25 Year old Beer

in an ongoing effort to have enough bottles for all my beer I asked my Dad to keep is eye out for bottles. He called me today from our house in wisconsin and said he found 3 cases of Point bottles in the garage (Point is a brewery in Wisconsin) he said one of the cases was still full of beer.... they are 25 years old. should I try one? can it hurt me?

I'm no doctor. But from what I recall, due to alcohol and hops. Beer rarely spoils if bottled w the right sanitation. Doesn't mean it will taste good though. Some beers are made to be drunk fresh. Others are meant for aging.

Yeah, that's probably gone by now, but nothing there that could actually hurt you. (Aside from dead taste buds!)

I would pop atleast one and taste it. Maybe tasting more as I pour them out.

A very long story made very short:

My sister found some homebrew that she had made back in 1993 (17 years ago). 27 bottles of an Irish Stout, extract, Mountmellick Special Irish Stout or whatever and Alexander's Amber Extract, IIRC, are the labels found with it. This "find" was less than a month ago... they cracked one open, and ALL of them, even the friend that was with them - who is not much of a beer drinker let alone any kind of homebrewer or afficiando of any sort - declared that it was the perfect aroma, and the best tasting beer any of them ever had in their entire life. A very pleasant surprise for all.

My sister still won't let any of us forget what a "great" brewer she is... even though that was the last batch of homebrew she ever made! Now she's got the brewbug again, so that's a good thing.

Bottom line is, she and her friends were absolute fanatics about sanitation with every aspect, start to finish, of the entire brew process. I'd say it pays off huge.

- Tim

I once had a Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve, which I estimated to be approximately 10 to 15 years old. It didn't taste that great. A very brown suggary/coppery taste. It was weird.

My bro found a case of porter he made 14 years ago when cleaning out his basement. We chilled it for a day and it tasted fine. 25 years is a bit long, but then again--I thought 14 was too long also. As long as it's still pressurized and looks like beer (no mold or giant oyster looking things living in it) it's probably going to be OK. But after all, I am just some dude on the internet...

Drank a Bud that was 5 years past its due date. Bad decision.

paint_it_black said:

I once had a Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve, which I estimated to be approximately 10 to 15 years old. It didn't taste that great. A very brown suggary/coppery taste. It was weird.

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Not a very good beer even fresh, though (I lived in PDX for 9 years, and even in Vancouver, WA for a few months (over towards that Bell's brewpub or whatever the hell it's called, in the church).

MattHollingsworth said:

Not a very good beer even fresh, though (I lived in PDX for 9 years, and even in Vancouver, WA for a few months (over towards that Bell's brewpub or whatever the hell it's called, in the church).

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Ah, never heard of it. I lived in Salmon Creek.

I recently moved to Liverpool. Let me tell ya, the beer selection here, compared to the Northwest...SUCKS. Even the "real ale" is rather unadventurous, and you can only get that in some pubs. IF you want bottled beer, it's basically...Carsberg, Stella, or Boddingtons. :/

Well, I'm not a Point fan but I drink it when people bring it over. I had one of their brown ales a month or so ago, and I can sometimes drink the Cascade Pale Ale. Anyway, I would have a hard time drinking a case of fresh Point beer. I don't think I could even attempt a case of 25 year old Point!

But I say, try it and report back!

Of course you should try it, you'd be a fool not to.

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.

Since nothing pathogenic can grow in beer, there's no worry needed about getting sick from them. All that can happen is that they may not have held up over time.

This is a great thread about one of our guys tasting 4-5 years of his stored brew.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/revisiting-my-classics-160672/

It could be dissapointing, but it could be something great.

paint_it_black said:

Ah, never heard of it. I lived in Salmon Creek.

I recently moved to Liverpool. Let me tell ya, the beer selection here, compared to the Northwest...SUCKS. Even the "real ale" is rather unadventurous, and you can only get that in some pubs. IF you want bottled beer, it's basically...Carsberg, Stella, or Boddingtons. :/

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There was a Salmon Creek brewpub, wasn't there? Seem to remember going there. But we were on opposite sides of town, I was all the way to the east.

You mean Liverpool, in the UK??? In the UK, lagers are taking over somewhat, which sucks. If you can find ANY beer by Thornbridge, they were my favorite brewery at this yeast Great British Beer Festival. If you didn't go this year and you're still there, you should come to London for it next year, early August. 500 or so beers, even an American section.

You might check CAMRA and see what pubs they recommend in your area. Might find something unexpected if you haven't tried this already.

SORRY FOR THE THREAD HIJACK.

MattHollingsworth said:

There was a Salmon Creek brewpub, wasn't there? Seem to remember going there. But we were on opposite sides of town, I was all the way to the east.

You mean Liverpool, in the UK??? In the UK, lagers are taking over somewhat, which sucks. If you can find ANY beer by Thornbridge, they were my favorite brewery at this yeast Great British Beer Festival. If you didn't go this year and you're still there, you should come to London for it next year, early August. 500 or so beers, even an American section.

You might check CAMRA and see what pubs they recommend in your area. Might find something unexpected if you haven't tried this already.

SORRY FOR THE THREAD HIJACK.

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I also apologise for the hijacking.

But in reply, I've already contacted the Young CAMRA chapter leader in my area, and looked at their recommended pub crawls. On top of it
Missed that particular beer festival, but there's a smaller one in Crosby, right near me, THIS WEEK. Gettign super stoked (although, again, not very adventurous beers -- just bitters/pale ales, mostly)
I never thought I'd see the day where I really truly longed for a Budweiser, but honestly, it's better than the selection of most other lagers they have around here. Sadly, it's more expensive to buy Bud than it is to buy Stella.


--Sorry guys. Definitely try to old beer, and post about your experience. My dad and I have tried some year-old homebrews, and they often taste pretty good. We find that sometimes they have even "matured" and taste better.

jfr1111 said:

Drank a Bud that was 5 years past its due date. Bad decision.

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Funny, I've had Bud that was months before it's due date and come to the same conclusion.

paint_it_black said:

again, not very adventurous beers -- just bitters/pale ales, mostly)

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Well they are two of the main styles of beer we brew in the UK but at a beer festival you will also find milds, stouts, old ales, brown ales and porters as well as some specialist beers too.

More than 25 years ago (maybe 32 & 31 years ago) I made beer runs from Chicago to Stevens Point for their release of Point Bock. I filled up the back of my Datsun 610 Wagon, keeping a couple of cases for myself and selling the rest for cost (beer plus gas). None of my cases lasted more than a few months.

dinsd-ale said:

Well they are two of the main styles of beer we brew in the UK but at a beer festival you will also find milds, stouts, old ales, brown ales and porters as well as some specialist beers too.

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I don't know, man, I looked at the beer list. There's one stout, and one Belgian, and the rest were you basic bitters/pales. Not to say they won't be great. Hoping they will be Liverpool Organic has *two* that will be there, so I'm stoked for that.

dinsd-ale said:

Well they are two of the main styles of beer we brew in the UK but at a beer festival you will also find milds, stouts, old ales, brown ales and porters as well as some specialist beers too.

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Exactly. You're likely to find a lot of good beers. Crazy beers? Maybe not as crazy as some from the States. But beers every bit as good as any from the States. You might see some Oyster Stout if you look for it. And as I said, watch for Thornbridge.

As for aged beers, I don't see any problem with trying anything, even 150 year old beer. I'd try any of it. Not saying I'd drink a whole case, but it'd be a shame to not even pop one and try it.

How about 28yo Guinness?

I drank about 25 year old homebrew before also. It was coppery, ruddy, and absolutely horrid. It tasted like a bad sherry.

I might also mention that I did the math it has been through 22 winters in norther wisconsin. so it has been frozen and thawed countless times... I am surprised the bottles didnt break

I had a 24yr old bottle of Jamaican Dragon Stout. I bought it back then. It was surprisingly drinkable, but would not win any contests. No carbonation at all, and strong sherry.