Can you drink expired beer?

Can beer go bad?

Yes. Like any other food, beer It has best before date. The main enemies of freshness are bacteria, sunlight and oxygen, which oxidize the drink and change its taste. Due to oxidation, the malty taste of dark beer begins to resemble rotten fruit, and light beer generally loses its characteristic shades and becomes like cardboard.

Brewers try to reduce the influence of these factors, but it is impossible to completely get rid of them. So beer gets worse as it ages. This does not apply to species that are deliberately aged, such as lambic.

To keep the drink as long as possible, different technologies are used. It is bottled in dark glass bottles, opaque metal cans and stored in dark places in order to protect from light. Fighting oxygen is not so easy - it will end up in the finished product anyway. But thanks to the improvement of equipment, brewers are constantly working to ensure that its amount is minimal.

Alcohol in the composition, brewing temperature and pasteurization protect beer from bacteria. Pasteurization is the treatment of jars and bottles with a jet of steam and boiling water at a temperature of about 140 degrees.

Can you drink expired beer?

Depends on the type of beer and storage conditions.

Regular varieties in the store are almost always pasteurized. Therefore, the beer is stored for 6–8 months, and after the expiration date, only the taste usually changes. The drink itself, with proper storage, remains safe for about a year. Try opening a bottle. If the drink sizzles and white foam appears, the beer may not taste good.

Craft breweries often forgo pasteurization in favor of flavor, which is why bacteria thrive in the beer. Such drinks have a shorter shelf life and are strictly forbidden to drink after it comes out.

The same goes for any open beer. In any case, bacteria multiplied in it and excreted some waste products, so you can get poisoned. It is better to throw away such a drink without regret.