>> I got a couple of cases of Miller Lite tall-boys (canned) that are from
>> 1997. I don't know if they were stored in a cool dark place and avoided
>> sunlight (hope so, though) or not. I opened one and it tased kind of
>> strong (skunk?). What I really want to know is if these are "safe" to
>> drink (I realze they won't taste like recenly brewed beer). Somebody
>> help me out here. Thanx in advance...
>>
> If you were able to drink seven year old ML and have to ask if it's still
> good... The only help I can offer is Walter Reid Hospital (the military
> one in Washington D.C.) may have transplant surgery for folks who's taste
> buds were shot off in the war.
>
> I doubt that slugs in the garden or fraternity pledges would drink that...
> Pour it down a storm drain!
>
In a slightly more serious vein, I offer the following:

A beer associate of mine in the medical field once was manning a 3-11 or
4-midnight shift of a poison-control center hotline. On this shift, it
happened a newspaper was doing a "day in the life of" article on a "typical"
shift of the place.

The very last call of the shift was a matronly-sounding woman whose husband
had discovered a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon cans under the stairs. The
guy was apparently determined to sit in his chair that night and drink the
whole thing. "At the very minimum, that thing has to be at least seventeen
years old, maybe closer to twenty-five. I'm trying to talk him out of it;
can you tell me if there's anything in old beer that's going to hurt or kill
him?"

The homebrewer took the call: "Ma'am, the canning process pasteurizes the
beer, and there are no human pathogens that can survive in canned beer. So
as long as the cans aren't leaking, bulging, or covered with green slime or
something, it's perfectly safe for him to drink it. However, I'm going to
save him a lot of trouble: it'll taste exactly like seventeen-year-old
PBR!!"