Does Jagermeister Expire? Ryan O’Bryan Gets the Answer

Believe it or not, I had a question the internet couldn't answer, so I went straight to the source to find out if a bottle of Jägermeister I've had for some time can still be enjoyed when the mood strikes.

Just how old is this bottle? Well, my wife bought it for me as my first Father's Day gift when she was eight months pregnant with our son. He turned 11 in August.

Since then I've kept in our deep freezer in the basement, taking a little sips here and there over the years, and often forgetting I even have it. That is until I was having a conversation with someone over the holidays about taking shots of Fireball Whiskey during a camping trip over the summer. Somehow, the words "Fireball Whiskey" reminded me of my Jägermeister, and whether or not it was even any good 11 years later.

When I got home that evening, I went downstairs, popped open the deep freeze and took the cap off the bottle. It smelled like Jäger, and quick sip told me it tasted like Jäger, but it's Jäger, which to some already tastes like it's spoiled.

I was pretty confident that I was good to go, but I wanted verification to be safe so I asked Google. After pages of results (mostly messages boards of other people asking the question, and people who thought they knew giving an answer), and a search of the Jägermeister website, I came up empty. So I did the next best thing. I tweeted them.

Figuring they probably get a ton of tweets a day, I covered my bases by sending them an e-mail through the contact page of their website that said —

To Whom It May Concern:

I have had a half drank bottle of Jagermeister in my deep freeze for over 11 years. Does the product have an expiration date or spoil? Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

That was sent Christmas night just before 10:30pm Central. I had forgotten all about it until this afternoon when this showed up in my inbox —

Hello Mr. O'Bryan,

A full and originally closed bottle of Jägermeister is limitless maintainable.

As far as an opened bottle is concerned, we would like to point out that Jägermeister is produced out of natural raw materials only. Hence, Jägermeister is a very complex natural product that is subject to natural transformation processes after the bottle had been opened. Such an ageing process cannot be prevented but is even more proof for the naturalness of our product.

We recommend keeping an opened bottle of Jägermeister in the refrigerator or at a cool and dry place in order to protect the desired taste and flavor. It is not absolutely necessary to put the bottle in the freezer.

Best regards

Team Jägermeister

If I may paraphrase, they basically gave me a bunch of marketing speak touting how much work goes into their product, but didn't really come out and say it would be spoiled, buuuutttttt, they didn't say it wouldn't be either. I think I'll go with my taste buds. They seem to think it's good, so I'll go with that until another part of my body tells me otherwise.