So I've just found a 33 year old unopened bottle of Guinness

onrail

Found today in a cattle shed. So many questions:

• Is it likely to give me superpowers if I take a slug?
  
• Does it contain the ghost of Paddy Kavanagh?
  
• Will it kill every living thing within a 2 mile radius if opened?

Only time will tell....

NIMAN

I'm guessing a dose of the sh1ts might be likely.

Die Hard 2019

That's worth a fortune

Get on to Diageo’s twitter and see would they be interested in it.

sadie1502

Die Hard 2019 wrote: »

That's worth a fortune

The ****s or the beer?

onrail

sadie1502 wrote: »

The ****s or the beer?

Or the ghost of Paddy Kavanagh?

onrail

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Get on to Diageo’s twitter and see would they be interested in it.

Don't really do the whole twitter thing - fee free to give them a shout on my behalf!

slavetothegrind

auction it on ebay ta fcuk!

onrail

slavetothegrind wrote: »

auction it on ebay ta fcuk!

To be fair, I'd say it's worth less than the price of a pint in Temple Bar.

Seriously fighting off the temptation to open it.

triona1

Are you single?
If not don't.

KevRossi

The farts will be epic.

archer22

onrail wrote: »

To be fair, I'd say it's worth less than the price of a pint in Temple Bar.

Seriously fighting off the temptation to open it.

Give it a lash, it will either be the nicest Guinness you ever had or it will produce an ominous rumbling sound ten minutes after drinking.

theteal

Ah it's only a best before date.

Have at it horse!

slavetothegrind

ye will have him in bits! Think of that off pint you were served multiplied by 100......

But if you do drink it we need footage......

I cared but then i needed entertainment and TRUMPED the caring like a modern day boss!

archer22

slavetothegrind wrote: »

ye will have him in bits! Think of that off pint you were served multiplied by 100......

But if you do drink it we need footage......

I cared but then i needed entertainment and TRUMPED the caring like a modern day boss!

Especially the bit where the medics ask him what he has drank or eaten recently and he answers..."only a 33 year old bottle of Guinness doc" :pac:

onrail

archer22 wrote: »

Give it a lash, it will either be the nicest Guinness you ever had or it will produce an ominous rumbling sound ten minutes after drinking.

I'll sleep on it and make up my mind tomorrow.

If you don't hear from me in a couple of days, send help.

odyssey06

onrail wrote: »

I'll sleep on it and make up my mind tomorrow.

If you don't hear from me in a couple of days, send help.

Make out a will and take out some medical and life insurance first.

poitinstill

given its age and unopened..its a half pint so wont kill you. might taste like crap as 4.?% isnt meant to be aged. but someone might like to purchase the bottle in its current condition ( wink) on ebay

you might make a few bob or you could drink it ( it will taste like guinness watered down or vinegar as the corrosion on the cap may be let in some nasties)

either way keep us posted. if we dont hear back we will presume the worst

imfml

Call the Ray D'Arcy show he loves stuff like this

Blud

I honestly don't see that you have a choice here OP.

antodeco

Or, keep it for another 67 years and it'll be back in date again

STB.

onrail wrote: »

Found today in a cattle shed. So many questions:

• Is it likely to give me superpowers if I take a slug?
• Does it contain the ghost of Paddy Kavanagh?
• Will it kill every living thing within a 2 mile radius if opened?

Only time will tell....

The writing on the label of the bottle on the right hand side has the months of the year on it. Below them they have two years, 87 and 88. This is the best before date. This means you should consume it before that.


If I was given the option of drinking a bottle of that or drink from one of the Guinness Key rings, I'd chose the latter. Unless of course you are partial to yeast worms. Are you ?

hurikane

STB. wrote: »

The writing on the label of the bottle on the right hand side has the months of the year on it. Below them they have two years, 87 and 88. This is the best before date. This means you should consume it before that

Any chance you’d be free to help the WHO with the new corona virus?

STB.

hurikane wrote: »

Any chance you’d be free to help the WHO with the new corona virus?

Just checked the fridge, would only be able to sort them with the weak version. And I doubt that those aging rockers would be interested in anything but the hard stuff.

amdublin

What happened? What happened? Is the op still with us??!

irish_goat

STB. wrote: »

Unless of course you are partial to yeast worms.

What's a yeast worm..?

the purple tin

Don't open it or the resale value will plummet!
Your local might like it to display it on the shelf, they will probably give you a pint of stout for it.

MarinersBlues

onrail wrote: »

I'll sleep on it and make up my mind tomorrow.

What was the point in this?
It just sounds unnecessarily uncomfortable.

dubstepper

Consume within dashing distance of the toilet.

Purple Mountain

KevRossi wrote: »

The farts will be epic.

He can update us in the etiquette thread.

STB.

irish_goat wrote: »

What's a yeast worm..?

Something that could manifest itself in the bottle if it wasn't airtight.


Guinness Extra Stout was unfiltered and unpasteurized until the 90s I believe.

the purple tin

You must have the cleanest cow shed in Ireland op!

BarryD2

NIMAN wrote: »

I'm guessing a dose of the sh1ts might be likely.

More than likely - if it was 33 old Jameson you'd be grand but not enough alcohol in beer I think to keep it good that long. If it still has a bit of gas in it, might be ok but if flat..hmm.

BeerNut

STB. wrote: »

Something that could manifest itself in the bottle if it wasn't airtight.

Are the worm eggs already in there but dormant without oxygen, or do they get in once the cap is no longer airtight?

Nordydave

Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!

Tired Gardener

My biggest question is how the bloody hell did it get unnoticed for that length of time?

As for what to do with it, personally I'd leave it unopened and see if it has any value sold to collectors or the local pub as curiosity.

DellyBelly

imfml wrote: »

Call the Ray D'Arcy show he loves stuff like this

Funnily enough these are the kind of topics that he does excel on. I like when he has random or bizarre pieces on his show. On more serious things he's not the greatest...

kevcos

The auld lad drank I think a ten year old can of Guinness once, didn't knock a stir out of him.

Peregrinus

It will be rancid. It's an unpasteurised fermented product and is only good for about six weeks.

(The canned stuff is pasteurised.)

prawnsambo

STB. wrote: »

Something that could manifest itself in the bottle if it wasn't airtight.


Guinness Extra Stout was unfiltered and unpasteurized until the 90s I believe.

Afaik, that's when they stopped bottling it with live yeast still present in the beer. Back in the day, if you were trying to make home brew Guinness, you'd use the yeast cultured from a pint bottle of Guinness to get the taste right. Which raises the question as to whether it was present in half pint bottles. Or whether there just wasn't enough in that volume.

The point about yeast being present is that it would continue to ferment (albeit slowly) in the bottle which would produce the carbon dioxide that gives that bit of fizz. So as a poster above suggests, if there's a release of carbon dioxide when you open it, you know that (a) the seal is good and (b) the beer should be as well. It will probably be stronger than intended as well. But alcohol is a preservative (as is sugar), so I'd say drink it.

As an example, I found some bottled Budweiser (a copy based on the original Czech recipe that I'd brewed myself) in my shed a couple of years ago. I'm fairly sure that I'd brewed and bottled it around 15-20 years previously. It still had fizz, was clear as crystal and tasted lovely. So there's that. A couple of bottles didn't fizz when opened and I just threw that out. It would have been bottled with yeast present as well.

irish_goat

Peregrinus wrote: »

It's an unpasteurised fermented product and is only good for about six weeks.

(The canned stuff is pasteurised.)

Unpasteurised beer has a far longer shelf life than 6 weeks.

Peregrinus

irish_goat wrote: »

Unpasteurised beer has a far longer shelf life than 6 weeks.

Depends on the style of beer (lagers last longer, for example) and on the manner in which it is stored (refrigeration extends shelf life).

Not sure, off the top of my head, when Guiness started filtering the bottle product to remove yeast, but I'm reasonably confident that it was less than 33 years ago, so this is a live yeasty unpasteurised stout, stored in unrefrigerated conditions. I don't think we're looking at a great deal longer than six weeks.

BeerNut

Peregrinus wrote: »

lagers last longer, for example

Huh? Cellarable beer tends to be strong and dark, because the flaws will be less apparent. The hallmarks of ageing are oxidation (staleness, cardboard, sherry) and autolysis (soy sauce, Bovril). With an imperial stout or barley wine these effects will either be hidden or add a desireable complexity. The only lagers this will improve are again strong and dark ones, like say Samichlaus.

Peregrinus wrote: »

Not sure, off the top of my head, when Guiness started filtering the bottle product to remove yeast

In Ireland, 2000. Longer ago in GB.

Peregrinus wrote: »

I don't think we're looking at a great deal longer than six weeks.

Live yeast makes the beer last longer as it removes oxygen. It's luck of the draw how much or how bad the autolysis will be. In general, if you want a beer to still be drinkable after 5 years+, make sure there's live yeast in the bottle.

Rob2D

Call up the storehouse in Dublin. They might be interested in keeping it for display someday.

enda1

BeerNut wrote: »

Huh? Cellarable beer tends to be strong and dark, because the flaws will be less apparent. The hallmarks of ageing are oxidation (staleness, cardboard, sherry) and autolysis (soy sauce, Bovril). With an imperial stout or barley wine these effects will either be hidden or add a desireable complexity. The only lagers this will improve are again strong and dark ones, like say Samichlaus.

In Ireland, 2000. Longer ago in GB.

Live yeast makes the beer last longer as it removes oxygen. It's luck of the draw how much or how bad the autolysis will be. In general, if you want a beer to still be drinkable after 5 years+, make sure there's live yeast in the bottle.

So, should he drink it or not? Any predictions on how it'll taste?

Mac-Chops

Only 25 odd years old but myself and my Da had one of these each recently after he dug them out from some old kitchen cabinets and not a bother on it.

He had already cracked one of them open before any conversation came up about what else to do with it.

Ryath

Seems they were just given to employees's were probably actually worth a few bob!

Hodors Appletart

There's a 40 year old bottle of Macardle's in my father-in-law's house it's a bit of a family joke at this stage

I recently found some homebrew of my own that I'd brewed a good 6 or 7 years ago as a double ipa it had matured into a crystal clear pretty good tasting barley wine

Mac-Chops

Ryath wrote: »

Seems they were just given to employees's were probably actually worth a few bob!

I'd say he reckons he got enough out of them after 45 odd years!

Anything other than drinking it would have been nonsense.

BeerNut

enda1 wrote: »

So, should he drink it or not?

That's up to the OP. The most dangerous thing in any beer no matter what age will always be the alcohol.

enda1 wrote: »

Any predictions on how it'll taste?

Musty cardboard, with some sherry if you're lucky.

Gaspode

onrail wrote: »

Found today in a cattle shed. So many questions:

• Is it likely to give me superpowers if I take a slug?
  
• Does it contain the ghost of Paddy Kavanagh?
  
• Will it kill every living thing within a 2 mile radius if opened?

Only time will tell....

#1: No

#2: No such thing as ghosts, so also no.

#3: No

As a food safety expert I can be pretty sure that beer doesn't support the growth of dangerous bacteria, but from my own experience with a bottle of Guinness that was 8 years out of date I can tell you it will absolutely taste like pure sh1te. Bin it.