Beer aging

I brewed a scotch ale extract kit, and here's the thing.

I drank the majority of the stuff within 3 weeks of bottling, and at that time, the beer was very nice, and full bodied. But I took a six pack and stowed that away at about 60-65 degrees for a total of 2 months from bottling.

Then yesterday I cracked one of these open (after chilling for a few days) and the beer was fizzy and thin. Now on a brewing network show I listened to, they said that aging your beer depends on your sanitation, and that you have a certain bacteria load in the bottle, and that over time it will take over and spoil your beer.

Does it look like this is what happened to my beer? If not, what do you think it could be? If so, how can I prevent this? If the answer is to store the beer cold, how do I gauge when I should put it into the fridge? Is taste/examining the carbonation, the only way to do it? And if storing the beer cold is the answer, does beer go through the beneficial aging process at fridge temp?

Properly sanitizing your bottles, and all the equipment that touches it should prevent that.

Bummer though, I had a strong scotch ale I brewed some 7 years ago, and aged 6 22oz bottles for a year and OMG was it awesome!

html034 said:

Now on a brewing network show I listened to, they said that aging your beer depends on your sanitation, and that you have a certain bacteria load in the bottle, and that over time it will take over and spoil your beer.

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Load of Cr@p! Your beer should store as long as you would ever want it too, if proper sanitation is employed. As for storage, room temp is fine until you are ready to consume, then chill. Hot temps would adversley effect flavor.

I would agree with everyone. If it is a big beer, you can age it. I drank a stout in bottles over a 1 year period. at 9-12 months, the beer was awsome. 4-8 months, it was terrible.

I actually found a bottle from a kit that I brewed 4 years ago. It was a Belgian DIablo kit with a ton of candi sugar (gift from brother). It was just ok after I brewed it. I let it age up to a year and it got better. I found a bottle 3 days ago and decided to put it in the fridge. I opened it and smelled it. It smelled fine. I poured it and drank it. It actually tasted really good. I think some big brews age more like wine.

Since it's only 5 bottles left, what if you put it in a warm dark place and just left it alone until winter?

If you want to age beer, you need to be very good about your sanitation. It isn't that much more difficult than being bad about your sanitation.


TL

Here is where I interject my preference for oven sterilizing my bottles... (runs for cover)

Boerderij Kabouter said:

Here is where I interject my preference for oven sterilizing my bottles... (runs for cover)

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That may be what I should start doing.

But anyway, what temp range are we looking at for the beneficial aging processes to happen?

Boerderij Kabouter said:

Here is where I interject my preference for oven sterilizing my bottles... (runs for cover)

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+1..call it overkill, but I've found that oven sterilizing makes the actual bottling process much less daunting. As an aside, I've found that baking bottles, and making a starter for every batch have led to much better beer than before I did one or both of these things.

BrewDey said:

+1..call it overkill, but I've found that oven sterilizing makes the actual bottling process much less daunting. As an aside, I've found that baking bottles, and making a starter for every batch have led to much better beer than before I did one or both of these things.

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Oven sterilizing is really so easy, I just don't get why people think its so much work... Just cover the tops in foil, throw em in the oven at 350 for an hour, let them cool in the oven. Come back and box them up. Ready to be bottled the next time you need them.

Boerderij Kabouter said:

...Just cover the tops in foil, throw em in the oven at 350 for an hour, let them cool in the oven. Come back and box them up. Ready to be bottled the next time you need them.

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Whats the reasoning on covering the tops with foil? I can understand keeping out any unwanted debris, but don't you want some type of air exchange within the bottle itself?

Doesn't heating bottles in the oven weaken them over time? I've heard of bottles shattering when using a bench capper after several uses using oven sterilization

GeauxBrew said:

Doesn't heating bottles in the oven weaken them over time? I've heard of bottles shattering when using a bench capper after several uses using oven sterilization

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I've heard this also.

The big thing in oven sanitizing bottles is to add a little water to the bottle. Steam does a better job of sanitizing, than plain heat in the short time we use heating the bottles.

boo boo said:

I've heard this also.

The big thing in oven sanitizing bottles is to add a little water to the bottle. Steam does a better job of sanitizing, than plain heat in the short time we use heating the bottles.

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Now you guys have me thinking.....

Tomorrow is a bottling double header, and I'm dreading it. I think I might try this oven thing. I wonder how many bottles I can fit in my oven?! I'm gonna put my Dubbel in 120z and my Dunkelweizen in 22's. That's a lot of bottles!!

not sure how you primed but if you dont watch what your doing you can easily get an over carbed beer with aging.