15 year old beer: Safe to drink?

[JetSmooth]

Be careful, Michale Jackson died from eating an 8 year old wiener

Michael Jackson gloved one or the revered beer writer?

On this site, you have to be very careful about which Mr. Jackson you're referencing.

 

[alexdagrate]

Stumbled across this thread while trying to figure out if I was about to poison myself last night. Thought I'd share the result. My father-in-law picked up a case of Heidelberg (Barrel Stubbies I think?) at an auction for $2. As far as we can tell they were from around 1975. Anyways, long story short. We tried them out and went back for seconds. They were surprisingly good and tasted like a caramel tinged trappist ale. I have no idea what they were supposed to taste like as they were a year older than me

Only side effect? Gas...

Is this the legendary Heidelberg Alt that used to be brewed in Tacoma, Washington State? I live in the South Puget Sound and used to drive by the old Heidelberg brewery all the time. I always wanted to try some of it, especially since it was an alt brewed back in the days of macrolagers.

 

[FromZwolle]

Oh man that reminds me... I have a can of Michelob in the fridge that is at least 10 years old. My brother is a pilot and one day he was flying August Busch somewhere. He said it was really funny, everywhere they went they handed beers to anyone standing around. When they went to get on the plane August handed my brother a bunch of beers. He brought them home and we drank them all but I saved one as a "special" beer straight from the man himself. I guess I'll drink it someday.

Joe

The devil gave you beer? Brimstone light-probably not 'cold filtered' enough for me.

 

[rmchair]

This is a great thread. Here I am mulling over a bunch of old beers, and I feel a lot better about drinking them now. My story is my brother left a bunch of Busch Light at my vacation condo as a "thank you." I am sure he scored it at a wedding or something and it sat in his boat for a few months to a year. I let it sit in the back of the fridge for a year, avoiding it, until I bit the bullet and popped one open after running out of micro and being too blitzed to go pick up more.
It tasted fantastic- it was ice cold, (and still free). But the next morning I was really hungover. . .

 

[ksbrain]

Zombie!

But I also have found that Busch Light tends to hold up better over the years than Sam Adams, just based off anecdotal evidence from the back of the bottom shelf of my parents' fridge.

 

[AdamGoetz2011]

I've seen a lot of these threads end with the OP not posting the results. I'm curious to how they taste.

I am drinking on 19 year old beer from Japan and it tastes great... nothing bad about it sitll had nice fizzz so i threw it on ice and now enjoying it nice and cold.. got allot more.. taste allot stronger than it originally did when we first ever drank it.. still alive to talk about it.. lol

 

[AnonyBrew]

I am drinking on 19 year old beer from Japan and it tastes great... nothing bad about it sitll had nice fizzz so i threw it on ice and now enjoying it nice and cold.. got allot more.. taste allot stronger than it originally did when we first ever drank it.. still alive to talk about it.. lol

Man, 19 yrs? How do you remember?

 

[Greg_Salyer_13]

I have not made beer in 15 years. I had gotten heavily into wine making. Recently I decide to jump back into beer again and while making my first run in 15 years my brother came over we got to talking about beer I had made in the past. We then noticed the dusty beer bottles sitting on my shelf that were 15 years old. He talked me into opening one. I expected major SKUNK, but was I ever surprised! This beer was still quite good!!!

 

[k1ngl1ves]

Wow!

 

[Revvy]

I got everyone beat on this necro thread..... We tried 48 year old beer today.

 

[hawker95]

So I ran across this post and had to ask. I have an unopened can of budweiser frrom 1974. The lable is printed upside down on the can. Its so old its starting to get hard to see the lable. The can is a bit rusted. Not sure how many more years it will last. My question is would it be harmful drinking something from a can that old? Im expecting the worst on taste, curiouse to try, Maybe I'll save it untill it turns 50 Im afraid to just hang onto and it start leaking.