A Liquor Question . . .

[Luckyforward]

Today I was given a fifth of Old Forrester whisky. It is unopened with the original seal and has a tax stamp of 1955. Naturally, some has evaporated, but the bottle is about 90% full.

My question from those of you who know about good whisky: as old as it is, is this whisky drinkable or will it gag a maggot? I don't know enough about whisky to know whether I need to see if this stuff is smooth or just throw it in the trash.

Your opinions will be appreciated!

[Caster]

Heck yeah. I just finished a bottle of scotch that was bottled before I was born.

[dralarms]

You have to try it. Might be nasty but it might be the best you ever drank.

[Guest cardcutter]

To avoid any pleasantries just send it to my house and I will do a thorough taste testing.

[dralarms]

To avoid any pleasantries just send it to my house and I will do a thorough taste testing.

Only if I get to help.

[Raoul]

Liquor doesn't improve with bottle aging. Its probably still drinkable but don't expect it to be anything spectacular.

[Caster]

Liquor doesn't improve with bottle aging. Its probably still drinkable but don't expect it to be anything spectacular.

I've heard that for years and I ain't buying it. The smoothest scotch I've ever had was the bottle of Cutty Sark I just finished. It's older than me and I'm 34. Cutty Sark is not known to be all that smooth, this stuff was smoother than the bottle of Blue Label I'm currently working on. I have a fresh bottle of Cutty Sark too, I use it as a bore cleaner when I ain't drinking it.

Edited July 8, 2012 by Caster

[gregintenn]

Liquor ages in wooden barrels. once it is bottled, ageing stops. As far as I am aware, it should taste exactly as it did when it was put into the bottle.

[Caster]

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying I choose not to believe it. It wouldn't be the only thing I'm backwards on.

I've drank 12 yr old Chivas Regal from a fresh bottle. I've drank some that been sitting around for a couple of decades. There's a difference.

I know an old man that used,to runs liquor store back in the 60s and 70s. He has stuff in his basement that has been bottled longer than I've been alive. Either it mellows out in the bottle or people suck at distilling nowadays. Which is it?

Edited July 8, 2012 by Caster

[gregintenn]

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying I choose not to believe it. It wouldn't be the only thing I'm backwards on.

I do not have any scientific evidence to back my opinion, just hearsay and experience.

[Caster]

I do not have any scientific evidence to back my opinion, just hearsay and experience.

Yep, me too. My opinions are clear but my experiences are strangely ......fuzzy.

[TrickyNicky]

When I was in my late teens I got into the stash in my parents garage. This stuff had been sitting there since the bar in their living room got destroyed in the 94 earthquake(LA). Some of the bottles ranged back to the late 80's and were just fine.

The scotch and bourbon was some of the best I've drank to date.

The idea that aging stops once in the bottle seems odd to me, maybe it's not absorbing the flavor of an oak cask, but it's most assuredly aging. Not even Johnny Walker can stop father time.

Drink it in good health.

[mikegideon]

I've heard that for years and I ain't buying it. The smoothest scotch I've ever had was the bottle of Cutty Sark I just finished. It's older than me and I'm 34. Cutty Sark is not known to be all that smooth, this stuff was smoother than the bottle of Blue Label I'm currently working on. I have a fresh bottle of Cutty Sark too, I use it as a bore cleaner when I ain't drinking it.

Raoul is right. If it was great, it went into the bottle that way. If age is a factor, it's because it was bottled before craftsmanship went to hell.

[TMF]

If age is a factor, it's because it was bottled before craftsmanship went to hell.

I submit to you Jack Daniel's Single Barrel.

Edited July 8, 2012 by TMF 18B

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Month-old Boone's Farm tastes lots better than week-old Boone's Farm [joke].

Beats me. Any booze is some very-specific mix of chemicals? I keep wondering why a fella couldn't get fabulously wealthy via careful chemical analysis-- Make very precise analysis of "the best scotch experts ever tasted" and then sell a bottle of the exact duplicate chemicals (sans alcohol) at walmart in the "drink mixes" section? Dump the "scotch of the gods" chemical brew into a quart of pure PGA, shake it up, and voila, the identical drink that was the accidental best life work of some master brewer?

Hey, I barely passed chem because I had a bad memory, didn't like to study, and didn't have the knack. But if you put a tin of ace hardware drain cleaner under the sink and then analyze it 50 years later, garun-dam-tee ya the chemical composition will have drifted from the brand-new condition, due to thermodynamics. So dunno if a 50 year old bottle of booze would be expected to get better or worse, but even bottled in glass, the trace chemicals leached out of an oak barrels ain't gonna be exactly the same after 50 years of thermodynamics? In addition the "mix" of alcohol vs accidental distilled impurities might drift over time as chemicals thermal-break-down, and possible certain trace volatiles escape the seal quicker than other trace volatiles?

[DaveTN]

I’ve never kept a bottle of whiskey long enough to find out, but why would any evaporate unless the seal is broken?

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I’ve never kept a bottle of whiskey long enough to find out, but why would any evaporate unless the seal is broken?

Am speaking wildly speculative, but would guess because no seal is perfect. The fashion nowadays believes that even black holes evaporate given sufficient time, and that is supposed to be a very good seal indeed.

Stable elements themselves don't drift in any reasonable time, but the chemical compositions will drift. Ferinstance if you hermetically seal old celluloid movie reels and set them on the shelf long enough, they eventually turn into excellent explosives.

[dralarms]

Just because you bottle it, that won't stop the aging process. I have been making wine and I bottled some pear and it was so so when I bottled it, but after sitting in the bottle for 4 months it's becomming a very nice, very smooth wine.

[Guest bkelm18]

Just because you bottle it, that won't stop the aging process. I have been making wine and I bottled some pear and it was so so when I bottled it, but after sitting in the bottle for 4 months it's becomming a very nice, very smooth wine.

Distilled spirits do not age like wine.

[TripleDigitRide]

The complexion will change over time, but it does not "age" after being bottled. The alcohol evaporates at a faster rate than other liquids, generally leaving behind a smoother beverage.

Storage is very important and plays a huge role, where taste is concerned, in older beverages.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch using Tapatalk 2

[Sam1]

I submit to you Jack Daniel's Single Barrel.

Yeah there are plenty of them around that taste great and not too expensive. Used to enjoy a god scotch whiskey on the weekends, and my favorite of all time has to be Glendronach single malt. I could usually only afford the 12 or 15 year old, but a few of us chipped in once and bought a 30+ year old bottle (they were about $500 a pop). The 15 year old was probably the best we ever tried.

[Luckyforward]

Here's the plan . . . it was bottled in 1955, and next month is my birthday, so I plan to sample it as my "birthday beverage."

I will report back on the taste!

[Sam1]

Get someone to record you when you do it so we can see the reaction if it tastes like snake vomit

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Here's the plan . . . it was bottled in 1955, and next month is my birthday, so I plan to sample it as my "birthday beverage."

I will report back on the taste!

Good luck, interesting experiment. I'm guessing it will at least be drinkable but dunno nothin.

As long as there's nothing seriously wrong with it I wouldn't be able to tell one way or t'other. Long ago had tried some ultra-cheap brands that were obviously bad, tasted like a mix of bug poison and kerosene. But over the previous year I sampled some fairly inexpensive brands hadn't tried before, and a few brands more expensive than usual, and couldn't establish any preference. Each brand tasted different but couldn't decide that one tasted any better than the other. So as long as it doesn't taste like kerosene, apparently expensive stuff is wasted money on my taste buds. It is fairly reliable that expensive stuff tends not to have as bad a hangover compared to rotgut, but if one only drinks a couple of ounces, not enough to get a hangover, then that isn't much consideration.

[Luckyforward]

Get someone to record you when you do it so we can see the reaction if it tastes like snake vomit

LOL . . . will do!