7ish year old homebrew

[Tidwellc]

I recently got in back in touch with an old friend from years ago who informed me that he still had some bottles of homebrew that I gave him back in 2011/2012. If its the brew I think it is, its a vanilla stout, and I remember it being freakin delicious after 6 months of bottle-aging.

It might be mind-blowing, or it might be vinegar. Either way, I'm excited to see. Not sure yet when we're planning to meet up, but I'll be sure to report back.

Anybody have any experiences with something similar? How did it turn out?

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

Depends a lot on how it was stored

 

[bracconiere]

if it's vinegar try it on some fries! but acetobacter need oxygen to ferment so probably fine?

 

[Brewcifer]

I'll bite. I have 1 beer left out of a remaining sixer that was brewed in 2001 or 2002 best I can remember. It was our "Strong Ass Scotch Ale" recipe. IIRC, it was ~8+ ABV. Stored at room temp in the liquor cabinet(dark) the whole time. Bottled with oxygen absorbing caps.
Last I shared a couple of them was this past May, and they still tasted great but with no real carbonation.
I don't know what we did right, but they somehow remained drinkable. I wish I would have kept more.
Keep us updated on how it turns out! Good luck.

 

[parjay]

I found a 5+ year old bottle of my first brew a while back, an American porter, it was better than any other bottle I had from the batch.

 

[bracconiere]

I'll bite. I have 1 beer left out of a remaining sixer that was brewed in 2001 or 2002 best I can remember. It was our "Strong Ass Scotch Ale" recipe. IIRC, it was ~8+ ABV. Stored at room temp in the liquor cabinet(dark) the whole time. Bottled with oxygen absorbing caps.
Last I shared a couple of them was this past May, and they still tasted great but with no real carbonation.
I don't know what we did right, but they somehow remained drinkable. I wish I would have kept more.
Keep us updated on how it turns out! Good luck.

pre facebook and twitter! you could try selling it on ebay!

people were just starting to get flip phones, and i had a 700Mhz CPU...i think it was actually 533 overclocked though!

 

[Brewcifer]

 

[tll77]

Some beers seem to age better than others. How its stored will also affect how it ages.
I have bottles from a few batches as far back as 2010, mostly bigger beers, a belgian dark strong, multiple vintages of spiced holiday ale, a kriek that just keeps getting better each year.

 

[gnef]

I recently refound a keg of barleywine and double IPA brewed in 2007, both are different, but still excellent beers!

 

[TechFanMD]

I recently refound a keg of barleywine and double IPA brewed in 2007, both are different, but still excellent beers!

Losing a bottle or 6 pack hidden away is one thing.....but you lost/forgot about whole kegs? The last beer you had before that must have been really strong!

 

[Calder]

Bigger beers tend to age better.

Open it and give it a try, you may be surprised.

I regularly leave some bottles for 5+ years, and only had one bad beer. It was a big Belgian brewed with a large amount of grape juice. I think the juice may have had an issue with oxidation. I have a case or more of a 12+% Barley-wine, that is over 10 years old, somewhere in the crawl space. I occasionally pull a couple out, and they have matured very well.

 

[gnef]

Losing a bottle or 6 pack hidden away is one thing.....but you lost/forgot about whole kegs? The last beer you had before that must have been really strong!

Haha. Well, to be fair, I have around 80 kegs in the walk-in cooler, and some are stacked three kegs high in there, so I don't do a full inventory very often. I have 14 taps, so I'm not pining for one particular beer, and it is easy to forget about older ones as I put newer ones on.

 

[JimRausch]

Haha. Well, to be fair, I have around 80 kegs in the walk-in cooler, and some are stacked three kegs high in there, so I don't do a full inventory very often. I have 14 taps, so I'm not pining for one particular beer, and it is easy to forget about older ones as I put newer ones on.

I want to visit, no scratch that, LIVE in your house!

 

[Calder]

Haha. Well, to be fair, I have around 80 kegs in the walk-in cooler, and some are stacked three kegs high in there, so I don't do a full inventory very often. I have 14 taps, so I'm not pining for one particular beer, and it is easy to forget about older ones as I put newer ones on.

You do realize that there are people on the forum that think having 80 bottles is a lot to keep track of.

80 kegs/14 taps; what are you running?!? Probably better stocked than most bars!

 

[gnef]

Haha. Well, for me, it all started with brewing more and more but not drinking to keep up. This meant that I needed more kegs for storage and aging, as well as increasing the number of taps because I also didn't like drinking the same thing over and over.

I also typically don't drink a full pint, but prefer to take samples of multiple taps.

Included in those 80 kegs are some ciders, meads, and sodas as well, so they aren't all beer.

I am a bit of an accumulator, so as long as I don't need a keg for something specific, I'll let beer age in it. I was running low one time, which is when I found the 2007 barleywine and Double IPA, which I then decided to tap and drink down so that I could regain use of those kegs.

I also got started buying equipment right around the start of craigslist, so I kept finding great deals on equipment. I wouldn't be able to afford my equipment at today's prices!

 

[NGD]

Haha. Well, to be fair, I have around 80 kegs in the walk-in cooler, and some are stacked three kegs high in there, so I don't do a full inventory very often. I have 14 taps, so I'm not pining for one particular beer, and it is easy to forget about older ones as I put newer ones on.

Never know there was such a thing a cooler-envy. Yet here it is. Nice man.

 

[gnef]

Never know there was such a thing a cooler-envy. Yet here it is. Nice man.

Haha, thanks!

Here is a quick picture of the coffin box serving setup:

And here is a view of the inside:

 

[day_trippr]

"dispensing porn"

 

[wepeeler]

Very interested to see how the 7+ year old beer turns out.

A little off topic, but I think it's appropriate: I have 5 gallons of a RIS currently aging. The plan is to keg in mid December, but I'd really love to age some of this. Would it be ok to dispense carbed directly from keg into pint swing top bottles? Or should I prime and bottle with capped bottles? Seems like more work, and I've never naturally carbed before...

 

[homebrewer_99]

I've had beers over 8 years old. Still have a few left. Open them up and pour. What's the worse that could happen?

 

[Tidwellc]

Very interested to see how the 7+ year old beer turns out.

A little off topic, but I think it's appropriate: I have 5 gallons of a RIS currently aging. The plan is to keg in mid December, but I'd really love to age some of this. Would it be ok to dispense carbed directly from keg into pint swing top bottles? Or should I prime and bottle with capped bottles? Seems like more work, and I've never naturally carbed before...

I haven't ventured into the world of kegging quite yet, but I'm pretty sure there's equipment you can get to bottle and cap from the keg and not lose the carbonation (or lose very little of it)

 

[bracconiere]

Haha, thanks!

Here is a quick picture of the coffin box serving setup:

And here is a view of the inside:

love the unfinished plywood look! it'd be better if you used picnic taps though! and f'in a....that's a lot of kegs!

 

[balrog]

Thanks @gnef . Next time I hear "YOU HAVE TOO MUCH BEER STUFF" I am **SO** totally whipping out these pics!

 

[gnef]

Thanks @gnef . Next time I hear "YOU HAVE TOO MUCH BEER STUFF" I am **SO** totally whipping out these pics!

Haha, I get that a good bit from the other club members, the whole "but I'm not as bad as gnef..."

love the unfinished plywood look! it'd be better if you used picnic taps though! and f'in a....that's a lot of kegs!

Yea, that walk-in was going over budget as it was, so I couldn't do a nice finish on it. I definitely invested in kegs and serving equipment though!