Scottish Ale aging - how long is TOO long?

I brewed a batch of Jamil's Scottish Ale back in August and placed it in my temperature controlled fermentation chamber. As per Jamil's recommendation I intended to age it for a couple of months, but my schedule has been insane this year so it has sat for much longer, going on now 8 months. Is this batch still viable? I know for a hoppy beer this would be a detriment, but my gut says this is still ok and may be even better. What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance!

I say bottle/keg it. I'm not familiar with the recipe, but big OG beers can ferment for 6-12 months no problem. I saw that the last batch of Founders Backwoods Bastard fermented for 399 days before bottling/kegging.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

If it's been on the yeast for 8 months I'd say you have an issue, but if it's just been lagering then you're totally fine. He mentions in the show that he kept that keg around for several years as it continued to win comps. I brewed that 60/- and kept it around for about a year.... Got better every month


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

I have a year old Wee Heavy, gets better with time. I know higher alcohol helps ageability, so I can't say for sure how ageable a 60 Shilling style is.

As some of the others have mentioned, I would be curious about 2 things:
1. Was it on the primary yeast cake this whole time?
2. Did your airlock dry out?

If it was on a large amount of yeast for that time, there is the chance that some autolysis set in. No way to know without tasting and smelling it.

If the airlock dried out, there's a chance you got some oxidation or an infection. Again, no way to tell without tasting/smelling.

Beer's pretty hearty and fairly resilient. Not likely there's anything in there that would make you sick. And if you have a small sample and it makes you turn your nose up or immediately spit it back out, you'll have your answer as to what you should do with it.