Bottle Life

[Edpietrzak]

I have been putting a 6 pack away from each of the kits that I brew with the thought process of having a tasting party one day. I was talking to someone over the weekend and they said that too long can ruin the beer. What is the longest that my beer can sit in a bottle and still be good? Will the sediment on the bottom eventually cause off flavors?

 

[lupo66maniac]

I have a few bottles of a brew I made ten years ago. I tasted one last summer and it was great.

No worries, with proper sanitation and storage they will last a long time.

 

[LansingX]

If all your efforts of cleanliness and sanitation were good and you kept them in the dark and at a stable temperature, I would say two years easily. I have been pleased with beer that I have kept around 3+ years. I haven't tested the limits past that though.

 

[pohldogg]

Sanitation and storage are a given. Really depends on the beer. Light colored, low gravity, hoppy beers won't generally age well. Big stouts, Belgians, and barleywines can go years and years.

 

[Revvy]

Someone gave you crappy info...

Beer doesn't go "bad" unless your sanitization is weak.

Noone thinks twice about drinking old wine.....


Homebrew is no different from commercial beer. Properly stored it can last and be drinkable for 100s of years.

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.

I just had this expericence not too long ago... We tried 48 year old beer today. One was interesting and drinkable, and one was gnarly.

Mbowenze has a thread about tasting an over 100 year old beer recently. And In my history thread there's a video of the OZ and James Drink to Britain tv series where they taste a beer older than that.....one that goes back to Napoleanic times iirc.

It all depends on how they were stored. Beers can change, but still be drinkable. The hops may fade on an ipa, and you're still left with a nice pale ale for example.

 

[Homercidal]

To be honest, I found a few bottles of some of my first batches from way back and they were dumpers. If I had known then what I know now, and had been more careful in bottling it might have made a difference.

But I think that strength of beer goes a long way toward helping it remain palatable for more than a few years. Generally the higher the ABV the better it lasts.

 

[badhabit]

Different beers age differently. They will change over time unless they have been pasturized. Have a beer at a brewery and bring in on of their bottled beers and you will see the difference. My experiance is that higher ABV, higher FG and darker beers do better longer than the counterparts. I also think that beers with higher levels of finishing hops tend to deteriorate more quickly. All considered it is still your taste buds that will make the final call. Try it and see then decide for yourself.

 

[strumke]

Some can age, some are just better fresh...1 year old Hopslam is gross, but 3 yr old Burton Baton is lovely