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.
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.