Ever lost 10 gallons of beer for 2 years?

So I load a new 10g batch of Red Ale into a Sanke for fermentation. First batch in years. Take it downstairs to put in the kegerator to ferment. Find 3 kegs. Don't remember them being in there!

Blonde Ale ~ 4%
About 4 gallons left
Primary 5-22-2010
Secondary 6-13-2010
On Gas 6-19-2010

Imperial Stout at 8.93%
Almost a full 5 gallons
Brewed 6-13-2010
Secondary 7-4-2010
On Gas 9-26-2010

Pliney the Elder clone ~ 8%
Maybe 2 gallons left, and dry hopped since I brewed it on 9-Something-2010

Now, it's been a while since I opened that fridge in the back corner of the basement. (My remodel is running a bit... Long) The 5# Co2 tank was still on, and still full! At least I know my kegerator plumbing is solid! I'm sure the lines to the taps are shot.

I guess this is what happens when you set down brewing for 2 years!

So, Place your bets!
After this Red is done, I'm putting these 3 kegs back in the cooler.
What do you make of the odds, on a "OMG That's gonna be great!" to "Not a chance" scale?

My money is on the stout...

Wow! I can't think of any possible situation where I could forget about 3 kegs of beer like that.

For overall quality, yeah, I think the stout will hold up the best. Had you removed the dry hops on the Pliny clone, it might not have been too bad (probably no aroma, but the high bittering is a preservative, so it might have been OK). I'm sure the hops have totally broken down by now, so it's probably a full on vegetable soup.

Curious to see what you think of them.

And into the cooler they go!

The coolers were buried behind rolls of insulation and drywall for most of last year. The project progress better now that the wedding is over and other activities have slowed down...

The stout definitely, the blonde is a tough call. The Pliny will be an ESB at this point with much lower hop aroma than it had when kegged. However, if it is still sound, you can dry hop it again.

My personal "lost" record is 16 months for a big Belgian Blonde. It was nice.

Let us know how they taste. I bet that stout is delicious but the pliny not so much. The blonde may have held up too.

Man, that's way better than find $20 in your jeans! More like some cute chick finding $20 in your jeans!

Definitely post how they taste!

I'm interested too! The stout may still be ok but the blonde is probably horrible. Pliney probably dropped out its aroma and flavor.

Stout for sure!

I'd wager they will all be great, especially if sealed up with gas.

subscribed. I may have missed it but was this cooler running the entire time or were these beers at room temp? That would change my thoughts drastically.

Cooler has been off for at least 12 months. But, it's in the basement so I'll wager they were 65-70 the whole time, and under pressure

Well, I haven't tried the IPA yet. But I did taste the Blonde and the Stout yesterday.

The Blonde is pretty bland - All hops flavor and aroma is pretty much gone. It's drinkable, but I wouldn't show it off.

the Stout is actually pretty good! Its very mellow now. It's still pretty sweet because it didn't finish as low as I'd like. But definitely drinkable.

Sounds like what happened to me recently. I went to pick up some empty bottles from a friend of mine who used to brew with my brother and he says to me "Hey, so I just happened to open the fridge in my basement and found 8 bottles of beer from when your brother and I last brewed.....5 years ago. Do you want them?". Never one to turn away beer so I take them. The fridge had been on the entire time, so I figured I would live dangerously. There were 3 red ales and 5 nut browns. The red ales were just straight up awfulsauce, but the nut browns were......no other words come to mind other than fantastic. Like so good that I had to share with friends, who immediately asked for the recipe. It blew my mind.

JoesInBoston said:

Sounds like what happened to me recently. I went to pick up some empty bottles from a friend of mine who used to brew with my brother and he says to me "Hey, so I just happened to open the fridge in my basement and found 8 bottles of beer from when your brother and I last brewed.....5 years ago. Do you want them?". Never one to turn away beer so I take them. The fridge had been on the entire time, so I figured I would live dangerously. There were 3 red ales and 5 nut browns. The red ales were just straight up awfulsauce, but the nut browns were......no other words come to mind other than fantastic. Like so good that I had to share with friends, who immediately asked for the recipe. It blew my mind.

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So when you give them the recipe, what do you think their comment to the last instruction, "Once bottled, age for 5 years" will be?

You forgot about three batches of beer for two years?? That's like forgetting to pick up your kids from school....FOR TWO YEARS! Alcohol abuse!!

SweetSounds said:

Well, I haven't tried the IPA yet....

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And the verdict on the IPA?

Didn't forget about it, but stopped brewing about 2.5 years ago when we moved. Now that I'm brewing again, I plan on taking some photos of my "lost batch" and starting a thread here. I can't remember what it is, but I know it was an extract brew and I wanna say it was a Jamil Milk Stout. It's got some creamy floaters and residue at the top of the carboy. When we moved, I removed the airlock (it had been done fermenting for some time) and packing-taped sanitized tin foil around the mouth. I'm pretty sure this was in primary, so I'm assuming an autolysis nightmare, but I do want to try it. My only concern is that creamy substance at the top and any health issues from it.