How long do spirits like vodka, whiskey etc last before they go off ?
They never go off as long as you keep them in a sealed bottle. If the bottle is half-empty and/or open, though, the alcohol will gradually evaporate into atmosphere, and being more volatile than the rest of the contents (ie. water and any sugars and impurities) it evaporates off first, which means that after a while you end up with a much lower alcohol content than you started with. Incidentally, unlike wines which mature in a bottle, spirits only get worse with age. When whisky, brandy, etc. are ‘aged’ this is done in the cask where the spirit reacts with the wood, with air, etc., but when it is bottled the ageing process stops. Therefore, whereas you can keep wines for several years and expect them (the good ones at least) to improve, the same isn’t true for spirits. So best drink them sooner rather than later!
