Found my parents spirits cabinet.
Opened and unopened bottles include Cognac, whisky, etc.

The opened stuff has been like found since last century, no one at home drank alcoholic beverages under normal circumstances.
If and when, it was mostly beer and quality wine. No strong stuff.

Should I merge stock with mine or what i found should make a one way trip to the drain?

I know none of it aged while bottled but have no clue about its lifespan.

Thank you.

0-0

Drink up. It's fine.

Should be fine, although we did find an unopened bottle of Wild Turkey in my dad's attic that had the cork dissolve into the whiskey. It was not fine.

Hard alcohol, like ammo, has a long shelf life, especially if unopened. Don't know how many years on your opened stuff, but I still have the rare glass of a Rip Van Winkle bourbon that I opened maybe 8 years ago and it is fine.

Booze rarely gets that old in my house . However, I once found a few bottles in the 20-30 year old range left behind by my mom when she moved. Most of these, those not exposed to the sun, have been fine. There was one bottle of peach brandy that had mold floating, I didn't try that. A few bottle of bourbon with only an inch or two in the bottle had lost taste along with their pigmentation, tasted kind of like lightly-flavored grain spirits.

quote:

Originally posted by Perception:
Should be fine, although we did find an unopened bottle of Wild Turkey in my dad's attic that had the cork dissolve into the whiskey. It was not fine.

Even that *may* have been salvageable. Wine is often "corked" by harmless micro-organisms that eat the cork. Less frequent with whiskey, but it does happen also. The TCA chemical that ruins the taste can usually be sopped up by decanting into a pitcher with a sheet of Saran Wrap, which the TCA preferentially binds to. The spirit won't be 100% restored, but it may be completely drinkable.

Anything sugary, like Kahlua or Amaretto, will be ungood. Other open spirits may be a crap shoot, taste and see.

Unopened? Good to go!

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
Even that *may* have been salvageable. Wine is often "corked" by harmless micro-organisms that eat the cork. Less frequent with whiskey, but it does happen also. The TCA chemical that ruins the taste can usually be sopped up by decanting into a pitcher with a sheet of Saran Wrap, which the TCA preferentially binds to. The spirit won't be 100% restored, but it may be completely drinkable.

The things you learn on the Sigforum!

It only goes to waste if you spill it or dump it.

1] Good liquor is wasted on a drunk.

2] A tightly sealed bottle of liquor can remain good for decades.

3] Opened liqueur will turn to a solid.

Open bottles of liquor are fine to drink for decades. The taste will dimish over time especially bottle that are less than half full. Unopened bottles last for decades. Dusties as they are called can fetch insane amount of money. All but the old Wild Turkeies from before 1990s. Those are hazardous to your health. The gold foil or bottles with the gold vines as especially hazardous for consumption. Contact me if you have one and I'll gladly dispose of them at no charge. I'll even pay shipping.

Define "go to waste". If I own it, it goes to waste because I don't drink it promptly. Back in 2004 I bought a case of A H Hirsch. 16 year gold foil. Google it some time, the price is up to about $2500 a bottle now. I gave away/sold all but 4 bottles. 3 of them live in my reloading room, unopened. One I drank and shared with friends and neighbors. Most people would consider that wasted. Just like all the other bottles I have sitting around.

I didn't quit drinking, I stopped. That could be temporary.

At my former employer, we had a bottle of pre prohibition whisky. Sealed with a gelatin seal which had largely shrunk. The contents had sort of evaporated over the years. Still in its gift box even. Who knew they'd been boxing the stuff for holidays all this time. To avoid a fight, the executor of the old mans estate just let it sit. Whoever you gave it to would feel lucky but incur the wrath of of the others. Easier to do nothing. Maybe a collector would pay good money for it.

I live along the river. Near where the northsouth rail lines cross it. Ludlow, Kentucky (where I don't live) but the rail lines cross was known as a hobo jungle. Those bums (the former term for homeless) would love to have your excess. They'd put it to good use.

Don't give it to the unwashed, they'll just waste it. Or to the liars who claim to be Vietnam Vets, but are only 25 or 30. They need to work for a living.

I may ease back into drinking. A bottle of Boone's farm Apple sounds good. Used to only cost $1.

Drink Scotch. It has the shelf life of Mick Jagger....

Just be careful with the cork,if it’s corked, so that it doesn’t break.

I opened a bottle of Wild Turkey that my great uncle had stashed away and the cork broke off at the base of the top. We had to push it in the bottle...and then we had to drink the whole fifth...thank goodness several of us were there.

Wild Turkey corks from a certain era are notorious for breaking or disintegrating after many years of sitting. The bourbon remains good and can be easily filtered/strained into a new storage vessel. Cheesecloth works as do coffee filters. Some cork goes bad and taints the contents but most of the old Turkey cork issues are just the cork drying out and crumbling.

There are 2 separate issues with alcohol.

1st is food safety/spoilage. Can hard alcohol, wine or beer go "bad" in the sense of making you ill? Nope! In the case of hard alcohol the reason is obvious, the content is so high it kills any organisms. With beer and wine, the low PH and alcohol combine to kill any organisms harmful to human consumption.

2nd consideration is taste. Oxygen will degrade the color and flavor of anything, open bottles or ones not sealed perfectly will evaporate. UV light can cause degradation depending on what it is and how it is packaged. Finally; beer and wine can be "infected" by bacteria causing them to sour etc. This won't hurt you, but it may taste really bad. "Sour" beers are made this way on purpose and vinegar is also of course safe to consume.

I'd drink 'em!

To expand on Berto's post: Corks breaking off is pretty common. Not among heavy drinkerss, they realize the problem and just drink up. But there's another solution. First, corks tend to change the flavor and degrade it.

So you just decant the contents into a pitcher or other holding container. Then you'll discover the cork or what remains of it, sort of blocks the pouring so be patient. Then you get out a plastic grocery bag or walmart bag. They tell you to stuff it into the bottle, but a better approach is to take a dowel rod and push it to the bottom of the bottle. Then you start twisting the handles. Over and over. After a short time the remains of the cork will get caught up in the twisting bag. Then you can just pull the bag out. The cork will come along. Try it sometime.

Its a handy trick to keep in mind. The best part is that it works. Quick an easy.

quote:

Does booze go to waste?

Not in my house
But seriously, I'm a modest drinker at best...and a heavy drinker at my worst.

I recently went thru an estate and picked up a few bottles of liquor in it,

a couple bottles of unopened Cognac (maybe 12yrs old, stored properly)

a bottle of Lord Calvert's Canadian, unopened, stored properly , with a Navy store sticker on it,

it has a rep online of being cheap, and cheap tasting,

also some other whisky that was opened, and tasted bland,


plans are, use the Canadian, and the open bottle, on the smoker (soak some apple or hickory chips, ,
should be good enough for that,


I'll drink the cognac eventually

Things like cream liquors tend to solidify with age.