How long does vodka keep?

Addle

Once opened, how long does a bottle of vodka keep?

We don't drink much at home and I put off opening bottles of drink because I'm afraid they'll go off.

gizmo555

I had a Russian colleague who insisted that for the best flavour, vodka should ideally be drunk within three weeks of it being distilled and that the bottle should be finished within three days of opening it. But then again, he'd drink it neat. Since we usually drink it with mixers, it'll keep pretty much indefinitely.

L1011

It's sterile. There isn't much taste to degrade,particularly in generic vodkas. Pretty close to forever is the answer

newacc2015

gizmo555 wrote: »

I had a Russian colleague who insisted that for the best flavour, vodka should ideally be drunk within three weeks of it being distilled and that the bottle should be finished within three days of opening it. But then again, he'd drink it neat. Since we usually drink it with mixers, it'll keep pretty much indefinitely.

How do they get it from the distillery to the customer within 3 weeks? Do people drink vodka from a local distillery? If you look at all the stages a bottle goes through to get to the customer here.

Ravelleman

newacc2015 wrote: »

How do they get it from the distillery to the customer within 3 weeks? Do people drink vodka from a local distillery? If you look at all the stages a bottle goes through to get to the customer here.

Perhaps it's the Russian version of Irish people mythologising pints of 'good' Guinness.

Mesrine65

About a weekend if my OH opens it :eek:

rubadub

gizmo555 wrote: »

I had a Russian colleague who insisted that for the best flavour, vodka should ideally be drunk within three weeks of it being distilled

On any decent home distillation forum you will see many "aging" the vodka for several months or at least weeks after distillation. This is not aging in barrels or anything, just leaving it sit there often with no cap, or just plugged or with a loose cap.

This would suggest it should both not be drank soon after distillation, and that opening it could actually improve it, depending on your tastes of course, but I never saw anyone on distillation forums say it was a negative thing to age it, not sure I ever saw discussion of opening bottles.

Of course saying being open could improve it would certainly not be in the interest of companies selling it, even if it has zero effect they would be better off saying it degrades. Just like you see BB dates on tins of beans etc which were never there in the 80s.

gizmo555

rubadub wrote: »

On any decent home distillation forum you will see many "aging" the vodka for several months or at least weeks after distillation. This is not aging in barrels or anything, just leaving it sit there often with no cap, or just plugged or with a loose cap.

What can I say? De gustibus non est disputandum!

My former colleague explained that the back label on many brands of Russian vodka has a numeric code which indicates when it was produced. He would always look for the most recently produced possible.