I’ve seen the occasional “stumbled across an old bottle of something”. Sometimes it’s good, even great; other times it’s just more garbage to throw out.
Anyone have any interesting old finds of theirs? I suspect this would be strictly bottles we’re talking about.
And also, how old were those bottles, and how did it taste? Anybody doing extreme aging (like, 10 years or something)?
i think there might be another thread like this, but oldest ive tasted was 12 years old.
both were stored in very suboptimal conditions, bottled poorly since they were my 3rd and 4th brews ever i think
porter - originally about 5.5% abv, tasted very vinuous, thin, strange oxidized notes. was scared to dribk much so put some on my tongue/lips and spat it out.
cider 6.5% sour, flavour-drained, watery but cohesive is what i remember. same as above didnt swallow any
more relevant, i regularly get strong beers that go out to a year. just finished a very strong ale that was about a year old since original brewing date. it was definitely starting to get oxidized, so next time around i intend to do more to prevent oxidation in a beer to be brewed like it soon. no sexondary, more care about hotside aeration, brewing water deoxygenation, using some roasted malt. etc
I currently have 12 cases of beer, cider, and mead in my basement. Some of the commercial stuff has been down there for upwards of 8-10 years, some probably more. I believe it’s all still good, otherwise I would have dumped it out already.
Regarding homebrews, I don’t usually age it for that long. Only if it makes sense, like for a barleywine or Belgian strong I might keep it around for 3 or 4 years. Otherwise I might keep some for a couple years but by the end it is usually oxidized pretty bad so I’ll either finish it off or dump it. Whether you are bothered by oxidation or not is a matter of personal preference, and differs a lot from batch to batch. I kind of do care, but I’m also pretty much the only person drinking these beers, and am NOT a heavy drinker at all. I’ve not had problems with it going sour for many many years, just oxidation is the big thing, and loss of hop character.
I once made a Scottish 80/- ale, all in bottles, that for whatever reason tasted as great several years later as the day it was first bottled. I hung onto a few bottles for I think like 7 or 8 years and shockingly it never went off or oxidized, was always great. I love that recipe. I need to brew me some more of that. Maybe play with the hops a bit next time, aiming closer to Wells Bombardier or Coniston Bluebird (yes I know those aren’t Scottish but humor me).
I’ve still got six bottles of guezue that won a gold medal in the NHC in 2011, squirrelled away in my basement.
I have bottles of mead that are over 10 years old…they were the first batch I ever did (of two batches), and have aged fairly well.
For beer, I had a gingerbread winter warmer that sat for around four years, and was exceptional. On the fifth year…not great.
I have some 2009 gold medal Barleywine in my basement, which was oxidized the last time I tried one.
One of the original guys in our club had 20 year old beer he would bring to the meeting. Usually pretty oxidized or defective, but now and then one would be great.
Is this the September 2016 brew? (I just searched your blog for “gingerbread”) That one sounds intriguing.
Did you combine the 2 different Abbaye/Abbey yeasts into the same fermenter, or split into 2 batches? (Your tasting notes sound like you combined them…)
I still have a few bottles of an English Barleywine that was brewed in 2014. It won two consecutive best of show awards when it was two years old. I am sure it is way more oxidized now but I am going to taste it again in a few weeks. I have a vertical flight of this style of beer that goes from 2014 to 2021.
I kept a raspberry mead for 20 years. Started out bad, never got any better, but it was CRYSTAL CLEAR.
I have some blended sours that have components dating back to 2010. Most of the bottles are past their prime but still drinkable. I have a brett brown ale from 2011 that is definitely past its prime that I need to polish off. I have a few mixed fermentation saisons across ~2014-2021 all holding up well. I think I still have a few bottles of a barrel aged stout from 2017. I might have a couple other brett beers kicking around from 2018 or 2019.
All these beers were bottled out of a syphon to bucket.
Mixed fermentation beers tend to hold up well in bottles even under less than ideal circumstances, even at lower ABV (4-5%).
By mixed fermentation beers, I take it that you combined beers from separate fermentations into a single beer? Am I understanding correctly??
And if so, are they split fermentations of the same wort, or fermentations of totally different worts?
I have no experience at all with sours/bretts, etc., so pardon my obtuseness.
Mixed fermentation typically means two or more types of fermenting microbes in one batch (pitched together or sequentially), whereas blended beers, such as Lambics involve finished beers of differing batches blended together for the finished product. The confusion is understandable.
Mixed fermentation refers to brewing with multiple types of yeast and/or bacteria. They can be brewed as a single batch, multiple beers fermented separately and blended, or a single batch split and fermented separately and blended back together. I tend to brew brett beers as a single batch of its own, like you would any other beer. With sour beer sometimes I brew and bottle individual batches. Sometimes sour beers are blends of different beers. They might be the same beers but aged for different periods of time blended together or entirely different beers.
Yep, they were combined into the same fermenter…it was largely a matter of not “wasting” yeast, rather than aiming for any miraculous combo. The beer wasn’t great during the first few tastings…only a few years fixed it!
Thanks all 3 of you guys for the descriptions. There’s so much for me to learn here. Such cool stuff going on in the beer world.
I’ve had a few that were over 10 years. The only ones that were truly tasty were barley wines and one brett old ale
6 (and counting)-year old English barley wine, brewed in 2017 as a collaboration. 11% abv. We drink two per year on the anniversary of bottling. Good until 2041. Getting better every year, so far…
I took a 19 year old barley wine to the brew your own seminars in Asheville in 2019. I shared it with Denny, Drew and Marshall during the session they were presenting. It was in a flip top grolsch style bottle that had been stored under our stairs at room temperature in Houston. At times this also meant room temps in the upper 80s when we were traveling during the summer. A friend babysat this beer at his house when we were out of the country for a year. The beer was tasty. Oxidized but still pleasant. Light on carbonation. It was better when it was younger but aged well, which I am also attempting to do.
thoughta on dark malt and percentages of it as an antioxidant over time??
Don’t count on it