231

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

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world

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

top 33 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] RickAllensLeftArm@lemmy.world 40 points 10 months ago

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

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago

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

[-] RickAllensLeftArm@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

My wardrobe agrees.

[-] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 16 points 10 months ago

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

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 7 points 10 months ago

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@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

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

[-] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months 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.

[-] squiblet@kbin.social 11 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] wahming@monyet.cc 12 points 10 months ago

Is that because he's dead?

[-] squiblet@kbin.social 16 points 10 months ago

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@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

Jesus fuck that took a turn

[-] squiblet@kbin.social 6 points 10 months ago

we weren't really expecting it either...

[-] TheaoneAndOnly27@kbin.social 4 points 10 months ago

Well I was not expecting that reply.

[-] squiblet@kbin.social 7 points 10 months ago

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

[-] wahming@monyet.cc 3 points 10 months ago

Oof.

[-] Dkarma@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

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

[-] balderdash9@lemmy.zip 9 points 10 months ago

[-] musicworld@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

How does it taste?

[-] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 months ago

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

[-] musicworld@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Not even for science?

[-] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 months ago

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

[-] maker@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 months ago

enjoy

[-] Johniegordo@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 9 points 10 months ago

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

[-] Johniegordo@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Hahaahahahhahah indeed!!

[-] squiblet@kbin.social 5 points 10 months ago

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@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] squiblet@kbin.social 3 points 10 months 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.