Can You Keep Beer Longer Than You Thought—and Is That Good News?

You probably haven’t had the same crate of beer sitting on your balcony for forty years, like the people who found a can of cola from 1976 at the back of a cupboard… But do you ever wonder how long you can actually keep beer? There’s almost always a best-before date on it, but how strict is it really now that it turns out it can easily be extended too?

A few days ago, it was announced that the major beer brewers Grolsch, Heineken and InBev are extending the best-before date on their hospitality kegs by three months. This decision has two sides: on the one hand, it gives hospitality businesses the opportunity to keep the kegs for longer until (hopefully soon) they are allowed to reopen, and on the other hand, it saves the brewers a great many truck journeys that would normally be needed to collect the kegs, as well as the replacement of beer that is still perfectly drinkable. This saves costs on both sides. But what does extending the shelf life mean for the at-home drinker? Are we now discovering that beer can’t go bad?

Nothing to worry about

These breweries guarantee that the beer in the kegs does not lose any quality. And for anyone who didn’t know: the best-before date on beer intended for home consumption mainly concerns the quality of the taste, not because the beer can necessarily spoil (provided, at least, that it was brewed and bottled under the right conditions). It therefore guarantees that the taste will remain as the brewer intended until that date.

Or slightly too casual

True beer experts, who often brew beer themselves, also say in this article by Misset Horeca that the taste (which can also fall under the concept of quality) does indeed deteriorate the longer beer is stored. Yes, provided it is stored properly and kept cool, storing it for longer will not have an extreme effect, but if you take beer as seriously as sommeliers take wine, then “the fresher, the better” is probably your motto. Beer lovers therefore consider it nonsense to say that nothing changes. Still, they understand these extended dates, as long as the beer is stored under the right conditions.

To each their own

Beer expert Emma Christensen belongs to a different school of thought: she says that how long a beer remains good obviously depends on the type of beer, but that it can actually be interesting to leave some bottles (especially those with an alcohol content above 9%) for a year. According to her, some elements of the flavor profile will indeed deteriorate, while others will emerge in a more appealing way. The bitterness of hops may fade, while the sweetness of malt may become more pronounced. She recommends experimenting with storing some bottles.

In short: if you don’t go too far with it or store it improperly, an ordinary beer at home should still be drinkable for a few months after its best-before date. What you do beyond that, we would mainly regard as personal research!

Read also:

• The best-before date makes me paranoid
• Would you keep raw red meat for three weeks?
• These are the tastiest things to eat with your IPA

Sources: Misset Horeca, The Kitchn