Can you still drink a bottle of beer that is past its expiration date?

When guests who drink beer come over, I fill my fridge to the brim. And sometimes the leftover beers end up sitting there for quite a long time. What should you do when those bottles go past their expiration date? Drink them anyway or throw them away?

When it comes to expiration dates, I get the feeling there are always two camps. One camp still eats and drinks the product, while the other panics and would rather throw the product in the trash on the expiration date itself. Still, there are plenty of products you can still eat after their expiration date has passed. Products you probably would not even expect. So what about bottles of beer?

A matter of taste

Consumer affairs programme Radar spoke to Meint Waterlander. He is director of the Dutch Brewers and can tell us more about beer expiration dates. According to him, we can breathe a sigh of relief. Once a beer’s expiration date has passed, you can still safely drink it. The quality of the beer may deteriorate, but usually the taste is still good. It is up to us to smell, taste and then decide whether it is still okay to drink. The beer’s flavour continues to develop in the bottle — even after its expiration date has passed. As a result, the taste may change. Whether you like that or not is a matter of… yes, taste.

Different types of beer

Some beers actually taste better when they have matured in the bottle for longer. This is especially true of dark beers, such as quadrupels and winter beers. Lighter, fresher beers often do not have that quality. For those, the rule is: the ‘fresher’ you drink them, the better they taste. Good to remember when stocking up on beer.

Difference between THT and TGT

Have you ever noticed that packaging can feature two types of abbreviations relating to expiration dates? Besides THT (Best Before), there is also TGT (Use By). The latter abbreviation is more serious than the former. Once the TGT date has passed, it is no longer safe for people to eat the product. TGT is often found on highly perishable products, such as meat and fish. THT appears on packaging for products that do not spoil quickly. The quality of these products may deteriorate after the THT date, but they are not unsafe to consume.

Also read:

• Honestly: you can still eat all these products long after their expiration date
• How do you know whether spices are past their expiration date?
• Eddie’s food annoyances: that short expiration date when you have your groceries delivered

Source: Radar/AVROTROS