My older beers are some of my first I ever brewed. My lack of good technique has yeilded some
oxygenated beer. However in the interim, I have 1 bottle of Flemish Red that is 2+ Yr old …last
tasting of it was still good. My current cherry beer in cask will be coming one year this spring
and it is prolly not even started … the solera is a living continuing project.
I have some sparkling (?) mead that is 8 yr.old Need to try a bottle and see how that is holding up
to the test of time.
I have a tradition of brewing my holiday beer the year before I serve it. I has a lot of fans.
I opened a 3+ year old bottle today. It was good. Being that I don’t bottle much anymore I
need to make an effort to bottle a handful and squirrel them away and Ron Popeil them!
I have a 3 year old mild…
Ok, I checked the kegs I easily could, and the oldest one I saw is a Fred clone from 2004.
I have some older commercial brews for sure, but those are harder to get to so I don’t know exactly what the earliest years are for the JW Lee’s and Thomas Hardy, or the Alaskan Smoked Porter. I have some Jubel 2000, and some Old Boardhead from the late 90s. Hard to remember. 
This is a great subject.
I’ve got six bottles of my first Barleywine brewed in Feb 08. Also a Saison, a Tripel and a lot Braggot from about the same time. Another keg of cider and Barleywine that is at least 14 months old and 3.5 yo Ginger cider in 750ml bottles.
I don’t like the Braggot. Age has “improved” it but can’t drink more than one. I think the Saison and the Tripel may be past their peak. Could be oxidation and I’ve sensed a loss of carbonation in the Tripel. :-\ The Saison has won me shrewd looks of reappraisal and complements from my amazed epicurean friends. That made me feel pretty good, because that particular beer showed progressive positive changes in character over the course of time.
Mostly I brew for immediate consumption and have no problem drinking beer that is days old. My average beer is about 3-4 weeks when I officially start on it. Since I tend to brew 12 gallons I get to see how the beer changes (or doesn’t) over the course of 2 kegs and various force-carbings in PET bottles.
I planned on extended aging with all the aforementioned beers, but most of my brew doesn’t last more than a couple months at most.
I have no aged beers. They all got drunk, but I have some Saison I intend to age, and will brew an Imperial Stout soon.
I do have cider and mead aging from last year though, both in my house in the UK and in a basement in New York.
My current oldest is from early 1999. My club planned ahead for a “Millennium Party”, for the turn into the 2000’s. Members were asked to brew a beer of at least 100 gravity. (Note: this was an overnight party. Bring a sleeping bag, turn in your keys.) I brewed a Belgian “Quintuple”, or a “Double Tripel”, which fairly accurately describes what I was going for. OG was about 1.130, FG about 1.030. It’s bottled in champagne bottles, originally to about 7 volumes CO2, but the last one I opened (last month) was mostly flat. The biggest surprise to me is how much the color has darkened. It was golden, it’s now a medium-dark amber. It’s picked up a strong sherry note, but unfortunately has an unpleasant oxidation note also. I’ve still got a few bottles left, which come out for homebrew gatherings.
IU think I still have a couple of bottles of ‘BW’ I brewed back in 2006 stashed away in back vermont. It’s an extract brew and wasn’t really great for the first year or two. Last I tried it was christmas 2009 and it was pretty nice. My mother in law who is keeping them for me has apparently been enjoying one now and again, and she usually is a hefe fan so it can’t be all that bad. It’s darker than I meant it to be, might even be closer to a RIS. I also have an RIS here in CA that has been in the bottle for about 9 months, also extract. I had a lot of problems with that one including one bottle ‘bomb’ (not really that bad, just aone weak bottle I think) that is starting to get really drinkable now that there are only 2 bottles left. other than that they don’t usually last more than a month or so in bottles.
I generally keep a bomber of two of every batch for the “archives”. Recently opened a 2yr old bottle of oatmeal RIS that I oaked with Jack Daniels smoker chips. It was good when it was fresh, but it was divine after two years
I excel at that!
I’ve got some BW that’s 3-4 years old. and some coder that’s 5-6.
Great to hear that. Sounds like you’ve got a good plan going.
One other thing to throw out here. For those of you into competition, it’s a great idea to set aside beer (of appropriate styles) to age before you enter them. Just think about this example, think about the scores this RIS might have gotten when young as compared to what it would have gotten after aging.
I have a barleywine that’s about 2.5 years old and am currently drinking an oak aged RIS that’s about a year old.
I knew someone would, mmm tasty
It is almost 12 years old, I taped it and it was good but a bit oxidiezd
I have nearly two cases of a ‘bourbon barrel’ porter that tasted terrible when I brewed it three years ago. Threw both in the crawl space and forgot about them. Pulled one out last month for shits & giggles and couldn’t believe how much the beer had improved. Got me a 2nd place in Smoke & Wood-Aged category at the Chicago Beer Society’s Spooky Brew comp.
Congratulations! As I’d said before, aging beers for competition can be a big plus. In this case you started out with a ‘reject’ batch which improved greatly. Imagine what can happen when you age a good beer!
Thanks to everyone who voted. I’m very impressed with the numbers; it’s good to see that some homebrewers (more than I would have guessed) still have the patience and wherewithal to properly age their homebrew. I know it helps to have the time and room but the reward of cracking open a well aged homebrew far outweigh the hassle. Now that I’m thoroughly jealous I’m ready to brew a couple big beers.
I think there should be a distinction between “properly aged” and “not poured down the drain yet.”
I never suggested that my really old homebrew was actually any good.
full agreement, you’ll note that I used that language in my second post