To drink or not to drink.......

...Im currently on vacation in Phoenix AZ visiting my younger brother who has had a pint bottle of Stone Pale Ale in his fridge for at least the last 2 1/2 years or so. He's not a huge beer guy per se but he likes his heffenwisens, and is partial to guiness. As this Stone pale ale isnt in his wheel house he hasn't ventured to try it and has offered it to me. Now what do I do? Do I happily accept?? (i think it might be good) or do I run screaming because its been sitting so long??

?????? Run screaming??????? You think beer goes bad in a way other than the marketers @ budwieser with their idiotic born on dates would have you believe?

In the Dec 07 Zymurgy Charlie Papazian reviewed bottles of homebrew going back to the first AHC competition that he had stored, and none of them went bad, some had not held up but most of them he felt were awesome...We're talking over 20 years worth of beers.

Since nothing pathogenic can grow in beer, there's no worry needed about getting sick from them. All that can happen is that they may not have held up over time.

This is a great thread about one of our guys tasting 4-5 years of his stored brew.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/revisiting-my-classics-160672/

Beer's like wine, a lot of them improve with age....That's why stone has "vertical epic" with vintage, and people have vertical tasting parties

I made a beer that won't even be opened before 5 years go by on Sunday. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/he...emorial-5-year-aged-barleywine-recipe-195096/

Enjoy the beer.

drink it and find out... who cares... the worst that could happen is its not so good and you pour it down... more than likely its going to be really bland tasting.

Not going to hurt ya. I'd drink it out of curiosity, though my understanding is hoppy beers don't really improve with extended aging.

Drink it. I just drank a beer last night (Getting my bottle count up) that was purchased in the virgin islands more than 6 years ago. Now I will not lie and say it was great, but im here right now.