The expiration date on cans and bottles often vary enormously. But according to the Nutrition Center, most beers can still be drunk up to a year after that date without having to worry about stomach pain. Is it actually necessary to flush beer down the drain after the best-before date? And on what basis does a brewer determine the expiration date of his beer? Can you actually give beer a shelf life? In short, enough questions to write a nice blog about it.
Quality guarantee
A better word for shelf life could be quality guarantee. The date on the bottle actually indicates until when the beer has the taste that the brewer intended. After that, the beer is still good, but the taste can change. In short, you can say that the beer does not spoil, but only changes its taste. This differs per beer type. There are actually three important elements that play a role in the change in taste of beer. This is the influence of light, temperature and oxygen. Take light for example, a dark beer is of course a lot less vulnerable to this compared to a blond beer.
The best thing to do is to store all the beer in the same place without too much light. In addition, temperature has a great influence on the carbon dioxide in the can or bottle. If it is too warm, the carbon dioxide will escape slightly and will therefore have a shorter shelf life. In fact, the last two elements of shelf life are quite related.
Brewing process
During bottling, brewers must put an expiration date on the bottles. Countries outside the European Union do not have this obligation and therefore often put a can/bottle date on the bottle. They therefore place the trust with the consumer. But how do you determine until when your beer has the properties that you as a brewer have given it? Brewers can of course influence the shelf life of the beer. But there are several things in the brewing process that are important to be able to put the right date on the bottle/can. I briefly spoke about this with Ronald van der Streek (owner and founder of the Utrecht VanDerStreek) and Koen Overeem (Owner and founder of brewery Rock City).
How do you determine the shelf life of a beer during the brewing process?
Ronald: The shelf life of beer is actually extended if you handle your beer as well as possible in the brewery. This actually means that you want as little oxygen as possible. As brewers, we measure this in parts per billion. When filling, we actually measure how many parts per trillion there are of oxygen. Before a beer goes into a tank, for example, we fill the tank with nitrogen, which of course ensures that no oxygen can get in. And when filling, carbon dioxide is first added to the can. Then the beer is filled under the carbon dioxide. By taking these measures, the beer has a longer shelf life. But as soon as a beer leaves the brewery, it immediately deteriorates. This has to do with light, temperature and therefore oxygen.
For example, are there any legal obligations?
Ronald: Not necessarily, there is nothing in a beer that can make people sick. Not even if the beer is left for 20 years, so to speak. Only the taste really deteriorates enormously.
Koen: Beer can't really spoil, most brewers choose a short shelf life so they can be sure that the beer tastes as intended. For larger breweries that also sell beer to supermarkets or for example OnderNulPuntVijf, it may be that a longer shelf life is requested on the can because there is no guarantee about how quickly a beer will eventually be resold.
Is there a difference in shelf life between an alcohol-free beer and a beer with alcohol?
Ronald: Actually not, a non-alcoholic beer is usually pasteurized. That means it is just a stable product that you can just drink.
Koen: We use the same methods for brewing an alcohol-free beer and a beer with alcohol. An alcohol-free beer can have a longer shelf life. But then you quickly end up with the quality of the beer, which then deteriorates.
Look, smell and taste
As the new anti-waste campaigns already say: look, smell and taste before you throw something away. This certainly applies to alcohol-free beer. There are even consumers who prefer beer after the indicated expiration date. This is because the beer has become a little more sour, for example, or hop varieties play a less prominent role. It is important to have a nice drink with some salty snacks next to your alcohol-free beer, but it is perhaps even more important to take the expiration date with a grain of salt.
So cheers (even after the best-before date)!
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