Beers of Dubious Vintage...

Over at my uncles the other day and nabbed a Sam Adam's Noble Pilsner from the fridge. While the nifty little age indicator on the bottle said best before August 2012.... begging the question when will a beer no longer be good to drink?

Beer is a perishable product, meaning, it will at some point go bad. However, nothing can really grow in beer that will kill you. So, using my patented rachel logic, I drank the beer. It was pretty good. Light, a touch hoppy, but still mild, i think i liked it.
Anyways, here's the lesson for today. I may have said this before, but most commercial beers (non craft or micro) are pasteurized. Sam Adam's isn't an exception for most of their beers. This particular one was kept refrigerated  which is said to help keep the beer from hitting that skunked state for a little longer. Skunked, by the way, is what happens to beers that have passed their prime. Normally, beers are said to last 3-6 months, but that can be stretched. Honestly, not much is going to happen to the beer, just maybe a steady decline into not tasting as good for quite a while. With proper storage, some beers can improve, however.
Check out the Beer Advocate: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/store
Anyways, the moral of the story is, if you find a beer in the back of your fridge and you have no idea when its from, take it out, pour it in a glass, sniff it and see how feel about it. It might not be half bad yet!
Cheers!