Have leftover Beer in bottles and cans from holiday party. How long can we keep the beer?!


Question: My husband says you have to throw it out after 6 months or so as it will go flat and stale.


Answers: My husband says you have to throw it out after 6 months or so as it will go flat and stale.

if its refrigerated it wont go flat, but it may not taste right, even a year+ later.

clear bottles: 2 months max
dark bottles: 6 months sounds about right
cans: probably a year or more.

check the sell buy date and add a month

Depends on the use by Date,, I usually keep foods 2-3 days after use by Date,, But i think you could get another 1-2 weeks out of beer.

drink it all in one night!!!

yes around 6 months but flat beer is great for cooking Beef and ale pie,Stews,Casseroles and my favourite is a recipe from Majorca a Spanish island a leg of lamb cooked in Beer and local herbs cooked very slowly until the meat is very tender served with potatoes and when you cook with beer or wine the alcohol is burnt off just leaving a rich taste

Average beer does get "skunky" taste after about 6 months from bottling. Some kinds can last a bit longer but not a lot. Might as well drink it now.

It depends on the packaging and the specific beer style but as a rule of thumb 6 months stored in a cool dark place sounds about right.

My primary concern would be keeping the beer out of the light as certain beers need as little as 15 minutes of light exposure to be completely ruined. The cans obviously don't have this problem. It should be noted that ONLY light exposure causes "Skunking" or "light touched" beer, it is not a result of age.

It's a common misconception that repeatedly cooling/warming beer will ruin it but this is only the case in extreme temperature changes.

I do like the suggestion of cooking with it though. Even if you have no intention of drinking that beer, there are some wonderful foods to be made even with low quality, expired, oxidized, skunked, flat, or stale beer.





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