Do White Claws Expire? What You Need to Know!

White Claw hard seltzer is a malt beverage that is flavoured in a variety of different ways including, watermelon, tangerine, natural lime and ruby grapefruit. This malt beverage is a very popular and highly regarded liquor that is known for being refreshing like carbonated drinks with the alcohol content of something like a cold beer. However, the lack of an expiration date leads many to wonder when will a can of this trendy hard seltzer expire. So do White Claws expire?

Table of Contents

• Do White Claws Have An Expiration Date?
• How To Read the White Claw Expiration Code?
• How Long Does White Claw Last After Opening It?
• How To Store White Claw?
• What Happens If You Drink Expired White Claw?
• Final Thoughts
• FAQ
  • Can you get sick from expired white claw?
  • How long can white claws last in the fridge?
  • Can you drink expired Seltzer?

Do White Claws Have An Expiration Date?

Strictly speaking, a sealed bottle of white claw hard seltzer will not expire in the traditional sense, hence the lack of an expiration date. However, they do have a freshness window where they will be at their best quality. After which, they will slowly begin to deteriorate in quality.

The presence of alcohol in the drink will prevent microbial contamination though. This means that unopened seltzer will still be safe to drink. Additionally, due to being unexposed to outside air, the sealed white claw hard seltzer will be potentially at peak quality for a long time if stored well. As such, giving a precise answer to this question is somewhat difficult to do.

How To Read the White Claw Expiration Code?

Due to potentially never going off, instead of having a traditional expiration date, white claw hard seltzer bottles and cans will instead have a batch code. This code will tell you the production date for the individual drink.

This can be used as a good rule of thumb to tell the shelf life a white claw will be good for. The reason for this is because white claw hard seltzer when unopened should stay at its best for around a year. After which, it is expected to have degraded in quality somewhat, whether that being due to flat taste or more muted flavour.

To read the production/batch code of a white claw look at the code under the cap. If somewhat pixelated you may need a magnifying glass in order to avoid straining your eyes. For example, a code may look like this ‘A0121XXXX XX:XX FL’. 

This would mean that it was made in January 2021. As such to estimate the shelf life of your white claw hard seltzer, add a year to this to get your approximate expiration date. In this example, it would be January 2022. 

Once again, drinking the white claw after this “expiration date” will be perfectly fine. It just won’t be the best quality as it will likely have lost most of, if not all of its carbonation. Aside from that though the white claw hard seltzer would theoretically be good indefinitely.

How Long Does White Claw Last After Opening It?

Once a white claw has been opened, the amount of time it’ll be a pleasant thing to drink dramatically goes down. This is because the oxidisation from the air will cause it to lose its fizziness and flavour far more quickly than a sealed one.

The answer to does white claw expire is still be no, however. This is because it will still not foster any contaminants. It will only be appetising to most for roughly two to four days though. After which it will likely have gone flat.

How To Store White Claw?

If wanting to enjoy some white claw at home, it’s wise to store unopened cans in a way that will keep them at their best for as long as possible. Like most carbonated drinks unopened white claw hard seltzer cans will eventually lose their fizz through the seal gradually.

Like near enough any other malt beverage, white claw cans are somewhat sensitive to changes in temperature. As such, like with other malt beverages, you should avoid refrigerating, allowing them to get warm and refrigerating once more. Doing so can negatively affect the flavour and make them taste a bit funky.

Instead, it is best to either keep them constantly refrigerated. Alternatively though, if struggling for space, only refrigerate them for the first time when you expect to drink them soon. If you bought them chilled, then it is important to refrigerate them before they warm up to room temperature though as this will negatively impact the taste if you then refrigerate them. 

Keeping them somewhere warm will not make them go bad, however. The reason refrigeration is recommended though is that most people prefer the taste of chilled white claws.

What Happens If You Drink Expired White Claw?

Drinking expired alcohol can be something of a gamble. This is because some may make you quite ill whilst others will have little adverse effect aside from a particularly intense hangover or maybe some stomach upset.

Fortunately, an off white claw is closer to the latter side of this scale. As such, the worst part of drinking old white claws will be the dull taste for most. However, the unpleasant side effects mentioned prior may rear their heads for some people.

Final Thoughts

Whilst white claws don’t necessarily expire in the traditional sense, they will still degrade over time as carbon dioxide escapes from the hard seltzer. As such to get white claws at their best drinking them within a year of manufacture is recommended as is keeping them in cold storage conditions and avoiding repeated temperature changes. Alternatively, if the can is opened, it’ll typically only stay good for two to four days. Even if not keep in ideal storage conditions though, it’s not the end of the world as they won’t go off. Instead, they’ll simply not be as pleasant to drink and may give you a very rough hangover.

Like flavoured alcohol and making moonshine? Then you won’t want to miss our moonshine flavouring tutorial.  

FAQ

Can you get sick from expired white claw?

An expired white claw won’t make you sick as it will simply have become little more than alcoholic flat soda water. As such, in most scenarios, the only downside to expired white claws is the duller taste. However, very rarely like with any expired alcohol, consumption may lead to an upset stomach and/or a particularly nasty hangover. 

How long can white claws last in the fridge?

Unopened and in the fridge white claws can theoretically last forever and still be drinkable. However, over enough time the quality will diminish as they lose their carbonisation. Typically this will take between nine to ten months of their original production. However, an opened white claw will deteriorate in quality much faster and will typically only be at its best for roughly two to four days.

Can you drink expired Seltzer?

In a word, yes, expired seltzer is safe to drink. However, be aware that the taste will very likely be diminished as the drink will have lost most of, if not all of its fizz. Additionally, in some cases, it may give you a nasty hangover the next morning or potentially some stomach ache. To be perfectly safe, you can pour it out into a glass and inspect for anything unusual such as a strange smell or discolouration. If it seems a bit suspect, then it’s probably best to get a new one instead.