$bill

Recipes 

I was cleaning my garage today and came across a box of beer that I bottled back in early 2009. I just tasted an IPA that I had in the box, bottled 3/20/2009. It was much better in April 2009, I can tell you. I'll be trying some hop oil, but the admonition on bottles of Pliny (my paraphrase: "drink it today, not tomorrow") is almost certainly wise advice and applicable to most IPAs and similar beers.

jdc2

Recipes 

In what way was it worse? Too dry, or was it infected?
The reason I ask is I have had mixed results with old homebrew,
but a lot of people here seem to think their beers get better
with age.
Jim

__________________
"What's that funny aftertaste?"

$bill

Recipes 

Old beer that I've sampled gets what I would describe as a raisin-like flavor, or in some cases becomes more cidery.

I definitely prefer fresher beer.

jdc2

Recipes 

That's interesting. Mine were either drier or had a stale cardboard
taste. I tasted a cidery two year old SA Boston Ale not too long
ago.
Jim

__________________
"What's that funny aftertaste?"

impulserush

Recipes 

I brewed a midwest IIPA In June of 09 and I just had the last one and It was Awesome. I also store in my basement which is 50 to 55 degrees. I think they get better with age.

My opinion

__________________
PENNSYLVANIA REDNECK HOME BREWER!

Primary: Empty
Secondary: Empty
Drinking:Belgian Wit. Hophead IPA, Weyerbacher Big Brews

Wine:
Primary: Empty
Drinking: Pomigranite Zin.Black Berry Merlot

passedpawn

Recipes 

I made 14 batches last year, and I saved at least 3 bottles of each. During Christmas break, I drank all of those old ones. Anything more than about 6 months old had gotten worse. My pilsners got a cardboard taste, like someone above mentioned. The IIPA was sweeter and hotter than I remember it. My rauchbier didn't have that magic that it had before (can't put my finger on that problem). The hefe's I made were even more clovey and cloying than when I originally bottled them.

High FG beers probably benefit from aging (I have 2 going on a year right now), but I like the way Michael Jackson put it (not the one-gloved androgynous dancer):

"If you see a beer, do it a favour, and drink it. Beer was not meant to age.".

__________________
Now there's some take delight in the carriages a rolling
and others take delight in the hurling and the bowling
but I take delight in the juice of the barley
and courting pretty fair maids in the morning bright and early

$bill

Recipes 

recently I also had some stout that I had bottled in February 2009, and it was very good. It was a sweet stout, and it definitely improved with age.

YMMV.

$bill

Recipes 

At lunch today I had another bottle of beer that I bottled back in 2009 from the box I found in my garage. It was a bottle of BCS "West Coast Blaster," and it was very good. It was probably better in April and May of 2009, but I don't recall with perfect clarity.

boredatwork

Recipes 

I made an IPA in November. In December the hop flavor/aroma was very fresh and alive. By January the flavor is still there, just not as intense.

weirdboy

Recipes 

IPAs and IIPAs I drink as soon as possible. The hop flavor and aroma fades pretty quickly.