Aged Beers ending up with a champagne aroma

[Kahless]

I always keep a few beers hidden for longer to see what effect aging has on them and two brews from 6-7 months ago have developed an interesting aroma that completely changes (but doesn't ruin) the drinking experience; they smell like champagne!

I'm wondering if anyone else has any information on why this might be; my first fears were yeast autolysis but it isn't a horrible taste. Both these beers were made with the same yeast (from a Young's kit - a terrible mistake as it was nothing but trouble [no flocculance, even thought it was infected, and a stalled fermentation]), and they tasted nothing alike until just recently, where this champagne aroma has dominated. I'm missing the dry hopped bitter I once had! It's never happened with another yeast (as of yet) (for info these were 4.5 and 5.5% beers, with Saaz Hops and rather different malt profiles)

I've had another beer with this (not my own); a bottle of delirium tremens that tasted quite different from the actual taps in Belgium.

So, anyone else had this experience, and does anyone have any ideas on what causes this flavour? (I'm guessing the yeast are involved somehow...)

 

[jro238]

I'm betting it's oxidation. I can see champagne and sherry overlapping quite a bit in terms of smell. Sherry-like smells are very common of oxidation due to age (not always a bad character to have in beer as long as it isn't overpowering).

 

[Kahless]

Ah, interesting! Thanks jro238 That makes me realise that there is variable that I didn't notice; bottle type! These were also my first two beers stored in glass bottles rather than ox-bar plastic ones (in which beer never exhibited this flavour). Do you think it's an ever so slightly weak seal with the hand capper?
I'll experiment with my next batch and in 7 months I may have results

 

[jro238]

I'm honestly not sure since I don't bottle much at all. I know that I experienced a sherry flavor/smell in bottles from a few batches that I left in the closet for a couple of years (glass, hand capped). I have also read that it isn't an uncommon thing to detect in aged beers like barleywines.

I would imagine that oxidation will develop no matter the bottling type given enough time, but the better the seal the longer it will take.