2nd is the smell.  Strong alcohol smell you don't get with beer.  Makes me wonder if fermentation was still active at a later point.  Wish I had a way of checking the alcohol lv.  After about 20 oz consumed I'll have a close enough guess.  Waiting til after work around 11 or 12.  I'll put in an update.  9 year old beer.  This sounds like fun.</p>
  
  <p>I am Tom Sawyer </p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-01-28T21:58:12.147Z
Answers.Text: No update so far. Apparently, the Bud was worse than expected.
Answers.UserDisplayName: abaumg
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-09-28T17:30:24.807Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2015-09-28T17:30:24.807Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Tom Sawyer
Answers.Body: <p>Sell by dates tend to be very conservative to cover peoples asses, but in reality many beers will actually get better past their sell-by date, particularly unfiltered (cloudy) beers.</p>
  
  <p>Beers like any of the light lagers should be fine for a year or two and not taste significantly worse provided they are stored properly.</p>
  
  <p>Improper storage would be somewhere with warm or fluctuating temperature or where the beer is exposed to light. Light is what "skunks" beer, and can literally synthesize the same chemicals that makes skunks smell. </p>
  
  <p>The color of the bottle has a big effect on how rapidly this can occur. Clear glass provides no protection, I would not drink Corona that was left in the sun for even just one day (not that I wouldn't avoid it anyway). Green provides some, but is not much better (blocks somewhere around 40% of light). Brown is the best blocking around 90% of light, but completely opaque materials are the only things that are truly effective. Some breweries like Sam Adams even go the extra mile and have extra tall sides on their six packs to block light completely.</p>
  
  <p>In short, old beer is not dangerous.
  Some styles age well (belgian styles, german wheat, unfiltered styles).
  Others do not (light lagers, pale ales, filtered beers).
  Light is the real enemy.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-12-23T18:06:52.473Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-12-23T18:06:52.473Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: greggle138
Answers.Body: <p>As far as I've ever tried, old beers, even cheap light lager like Bud Light, will taste pretty off after a lot of in-bottle or can aging. The older it is, the worse it will taste, but having drunk more than one in a sitting, I can safely say it's no more harmful than drinking a fresh one. Never gotten sick off one, but it's pretty hard to down them without gagging a bit.</p>
  
  <p>Some beers actually seem to intentionally go for a similar taste. Anything with a green bottle seems to be trying for a skunky flavor, while brown bottles help filter out damaging light. Compare a Beck's or Heineken to, say, a Budweiser.  The former will have a distinctly skunky flavor to them, basically similar to marijuana. The latter has a bit of a rice taste, as that's what's used in the brewing process, with a slight sweetness, but overall just a bubbly light flavor.</p>
  
  <p>As Linus pointed out, there's going to be a "wet cardboard" taste with past-due light lagers. I'm guessing this is due to the breakdown of oils and sugars in the beer, as well as other general chemical changes. I'm not sure why it has that taste of cardboard or paper, but it's definitely present. After doing some research (aka looking it up on google), I found that the main culprit of that cardboard taste is a chemical called "nonenal". It's apparently also a chemical in human body odor of aged people, leading to the so-called "old people smell". This isn't proven, but there's some evidence that this is the main culprit for the somewhat-neutral scent of older people's perspiration. In a beer, not quite as neutral, however.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-07-25T18:52:39.163Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2015-07-25T18:52:39.163Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Beerlover616
Answers.Body: <p>It is unlikely to be harmful (assuming it hasn't become infected), but the flavour may have changed compared to fresher bottles of the same brand.  In particular, the aromatic oils from the hops will break down as the beer ages.</p>
  
  <p>Whether this makes the beer undrinkable will depend partly on the beer and partly on the tastes of the person drinking it.  If you are curious you may as well try a mouthful or two.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-08-11T10:35:57.310Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-08-11T10:35:57.310Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: James Henstridge
Answers.Body: <p>3 ingredients help beer stay good,
  alcohol, hop and Yeast.</p>
  
  <p>so beers above 5% or really bitter beers.
  Or beers with yeast in the bottle.</p>
  
  <p>for example geuzes are at their best after 7 to 15 years, and stay drinkable for more than 30 years.</p>
  
  <p>The taste changes over the period.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2014-12-04T13:45:05.607Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-12-04T13:45:05.607Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: rod
Answers.Body: <p>No. The most important thing is, that you control if the beer lathers when you open it.</p>
  
  <p>If there is no foam, throw it away ;) </p>
  
  <p>best regards from austria</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-08-14T06:30:09.853Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-08-14T06:30:09.853Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Matthias M
Answers.Body: <p>Here's a video of someone attempting to drink a beer from 1988 - it didn't go over very well for him.</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZR6ntvMDY4" rel="nofollow noreferrer">How to FAIL at Chugging A 25 Year Old Beer (YouTube)</a></p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-12-16T20:27:16.140Z
Answers.Text: While pretty gross, I doubt there was anything harmful in the beer.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Sloloem
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-12-05T17:58:37.347Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2017-01-06T13:07:00.840Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2017-01-06T13:07:00.840Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Drew Beaupre
Body: <p>I have a bud light in a friend's refrigerator that has a date of May 14 2007. I have heard of people drinking beer after the posted date, but does it turn harmful after all these years if I drink it?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2014-08-10T17:46:36.433Z
Comments.Text: I've tried drinking beer older than that, tasted bad. Survived. Considering it is Bud Light it will already have the bad taste so might be hard to tell if good or not
Comments.UserDisplayName: Wayne In Yak
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2016-01-03T22:09:50.473Z
Comments.Text: Drinking Budweiser was prolly your first mistake...
Comments.UserDisplayName: wogsland
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2016-01-30T08:08:13.967Z
Comments.Text: Anecdotally, I had the "pleasure" of tasting a Heineken bottled in a jeroboam at the turn of the millennium, just at the end of 2015.  It wasn't good, but I suffered no ill effects.
Comments.UserDisplayName: object88
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-12-11T10:28:37.047Z
Comments.Text: It could possibly be argued that the simple act of drinking a Bud Light is harmful... at least to your taste buds and sense of self-worth
Comments.UserDisplayName: Tim Burnett - Bassist
Tags: <taste>
Title: Is beer dangerous to drink past its "sell by" date?
UserDisplayName: Keith
ThreadText: # Is beer dangerous to drink past its "sell by" date?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2014-08-10)
  
  I have a bud light in a friend's refrigerator that has a date of May 14 2007. I have heard of people drinking beer after the posted date, but does it turn harmful after all these years if I drink it?
  
  **Tags:** taste
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: I've tried drinking beer older than that, tasted bad. Survived. Considering it is Bud Light it will already have the bad taste so might be hard to tell if good or not  
  > **username_2**: Drinking Budweiser was prolly your first mistake...  
  > **username_3**: Anecdotally, I had the "pleasure" of tasting a Heineken bottled in a jeroboam at the turn of the millennium, just at the end of 2015.  It wasn't good, but I suffered no ill effects.  
  > **username_4**: It could possibly be argued that the simple act of drinking a Bud Light is harmful... at least to your taste buds and sense of self-worth  
  
  ---
  
  ## 13 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2014-08-11. Score: 25
  
  The pH of beer is low enough that no known pathogens can survive in it. That's why you never hear about botulism problems with home-brewed beer like you do with home-canned foods, for example.
  
  Beer slowly changes over time. High gravity beers, like barley wines or imperial stouts benefit from this, and acquire richer flavors as they slowly oxydize. Belgian styles, like lambics do as well and the wild yeasts and bacteria continue to grow. However, even those have a limit -- eventually they will begin to taste very stale.
  
  Low gravity beers begin to taste stale much more quickly. If you are keeping them refrigerated, they may last for 6 months or more. Seven years is definitely way too long.
  
  So it won't make you sick or harm you if you want to taste it. But it is extremely unlikely that you will enjoy it.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_6 on 2014-08-10. Score: 7
  
  It won't be harmful, but neither will it taste any good. Pale low-alcohol beers don't age very well, and a beer that was low on flavour to start with is not going to improve with time. You'll get lots of wet cardboard flavours and a very thin body. I would pour it out.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_7 on 2014-12-26. Score: 4
  
  I've drinked beers that were 2 years past the *sell by* date. They tasted normal (although i´m not a beer sommellier) and nothing bad happened to me, as other answers have pointed out.
  
  If i were you I would see this as a unique oportunity to test how 7 years of bottle aging change a Lite American Lager. Buy a brand new Bud Light, refrigerate it to the same temperature, open both bottles, pour into equal glasses and see. If they look similar (same color and foam) and the old one doesn´t smell bad, give it a small sip. If it tastes normal, there's no reason for you not to try it!
  In case you really compare them, can you share with us the differences in color, smell and taste between the new and the 7-years old Bud Light?
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_8 on 2014-11-11. Score: 3
  
  No pathogens can survive in beer. But the beer may taste off. Remember that the Pilgrims survived the journey across the Atlantic because they had beer, not water, since beer stays drinkable much longer due to the alcohol and hops that act as preservatives. Nothing will happen to you if you drink that beer.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_9 on 2015-09-30. Score: 1
  
  In college we found a miller high life in the basement of a rental house that was at least 15 years old judging by the can design. (This was 2004 and it was a 1980s era can) A pledge drank it and he didn't die so if say you're fine.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_10 on 2014-09-15. Score: 1
  
  I would drink it, if it wasn't Bud Light ;-)
  I had old beer before, probably 2 years after expiration. If the pressure is still there when you open it and if the can/bottle has no dents/rust/etc there shouldn't be an issue.
  They found a WWII food can and it was still edible when they opened in 2013, tested by a lab. Obviously taste is a different issue. There may be some deterioration. If it smells like vinegar you'll know it's bad
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_11 on 2015-09-28. Score: 1
  
  This is a couple years behind the topic. What the heck. I've got 3 aluminum long neck bud's, Not that light stuff either, from 2006. I'm straining them through a coffee filter just in case. 1st thing I noticed was the color. Much darker than a new bud. 2nd is the smell. Strong alcohol smell you don't get with beer. Makes me wonder if fermentation was still active at a later point. Wish I had a way of checking the alcohol lv. After about 20 oz consumed I'll have a close enough guess. Waiting til after work around 11 or 12. I'll put in an update. 9 year old beer. This sounds like fun.
  
  I am username_11
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_12**: No update so far. Apparently, the Bud was worse than expected.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_13 on 2014-12-23. Score: 0
  
  Sell by dates tend to be very conservative to cover peoples asses, but in reality many beers will actually get better past their sell-by date, particularly unfiltered (cloudy) beers.
  
  Beers like any of the light lagers should be fine for a year or two and not taste significantly worse provided they are stored properly.
  
  Improper storage would be somewhere with warm or fluctuating temperature or where the beer is exposed to light. Light is what "skunks" beer, and can literally synthesize the same chemicals that makes skunks smell.
  
  The color of the bottle has a big effect on how rapidly this can occur. Clear glass provides no protection, I would not drink Corona that was left in the sun for even just one day (not that I wouldn't avoid it anyway). Green provides some, but is not much better (blocks somewhere around 40% of light). Brown is the best blocking around 90% of light, but completely opaque materials are the only things that are truly effective. Some breweries like Sam Adams even go the extra mile and have extra tall sides on their six packs to block light completely.
  
  In short, old beer is not dangerous.
  Some styles age well (belgian styles, german wheat, unfiltered styles).
  Others do not (light lagers, pale ales, filtered beers).
  Light is the real enemy.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_14 on 2015-07-25. Score: 0
  
  As far as I've ever tried, old beers, even cheap light lager like Bud Light, will taste pretty off after a lot of in-bottle or can aging. The older it is, the worse it will taste, but having drunk more than one in a sitting, I can safely say it's no more harmful than drinking a fresh one. Never gotten sick off one, but it's pretty hard to down them without gagging a bit.
  
  Some beers actually seem to intentionally go for a similar taste. Anything with a green bottle seems to be trying for a skunky flavor, while brown bottles help filter out damaging light. Compare a Beck's or Heineken to, say, a Budweiser. The former will have a distinctly skunky flavor to them, basically similar to marijuana. The latter has a bit of a rice taste, as that's what's used in the brewing process, with a slight sweetness, but overall just a bubbly light flavor.
  
  As Linus pointed out, there's going to be a "wet cardboard" taste with past-due light lagers. I'm guessing this is due to the breakdown of oils and sugars in the beer, as well as other general chemical changes. I'm not sure why it has that taste of cardboard or paper, but it's definitely present. After doing some research (aka looking it up on google), I found that the main culprit of that cardboard taste is a chemical called "nonenal". It's apparently also a chemical in human body odor of aged people, leading to the so-called "old people smell". This isn't proven, but there's some evidence that this is the main culprit for the somewhat-neutral scent of older people's perspiration. In a beer, not quite as neutral, however.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_15 on 2014-08-11. Score: -1
  
  It is unlikely to be harmful (assuming it hasn't become infected), but the flavour may have changed compared to fresher bottles of the same brand. In particular, the aromatic oils from the hops will break down as the beer ages.
  
  Whether this makes the beer undrinkable will depend partly on the beer and partly on the tastes of the person drinking it. If you are curious you may as well try a mouthful or two.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_16 on 2014-12-04. Score: -1
  
  3 ingredients help beer stay good,
  alcohol, hop and Yeast.
  
  so beers above 5% or really bitter beers.
  Or beers with yeast in the bottle.
  
  for example geuzes are at their best after 7 to 15 years, and stay drinkable for more than 30 years.
  
  The taste changes over the period.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_17 on 2014-08-14. Score: -1
  
  No. The most important thing is, that you control if the beer lathers when you open it.
  
  If there is no foam, throw it away ;)
  
  best regards from austria
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_18 on 2014-12-05. Score: -1
  
  Here's a video of someone attempting to drink a beer from 1988 - it didn't go over very well for him.
  
  [How to FAIL at Chugging A 25 Year Old Beer (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZR6ntvMDY4)
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_19**: While pretty gross, I doubt there was anything harmful in the beer.  
  
  ---
  
  