How Long Can Vodka Be Stored in a Plastic Water Bottle?

It may seem counter-intuitive to think that you can store vodka, whiskey, and other types of hard alcohol in a plastic water bottle. Common sense seems to tell us that the alcohol would melt or burn through the plastic, and that dangerous toxins from plastic bottle would be leached into the alcohol.

Although this line of thinking seems logical, it turns out that hard alcohol can be stored for very long periods of time in plastic bottles with no ill effect. In fact, many of the less expensive brands of hard alcohol sell their products in plastic bottles. Canadian Club is a well-known type of blended whiskey that is packaged in plastic bottles.

So don’t be afraid to use your spare water bottles to store your alcohol. One trick that drinkers use is to replace the water in their plastic bottles with vodka or some other clear alcohol. This helps to disguise the fact that they are drinking alcohol when in public places. I see many people do this down on the beach here in Thailand where I live.

Exactly how long can you store the alcohol in a plastic bottle? There seems to be some debate on this question but the time frame generally agreed-upon is a long one, from months to even years. Alcohol itself degrades very slowly, although it may lose its flavor over time. And due to its high alcohol content, it is largely immune to bacteria.

So if you are a home brewer and distill your own alcohol at home, you can feel safe storing your product in empty plastic water bottles. And likewise, if you simply want to transfer some of that vodka from the big bottle into a smaller one for easier transport, you can do so without worries. It won’t contaminate the alcohol with toxins or make you sick.

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