Oldest Homebrew/Beer You've Drank?

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GoldMiner

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Location
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First off I admit my wife and I are packrats.

I was searching for some empty bottles to get ready for my next batch of homebrew and in my laundry room I found a couple of cases of old homebrew and store bought beer from before we moved into our house.

They were all large beers.

Homebrew was an Imperial Stout.
Microbrew : Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 1997, Sierra Nevada Celebration 1997,1998,2000 & Brimstone Big Ale.

So far I've drank the Imperial Stout and the 2000 Celebration Ale.

I barely remember making the Stout but was pleasantly surprised how well it held up.

The Celebration Ale was much as I remembered with almost an evergreen essence to it.

Anyone else drinking old beer?
 
I still have two Sam Adams Triple Bocks from 97' in my cellar. I'm yet to drink any, but I hear they taste like soy sauce and cat butt.
 
In the Dec 07 Zymurgy Charlie Papazian reviewed bottles of homebrew going back to the first AHC competition that he had stored, and none of them went bad, some had not held up but most of them he felt were awesome...We're talking over 20 years worth of beers.

Me personally I believe the longest homebrew I have tasted was about a year and a half old. I have a pumpkin ale that I will have the last one this fall, that will be 2 years old. I did the 1 year old one last Halloween, so I am looking forward to trying the other one.
 
I still have two Sam Adams Triple Bocks from 97' in my cellar. I'm yet to drink any, but I hear they taste like soy sauce and cat butt.

I have two from '94. I've had a few over the years, but not recently. Not quite like soy sauce and cat butt-- more like a heavy maple flavor with lots of vanilla notes. Very thick, too. I might crack one open this fall some time.

I also have one bottle of mead left from my first ever batch in '94... I'll probably drink that later this month.

-Steve
 
I made a horrible honey wheat >10% abv, there was so much honey. Didn't control my fermentation temperature way back then, and it was bad, bad, bad. 2 or 3 years later (I don't remember for sure) and it was darn good. (Not what I would have expected from a wheat, but with that much alcohol, I guess it aged better than it otherwise would have.)
 
Oldest homebrew...1 year old extract chocolate stout.
Oldest commercial...1997 Triple bock and yes, soy sauce and cat butt, heavy on the cat butt.
 
Returning the OP, the oldest homebrew I've drank was an extract nut brown I made in 2004. And it tasted as horrid as I remember it being.

The beer was about 4 years old.

Thats weird, the oldest beer I have is an extract nut brown that we made in 2003. However I finished mine off about a month ago and it was AMAZING! Of couse different beers age differently however this one tasted horrible when we bottled it and I just happened to keep two in my fridge. Good times.
 
Oldest homebrew that wasn't mine.. 2 year old English barleywine

Oldest homebrew that was mine.. various beers probably 9 to 10 months old but I have an English barleywine that's been bulk aging for 6 months so I'm sure that's going to top the list

Oldest commercial beer... Hansenns Oude Kriek and Ayinger Celebrator. Both of them were about 15 years old.
 
I have a few in the closet from 2003. All different styles, but I lost the code sheet about 6mo after I bottled them. I'll open some in the morning just for HBT!!!
 
I found a one year old British Pale ale under the sink that I had forgotten about and it was great!
 
I had a couple that were 2-3 years old once. Just a pale ale style. I opened a few and just tossed them all. Not good. Not infected or anything, just tasted bad. My experience is so much better now. I just put down about 2.5 gallons of barleywine that I expect (hope) turn out great in about a year.
 
Last night I went to a tasting at a local beer bar of an '07 Bigfoot and an '08 Celebration, on draft! Got to say, the Celebration held up awesomely, and the Bigfoot was exactly what I wanted from an aged barleywine, that molasses, plum, rasin flavor without going totally overboard. The hops seemed to still be there too, and I guess played a role in keeping that beer in a steady state.

The oldest was a 2000 Dogfish Head 120. It was like drinking syrup. Bad, bad syrup.
 
When we went through my Aunt E's estate we discovered what a horder she was. We found two 6-packs of 10-year old Budweiser. We sampled but not much.

I have a 2-year old Chamay aging in the cellar.

Speaking of the cellar, I spent the weekend taking inventory and cleaning it out because I hadn't brewed for the last year.

I have 17 2.5 year old pLambics and I a single 2 year old Irish Red Ale. I should add that the main beer I'm working through right now is a year old Ordinary Bitter.
 
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