Is my beer spoiled?

Not spoiled, just oxidized. Perfectly fine to drink. It's probably flatter than a door though.

 

Is it possible someone drank right from the jug? If so, dump it. Also might be possible the jug was not sanitized properly before filling. Did you get the jug from the brewery? Always possible it was something in the beer, but doubtful if it was good initially. No matter the cause, if it does not smell or taste right, don't drink it.

 

Welcome to the forums!

A couple of questions:
1. Was the growler (your jug) refrigerated? You say it was in someone's "kitchen", and then your room, but was it stored at temperature, or just...you know, sitting out?
2. Is your growler (your jug) a "screw top" or a "flip top"?
3. How "fizzy" is the beer? Is it more carbonated than you remember it being, or less carbonated? Is it not carbonated at all?

Generally, when I hear the word "spoiled", the only thing that comes to mind is what is referred to as "infection", where a bacteria not native to the beer is introduced. This can lead to the bacteria interacting with the sugars and yeast in the beer, and causing it to taste differently than the manufacturer intended.

If you left a poorly sealed growler out in the open for a long period of time (i.e longer than a couple of hours, a day max), infection could be a likely culprit.

I'm no doctor, but my understanding of infection is that it generally can't make you sick - it just makes your beer taste "less good". I'll let someone more wise tell you if its worth drinking it or not.

 

Just settled yeast/phenolics most likely. Nothing concerning. The alcohol in the beer kills anything that would harm a person regardless.

 

—yes, and it was also probably there before you opened the jug.

You'll see this in a lot of beers if you just hold the bottle up to the light.

 

Welcome to the BA site, Lexigirl1228. If it's only 12 ounces, pitch it. It sounds like from the tone of your comments that you have already decided that you really don't want to drink it. The carbonation is likely gone, thus you're beer is nowhere near what it once was.

 

my advice is to drink it, and also buy more beer because you are likely to run out.


rinse, repeat, go find late night mexican food.



welcome to beer lyfe####

 

Good rule of thumb for growlers is to consume it all in one sitting. It sucks to be under the gun like that but you end up not wasting good brew!

 

nice pun!

 

A couple weeks ago you opened up a resealable container that had a carbonated beverage in it. It sat outside at an ambient temperature for the duration of the time it was not in your house. You brought it into your house to let it continue to sit at an ambient temperature for another week and a half.
I hate to break it to you. But, beer in resealable containers dies a quick death the minute you break the seal. You'll be lucky to get 3 days out of it once you opened it. And that would be if you were to store it properly. You however did not, so what happened is basically the same thing that would happen if you were to open up a 2 litre of coke and leave 1/3 of it in the bottle on your counter for 2 weeks. It would be flat, lifeless, and it would taste awful because of that.
Beer doesn't necessarily spoil because alcohol tends to kill most anything that might be interested in getting into it in the way like they would to a sandwich that you leave in a bag on the counter for that amount of time, or an unfinished cup of soup. When you allow it to sit at room temperature and in an open container. You are effectively killing it.
Go ahead and try to drink it. I think that makes you sound like a bit like a desperate college student. But. If that's your deal. Go for it and get the alcohol it sounds like you crave from it. But be forewarned. It's flat. It's lifeless. And it's definitely not work drinking.