When to toss spirits past their prime

Washington Post Food staff recently answered questions about all things edible. Here are edited excerpts from that chat.

Q: I have too-many-to-count bottles of whiskey and other spirits that are seriously wellaged. At what point do I pour them down the sink and toss the bottles in the recycling bin?

A: Your base spirits will keep virtually forever; your liqueurs may fade a bit over time (look for sugar crystallization and others signs of a turn, like a change in colour), but generally if you’re storing them right, liqueurs should keep a few years. Bailey’s and other things that have cream in them, not so much. If you have opened vermouth and sherry and such, you should probably have thrown those out years ago. My best guideline for this is smell and then taste the stuff. I recently chucked a 10-year-old bottle of St. Germain because it had started to get a little funky — not that it had actually spoiled, but it had lost its freshness and become a little odd. If you try the liqueurs and they still taste OK, then they probably are. (But do not taste an old Irish cream liqueur. Your nose should warn you off it, but I’m warning you anyway.)

Q: Does that apply to an unopened bottle as well? I have some of those little airline sized bottles that might be as old as I am — obviously I wasn’t the one who originally acquired them.

A: Unopened will probably be OK, but again, test it out. More sugary liqueurs can sometimes degrade a bit in the bottle, and anything with cream in it, I’d probably chuck out!