Too Strange.. even for me

hankisanerd · Sep 18, 2009

I had taken a 15 year break in home brewing, and last weekend I brewed a batch and put it into 5 gals in the carboy. I was planning on doing another batch this weekend so, I went to the attic to retrieve my 2nd carboy to clean and sanitize it. When in the attic I decided to take a look at my cases of bar bottles. In one of the boxes I opened to find this.

FIND A

FIND B

15 years to the day. Now that is STRANGE

I put 2 in the beverage cooler and after dinner I will give them a taste. "What do kill ya makes us strong", Right?

Anyway wish me luck. It had to be a sign.......

BTW..Check out those High Tech labels that I got there....cool huh?

GilaMinumBeer · Sep 18, 2009

Nope. If it kills ya then your pretty much dead.

But with this, worste case is a bad taste in your mouth.

Brooklyn-Brewtality · Sep 18, 2009

wieeeeeerd.

i hope it's drinkable

Hoppus_Poppatopolis · Sep 18, 2009

Part of me hopes that it tastes like skunk pee instead of ambrosia so I'm not tempted to duplicate your aging process

mkory · Sep 18, 2009

Definitely let us know.

Do you remember the ABV?

hankisanerd · Sep 18, 2009

mkory said:
Definitely let us know.

Do you remember the ABV?

ABV?????? I guess not

BrewBrain · Sep 18, 2009

I love this sort of thing. Very interested in the results :tank:

hankisanerd · Sep 18, 2009

mkory said:
Definitely let us know.

Do you remember the ABV?

Wait... I do still have my old log book.

In the fermenter at 1.035
Bottled at 1.018 on 9/18/94

..and that why we keep records, right?

hankisanerd · Sep 18, 2009

This batch that was bottled is older than my 1st born (Freshman in High School).

Tonedef131 · Sep 18, 2009

GilaMinumBeer said:
Nope. If it kills ya then your pretty much dead.

Quoted for truth, if you don't post back within 12 hours we'll assume the worste.

mkory · Sep 18, 2009

I've heard anything 8% and above ages well (years and years) and less than that... not so well.

HenryHill · Sep 18, 2009

You're gonna need to drink them all at once. 17 points of ABV?

dontman · Sep 18, 2009

I am curious about the "Abbey Ale" part. Back when I was brewing in '94 my HBS had dme, a couple specialty steeping malts and maybe 3 types of hops. Yeast was "Yeast" Never heard of Belgian beers back then, at least as far as home brewing was concerned.

david_42 · Sep 18, 2009

Probably won't be skunked, but likely to be badly oxidized. Attics are not kind to beer. At least you know it won't be infected, because the bottles would have blown long ago.

IXVolt · Sep 18, 2009

Cool find!

Don't forget to take pictures of the beer in a glass. Curious how it looks after that long!

Coastarine · Sep 18, 2009

hankisanerd said:
In the fermenter at 1.035
Bottled at 1.018 on 9/18/94

uhh...unless I've read something wrong, that's 2.2% ABV and 47.7% apparent attenuation. I'm not going to say that this beer was never good, but I'll say that I've never enjoyed a beer boasting such numbers.

hankisanerd · Sep 18, 2009

hankisanerd said:
I had taken a 15 year break in home brewing, and last weekend I brewed a batch and put it into 5 gals in the carboy. I was planning on doing another batch this weekend so, I went to the attic to retrieve my 2nd carboy to clean and sanitize it. When in the attic I decided to take a look at my cases of bar bottles. In one of the boxes I opened to find this.

FIND A

FIND B

15 years to the day. Now that is STRANGE

I put 2 in the beverage cooler and after dinner I will give them a taste. "What do kill ya makes us strong", Right?

Anyway wish me luck. It had to be a sign.......

BTW..Check out those High Tech labels that I got there....cool huh?

AND THE VERDICT IS........

I'm not dead...

It was lightly carbonated, no hint what so ever of foul smell. First sip was an "roasted chocolate" flavor. It really was pleasant. As Coastarine said, it was originally crap. That is why I have 8, no 7 bottles left after 15yrs. As you can see, the color is very dark, but I could see though it. So, the next time I get together with my "homebrew" group. We will share an "Old Abbey".

POUR

Sorry Hoppus_Poppatopolis, no "Skunk Pee"

uechikid · Sep 18, 2009

At least it's drinkable. And you're brewing again.

Brooklyn-Brewtality · Sep 18, 2009

that's awesome that it was more than just drinkable after all this time.
i have 5 bottles of the first Holiday Beer I ever made left from 3 years ago. I hope I can keep at least 1 for more than 5 or 6 years

dontman · Sep 18, 2009

I wish I had a few of a few of my batches from back in '91-'92. I remember this chocolate stout I made, no actual chocolate just chocolate malt, and a lot of it, that tasted like a fireplace after a long winter. I put it away and the next time I tried one it was a couple years down the road and it was stellar.

I bet that particular beer would have stood the test of time and been pretty drinkable. I also did a bunch of experimenting with a lot of honey as an adjunct and got +10% ABV beers that probably never reached their peak before they got downed.

Welcome back to the obsession.

JoeMama · Sep 18, 2009

I have a mead experiment that I might end up doing something similar to. I left it on the lees (basically in the primary) for like 7-8 months then I just bottled it in some 22oz bottles. It tasted like melted plastic mixed with lighter fluid.
Im sure (and hoping) that time will help remedy this. If not, no big deal... They make great gifts. Heh
-Me

android · Sep 18, 2009

that is frickin' sweet. regardless of how it tasted then or now, it's awesome that you had a beer you brewed 15 years ago to get you excited about brewing again. god, think of the changes since then, i say you brew another 'abbey' to kick things off.

homebrewer_99 · Sep 18, 2009

hankisanerd said:
AND THE VERDICT IS........I'm not dead...

Looks pretty good for being only a day or two past the expiration date...

Too Strange.. even for me

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