Ok so now it's winter, & I want some Fosters Bitters. I have found that I like bitters a great deal. I looked for them last summer/fall after having had 2 last winter. I tried to get local stores to order some in for me to no avail. Can anyone tell me if it's just a seasonal beer? Or if there is some place I can order some from anytime?
Is there any other type of bitters I should try since I found I enjoy bitter flavor?

Also if I can find some I will buy all they have, & store it. Is this a bad idea? I mean will it keep or go bad?

Foster's Bitter isn't seasonal.  It's always on my liquor store's shelves.

Foster's? Go bad? How could you tell if it did?  

Thanks Raven. I heard that beer can go bad, I just don't know how quickly that it happens. I will now go to the store, & make a new request for them to order me in some bitters.

Yeah beer can go bad, but it takes years I think. I've found cans of beer laying on the ground that were so old you could barely make out what brand was printed on the can, but it tasted fine.

I just want to add for the record that regular Foster's lager is some nasty shit. What is with that corny taste?

I thought all beer expired, and rather quickly. Such is called "skunky" beer. In high school, this is almost all we drank (expired beer, but usually before it tasted too bad), as my friends all worked at grocery stores and knew when to dive in the dumpster to get the discarded expired cases

Only beer bottled in green bottles gets skunky.  It lets some frequency of light in that reacts with the beer with time.  Imported beer in green bottles like Heinekin, Grolsch, Becks, and Steinlager always have that skunk taste to them.  But if you try those beers in their home countries when its fresh, it tastes a lot better.


Henry Weinhardt Ale, with the boar on it?  That's in green bottles but because it's fresher than the imports it usually doesn't have that skunky taste.

[ROFL2] you've got the most appropriate avatar ever!



Another Australian beer that's really good is Victoria Bitter (often just called "VB").

Haven't seen any in locl store, though [:(]

I REALLY want to try VB, I hear nothing but good words about it.

Foster's is total suck-ass beer in Australia.  Almost nobody drinks it there, according to what I've heard.  If it tastes the same there as it does here, I can understand why.  It's pretty damn sick.

pssst, it's "bitter" not "bitters".  Bitters is a herbal flavoring/spirit, bitter is the type of ale.
I like it too!

Not true, although brown bottles are better at keeping sunlight (which does cause beer to go bad) off of beer. The biggest cause of beer going bad is oxygen (it gives beer that cardboard kinda taste). The trick for brewers is to get as much air out of the bottle as possible, but its never 100% so eventualy what ever oxygen is in the bottle will react with the beer.

I don't suppose there's any room for Guiness in this discusion is there?

Boy does this topic bring up a story. Once upon a time a LONG time ago, I used to brew a lot of home brew. Being as my taste for beer runs towards the stout side of things, I was always experimenting and trying new recipes.

It was near Halloween, and we hade several friends over for a brew party. I decided that I wanted to do a "bitters" batch for something a little different. Along with all of the usual ingredients, I got a small vial of "bitters". This vial looked much like the little vials of perfume that used to be handed out at department store counters, and held enough bitters concentrate for five gallons of liquid.

Being the curious type, I gave the vial the sniff test. Nope, no smell. Never one to stop once on a roll, I decided to give the colorless liquid the taste test.(remember, this is small vial is enough for five gallons of liquid) Just a small drop on the index finger and into the mouth it went. GAG!!! I'm. gagging so bad I can't speak. I'm running around the house ripping open those mini bags of M&M's shoving them into my mouth. My friends are in hysterics laughing at me, and all I can think is "damn, this must be what it would taste like if you ate a gall bladder". It was absolutely the most awful thing I've ever put in my mouth, and that's saying a lot.

Needless to say, every time doing something stupid in front of your friends comes up in this group, I get reminded of my little number. I still love my stouts, but probably will never make a mistake like that again.

I gave my dog some Fosters and he started licking his ass to get the taste out of his mouth!