10+ Year Old Bottles

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jezter6

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I think I just got the deal of a lifetime. Well, maybe not THAT great, but I would consider it at least a slight wet spot in a homebrewer's wet dream.

I got the following for $50USD:
1 6gal glass carboy
1 bottling bucket
3-4 misc bubblers/airlocks
cleaning brushes galore
9 empty cases of mized 12oz and 16oz brown bottles
5 full cases of 10+ year old beer and soda

At first I figured I would have to spend the next few days uncapping and pouring beer after beer down the drain just to get these extra 5 cases of empties. But the guy I got em from said 'I bet some of them are still good, you should try it out.' Now, I was a bit skeptical, and was going to pay (as a dare) a friend to drink one of the bottles to test it out, but he said he'd at least taste a swig just to see.

Needless to say, 4 out of 5 bottles we opened were still beer/soda flavored. The carb levels went from a tad low to a large amount of small fizzy bubbles. I tried the 4 and they didnt taste all that bad. They werent great, but hey...not all homebrew is awesome, some of it is bad and some of it is just ok.

Interestingly enough, on the 2 actual beers that were drinkable, the dates were from 1993 and 1994. Scary stuff that 12-13 years in a bottle and they're still beer.

I think I remember someone asking if it's good to drink em a year after bottling, but I'm here to say for a fact that some beer could last 10+ years.

So, I ask my homebrew bretheren...1) did I get a good deal and 2) should I continue opening bottles to see if they're any good?

A couple of the cases are 'archive' collections (1-2 bottles of each beer brewed during his 3 years of homebrewing), which are neat just to see all the different stuff.

I may chronicle his brews by date just to see how his progression went and what beer he brewed at which time of year (the bottles have exact brew or bottle dates on the label).

We got our Red Ale label done today as well. nothing fancy, but I'll post that tomorrow for some critique.
 
Since you have plenty of empties, you can just open the rest at your leisure & drink or dump.
 
I would say its fair. I'm thinking you broke about even on the equipment side of things. It depends on the condition of the stuff you got. If you got any hoses, throw them out now.

The beer will be interesting, I bet most of them are aweful. Who knows, if he had some high gravity beers they might be drinkable. I would think a couple years would be about the limit on these. This is based on previous postings. I had a post awhile back how long beer can sit conditioning in the fridge. I have been lagering ales, and giving beer away. Nothing is quite a year yet. The wife is going through invitro and I really can't drink. I still continue to brew though.

I was in a silimar situation awhile back. A buddy sold me his homebrew equipment for $40. (He is going to AA) Some of the same things, plus a bottle capper and a 4-5 year old beer ingredient kit. The kit was for a continental pilsner that turned out to be more like a SA Boston Lager. However more brown than red. Still pretty tasty. I still have 3/4 of case of it in the fridge. I think I'm the only one who likes the beer. That's OK.

I would keep cracking bottles open. Drinking lousy beer that isn't even yours is no fun. :D You will need to soak the bottles to get yeast off the bottom so you can use them. By know I bet its pretty damn hard. An overnight soak in 1 cup of ammonia to 5 gallons of water will help remove yeast deposits and labels. This works best in a kegger sized tub or deep basin sink. I think a star-san cleaner would do well too.

Good Luck! :mug:
 
More important question for me is "why did he let them go for that long without drinking them/giving them away?".
 
Well, a few of the batches were 'marinade' as he called it. Not good enough to drink, but not bad enough to pour down the drain.

There's a full case of 'archive' beers which is just 1 bottle from every batch to hold on to for a while.

After opening a few more today, we're going to pitch them all down the drain. I still think, however, that 14 cases (24 bottle cases) of 16oz bottles is still fantastic. If I'd buy 14 cases of even 12oz bottles at my homebrew shop it would be $140. I think $50 was a good deal, and I get a glass carboy. Most of the rest we will be throwing away. The bottling bucket is a little rough looking and the stoppers have all dried out.

Still, this added carboy allows 1 more brew at a time than I could previously, which means not only did we brew today, I may even brew again on Wednesday or Friday if I have some time.
 
Yeah, I agree on the good deal. I'd still be game to taste some of them if I were you, especially from the "archive collection" - as long as you don't need the bottles right now.
 
Nope, don't need any bottles. Threw a bottle party 2 weeks ago and have 7 cases of 12oz from that. Including my big buy, I have 21 cases of bottles which should theoretically last me quite a while.
 
lucky bastard. I scrounge for bottles like a little rat. What kind of existence is this, I ask you! I have a little over 3 cases of empty 12oz-ers and a case+ of assorted bigger bottles. At the same time, I have six 5-gal batches in carboys. Not sure what I'm gonna do. I really don't want to buy them new...did that once, and $14 for a case of bottles is expensive.
 
Evan! said:
lucky bastard. I scrounge for bottles like a little rat. What kind of existence is this, I ask you! I have a little over 3 cases of empty 12oz-ers and a case+ of assorted bigger bottles. At the same time, I have six 5-gal batches in carboys. Not sure what I'm gonna do. I really don't want to buy them new...did that once, and $14 for a case of bottles is expensive.

Make friends with the bartenders at your local pub and get them to start saving you bottles. I work at a pub and have been bringing home between 5-20 bottles of various sizes per night that I work. I bought five cases of 12oz bottles on my own to get started, but I think at the rate I'm getting them, I won't have to worry about that anymore.
 
If it wasn't 4 hours drive, I'd say come on over and have a few cases. :)

Now I just need to get into bigger batches. Our first brew bottled 12 16oz bottles and 26 12oz bottles. After giving away 1-2 bottles per friend/family member, I'm not gonna have any beer for myself. :/
 
Schlenkerla said:
You will need to soak the bottles to get yeast off the bottom so you can use them. By know I bet its pretty damn hard. An overnight soak in 1 cup of ammonia to 5 gallons of water will help remove yeast deposits and labels. This works best in a kegger sized tub or deep basin sink. I think a star-san cleaner would do well too.

Hey I just got about 70 bottles that I am planning on using for bottling tomorrow. I was planning on filling a bathtub with water, and just throwing the bottles in there with some ammonia.

The SWMBO is really anal about stains and stuff, so I just wanted to make sure that this was not going to ruin anything. Thanks.

Cheers! :mug:
 
I don't know how aggressive ammonia happens to be on plumbing. I don't think it is all that strong if diluted properly. At 1 cup to 5 gallons the ammonia smell is rather strong in close quarters.

- Or -

You could use bleach, two shots per 5 gallons. This would leave the tub very clean. It would have a slight bleach smell but not too bad. This is how I soak the insides of used carboys.

If you have a septic system you might not want to put anything harsh down the drain. A safer approach is oxy-clean and water, but i don't know how strong to mix it for removing labels. I would read the label and give it a shot.

I recall a post this summer about the use of oxy-clean and that it worked well.

The ammonia-water mix worked very well for me. - I will say that I used rubber gloves when I did my bottles this summer.

If you go the ammonia route, I would get a $3 kegger tub soak the bottles as long as you need and then dump it elsewhere. Be sure to rinse very well afterwards. I dunked my bottles in a fresh 5 gallon bucket of water w/ each case. Bottle wash thoroughly prior to bottling anything

I think this would have the least likelihood of pissin' off the SWMBO.

:tank:
 
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