Question about the shelf life of liquor....

[vi5]

I was helping my parents clean out their basement and found a bottle of Chivas Regal and a bottle of Johnny Walker Red. Both of these are probably 10 years old but neither were opened. I'm a scotch drinker so I would use them, but not exactly sure of the physical properties of aging and such and if they'd still be any good.

Anyone have the answer to this? I suppose I could try them and see, but before I bothered I figured I'd check to see if there were a more straightforward answer on the subject.

[Feathered Fish]

1. They are probably ok

[seriousstan]

2. Hard alcohol doesn't go bad. If unopened it is good forever.

If opened it will evaporate. This is also true for beer, IF UNOPENED!! Beer WILL go bad if left open...DUH.

Have a good time with some well mellowed drinks.

[ixion]

3. given that chivas is aged 12 years before it gets shipped

it's probably better now than it was then. ;-)

[CarpeVeritas]

12. the 12 years refers to the time spent in wooden barrels

whisky doesn't "age" further in the bottle.

that being said- neither bottle is much of a prize.
chivas is downright awful, and johnny red isn't johnny black.

[vi5]

17. Nobody said they were prizes.....

But there's also no sense in throwing them away. I can enjoy a glass of $60 single malt, or a $10 bottle of blended scotch. Over time they will get drank so I was just wondering if I should bother throwing them away or not.

[Historic NY]

4. Send it to me, I will sample and advise...................

:beer: should be good I've never found a bad bottle yet.

[vi5]

5. Thanks for the input everyone. I will advise of results

:)

[Ian David]

6. They're probably fine, BUT...

I've found similar stuff in my grandparents' basement.

Including a bottle of Grommes & Ullrich Black Label Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (Pre-War distilled in 1942).

On the back is a yellow label that says:
WE DELIVER
Circle 6-0860 & 0861
Mid Manhattan Liquors, Inc.
8th Ave. at 45th St., N,Y,C, Kuc, L-239

It tasted great!

Anyway, a word of warning:

These old bottles use corks, and the corks dry-out!

I have a very difficult time getting the corks out of the bottle without them falling apart.

I have tried leaving the bottle upside down for a month before opening them, and that didn't work.

My suggestion: maybe one of those air-pressure powered gizmos they sell at Sharper Image (a Democrat-donating company) will open the bottle without getting cork in the bottle.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Liquor Doesn't Age In Bottles

There are a couple of things that can happen to open liquor. For one, since alcohol has a high vapor pressure, and boils fully at only about 78 celsius, opened liquor bottles will lose alcohol strength. Also, many of the flavor components (mostly aldehydes and ketones) will be lost, since these are low molecular weight organics that will also volatilize with time. The partial pressure will eventually come to equilibrium, so the concentrations can only go so low. (Leaving a bottle open, iow, will never make the proof go to zero.)

Also, if exposed to air long enough, some of the alcohol can oxidize to ethylaldehyde. This isn't any more toxic than the ethanol, but it tastes VERY different than the alcohol. So, you can start to get an weird taste from the liquor. (Think a licorice-y and sherryish taste.)

But, if the bottles are unopened, there is insufficient oxygen contact and interchange (mass transfer) to allow any appreciable chemical reaction due to oxidation. So, if left unopened, hard liquor is good, essentially indefinitely.

Sorry for the mini-chemistry lecture. (I used to teach quantum chemistry and quantum chemodynamics.)
The Professor

[vi5]

8. Hahaha...thanks for the lesson.

[Historic NY]

9. The Professor is always right....so break them out and lets sample....n/t

[Ian David]

10. Observation: You shouldn't freeze flavored vodka

I once put a bottle of Stoli Vanil in the freezer.

The Vanil part froze into sheets of crystals.

After thawing, it never re-mixed.

I was very sad.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. It Will Remix With Temperature

The vanillin and derivatives are highly soluble in alcohol and fairly soluble in water. However, when something crystallizes out of solution, there is enthalpy that makes that "system" more stable. It takes new and additional energy to change the phase.

So, if you take a bottle like yours and put in a sink of hot water, and occasionally remove it and shake it up, the heat will add enough energy to destabilize the crystalline bonds and break them. (Plus the solvolysis effect of the water and alcohol.)

I hope you didn't junk the bottle of Stoli, because you could have saved it, good as new, the way i just described.
The Professor

[Ian David]

14. Thanks, Professor!

With a professor like you, Gilligan would have gotten off the island quickly, and would have gotten drunk a lot more in the meantime.

And no, I didn't trash it.

I just shook it up well each time before I drank it, and it was pretty lame, but not terrible.

[BikeWriter]

22. Don't heat it rapidly, of course. I'd open the lid to make sure...

There's room for any expansion.

[ProfessorGAC]

24. Liquids Are Incompressible

They don't expand and increase fluid pressure. Since the bottle isn't full, there won't be any pressure.

Secondly, hot tap water won't get hot enough to raise the overall bulk temperature to a point where anything gets to its boiling point. Remember that 55 - 60% of everything in there is water. The boiling point of that is 100, and the partial pressure can only be 55 - 60% of 760mmHg, even at the boiling point of water.

Everything else in there might have a lower boiling point but the mole fractions would be so low that the overall pressure contribution will be very small.

You will have to have hot water bordering on boiling which wouldn't happen off the faucet.

Just didn't want anybody to be scared to do this.
The Professor

[Aiptasia]

11. they should be drinkable

whiskeys can keep for a long long time. Enjoy!

[CarpeVeritas]

15. i've never found chivas to be "drinkable"

and johnny red just barely.

[Magrittes Pipe]

16. I know theoretically that unopened hard liquor will never go bad.

Empirically, I've never run into that situation. :toast:

[Wilber_Stool]

18. Don't drink them. It could be dangerous.

Send them to me and I'll dispose of them properly.

[progressiveBadger]

19. My great-grandfather was a bootlegger in WI

Well, my grandfather brought a bottle he had from him down one day, and he and my dad decided that it probably wasn't safe anymore. They dumped it out on the lawn and it killed a huge circle of grass.

[BikeWriter]

20. I have a quart of Canadian Club dated 1978 I got in a raffle...

I'm saving it for a special event. :-)

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

21. Fascinating Theoretical Discussion

Of course, I've never had a bottle of liquor last that long in my house, so this was all a moot point for me.

But fascinating, nonetheless. I mean, what earthly force could cause a person to go ten years without finishing a bottle of Scotch?!

[Liberal_and_proud]

23. My Dad has a 2 bottles of Crown Royal

Both sealed. On one label is shows it bottled in 1962 and the other is 1967.