How long will bottled Porter keep in the refrigerator?
Asked by
srmorgan (
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October 29th, 2009
At the back of our garage refrigerator I found several bottles of “Vanilla Porter” from a brewery called Breckinridge.
As best I remember we bought a sixpack of this for use on Thanksgiving weekend 2007.
I know I can open the stuff and see how it tastes but what are the odds that the beer is still good and not “skunked”?
SRM
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4 Answers
If it was in a garage fridge (which i’m guessing isn’t used much due to there being 2 year old beer in it), it probably didn’t get much exposure to light from the fridge door opening, so it could be fine.
On the other hand, some of the carbonation could be gone, so that might affect the taste.
I’d say it’s worth it to try one to see if it’s ok.
@buckyboy28 Thanks, I am going to try it (there are three bottles left) over the weekend.
I know that beer does not improve with time in the bottle as wine does.
SRM
@srmorgan some people prefer darker beers like porters and other stouts with less carbonation, so who knows, maybe you’ll like it!
Some beer, ones with higher alcohol (usually over about 8% abv) actually can benefit from aging time in the bottle… some even up to several years.
The Breckenridge Porter is probably not one of them. But it’s been in the refrigerator the whole time, so it won’t have aged much.
Also, it can’t be skunked if it wasn’t exposed to UV light. Skunking is a chemical reaction where the hops react with UV light to form chemicals almost identical to the bad smelling chemicals that a skunk puts out. Chances are this beer isn’t at it’s peak, but will be just fine.
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