Homebrew expiration date?

Hey guys!

How long could we keep a bottled homebrew?

Thanx

That really depends on how thorough you were in sanitation. Many people age certain styles for years without spoilage, but if your sanitation is suspect, they could spoil in as little as a month or two. In fact, tasting a long term aged brew can give you a good idea of how good your sanitation is.

Some brews age well. Belgians actually improve a lot with age. I have one that is approaching a year in bottles and it continues to get better.

Some brews are best when they are young. IPA's lose their hoppy goodness with age. They are still very drinkable but the fresh hop aroma/flavor is not the same.

Revvy does a post where someone tasted homebrews from competitions that were up to 20 years old and all were pretty good.

I doubt that you will keep homebrew around for too long. Just make sure that your sanitization is good and let some age to see how they do.

Until it's gone?

Longest I have been able to hold onto any is a recent batch of a christmas ale brewed 5 weeks before christmas. It has mellowed nicely and the orange peel flavor doesn't punch you in the face like it did when I was going through it. I think I have 18 left...

To put it in perspective, 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.

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/

And I brewed an og 1.150, 150 IBU barleywine that I won't be opening for 5 years.

Not to mention the fact that there are vertical tasting for certain beers like Stone epic, where people collect each years beer and then sample a flight of them going back in time.

Nothing pathogenic can grow in beer. So if they taste fine drink them.

kidman199 said:

Hey guys!

How long could we keep a bottled homebrew?

Thanx

Click to expand...

It all depends on you the brewer and how sanitary you are and then also the beer itself. Higher ABV beers tend to age well. Where as my lower abv beers don't hold up that well normally. However I did just find two bottles of a 5.5% saison I brewed 11 months ago and it's still amazing.

It's really interesting that this was posted today...

I just bought some bottles from a guy that answered my wanted add on CL. He said his father-in-law used to brew, and they had been sitting in the Mother-in-law's basement for years. Turns out that several cases are full of homebrew! I have one chilling in the fridge right now. Figured I'd look, smell, taste, and then maybe drink.

There is a date written on a piece of masking tape on the box...September 3, 1980

Euphist said:

It's really interesting that this was posted today...

I just bought some bottles from a guy that answered my wanted add on CL. He said his father-in-law used to brew, and they had been sitting in the Mother-in-law's basement for years. Turns out that several cases are full of homebrew! I have one chilling in the fridge right now. Figured I'd look, smell, taste, and then maybe drink.

There is a date written on a piece of masking tape on the box...September 3, 1980

Click to expand...

Oh my goodness! Great find!

Euphist said:

It's really interesting that this was posted today...

I just bought some bottles from a guy that answered my wanted add on CL. He said his father-in-law used to brew, and they had been sitting in the Mother-in-law's basement for years. Turns out that several cases are full of homebrew! I have one chilling in the fridge right now. Figured I'd look, smell, taste, and then maybe drink.

There is a date written on a piece of masking tape on the box...September 3, 1980

Click to expand...

Did you tasted it now?

I sometimes keep bottles of a batch around, and I find that after a while, some of them will turn into different beers haha. Sometimes they turn into something gross tasting, but sometimes they're alright. It truly does depend on everything from the style to sanitation. Wheat beers can turn into some crazy stuff...

Sorry I didn't get back to this on the 30 yr old beer...

Ummm...it was awful! We even went so far as to pull and chill a bottle from each case. The best I can describe it is a cross between turpentine and rubbing alcohol.

I have no way of knowing the cause of course. It could have been a style that couldn't handle aging...could have been the old guy just wasn't a very good brewer! It could also be proof that autolysis is real (eventually) as the yeast on the bottom was almost black.