Long term conditioning?

[Bklanz]

So I am going to have a son In a few months and wanted to brew cherries in the snow from the joy of home brewing book and age it for 20 years to drink with him when he is of age. How would I store it at room temp or would it be fine in the basement.

 

[MalFet]

Congratulations! I would read everything you can about oxidation. Storage will be important, but proper packaging will be even more so. 20 years is a long time to age.

The recipe I saw online seemed to suggest that this was a Kriek, but didn't make any mention of lactobacillus. What is the recipe?

 

[Bklanz]

8.5 light malt extract 1.5 oz tettnager boiling .5 oz tettnager finishing 10 lbs tart cherries

 

[MalFet]

Yeast, man, yeast?

Edit: and batch size? 5gal I assume?

 

[Bklanz]

Safale t58

 

[Bklanz]

Yes five gallon batch

 

[MalFet]

Hmm...that doesn't really strike me as a recipe that would take well to aging, but Papazian certainly knows his way around beer better than I do. If you're not adding a lacto culture, it's hard to call that a Kriek. I will leave it for others to assess, but I would be _extremely_ careful about not introducing oxygen. Big barley wines and lambics have enough umph to handle some oxygen (and even benefit from it), but this looks relatively delicate. As for storage, you're going to want to keep it cool (50F-ish?) and to prevent swings in temperature.

 

[Calder]

It will not keep that long. Need to brew something bigger. Maybe go for a sour that will take a few years before it gets to the bottle.

I kept some for 10 years, and the regular strength beers just didn't make it, but the Imperial stout and Millennium ale (dark chocolate raspberry high gravity ale was delicious. I made it for 2000, and opened it early last year.

 

[Bklanz]

He says right in the book that he drank the last one 20 years later

 

[MalFet]

He says right in the book that he drank the last one 20 years later

Then good luck to you.

 

[Bklanz]

Thanks I hope it works out really want to do this

 

[MalFet]

Thanks I hope it works out really want to do this

I hope so too, but I doubt it will.

 

[RCCOLA]

I brewed this recipe in early 2008 with lager yeast as a 2.5 gal. batch. It ended up with a wine-like quality to it and a light pink color.

I have 1 left in my beer fridge. I'll drink it tomorrow and tell you how 3 years have affected it.

 

[Bklanz]

Sweat thanks that would be great

 

[RCCOLA]

Here ya go. Cherries in the Snow--in the snow.

Sad to say it has not fared well. It has lost carbonation, and the flavors are muted and faded. Color went from crystal clear pink champagne to orangy/hazy.

I bottled this with the oxybarrier caps and stored refrigerated. I don't think you'd want to drink one of these after 20 years. Sorry man.

 

[Bklanz]

thanks man. I sent a message to papazian on facebook lol and he said to dip the cap end in paraffin wax and store at 50 degrees

 

[KayaBrew]

Recipe aside, if I was going to age a beer for that long, I'd bottle it in Champagne bottles and cork them. I don't think a standard bottle cap would stand the test of time.

 

[MalFet]

thanks man. I sent a message to papazian on facebook lol and he said to dip the cap end in paraffin wax and store at 50 degrees

Recipe aside, if I was going to age a beer for that long, I'd bottle it in Champagne bottles and cork them. I don't think a standard bottle cap would stand the test of time.

These are both things that may or may not help keep new oxygen out of the beer, but that's not really the thing that we've been identifying as the problem. The oxygen that goes in at bottling time, in the absence of an oxygen eating bacteria (as in a lambic) or a mega-wad of dark malt (as in a barleywine), will gradually corrupt the beer. RCCOLA's was in rough shape in 3 years at 35F; yours will be undrinkable after 20 years at 50F. This is just not a recipe that can age like that.

 

[Bklanz]

this is what it says in his book. "as does a good wine, cherries in the snow offers a wonderful potential to mature beautifully with age (years), to be called forth for sinfully special occasions. the last bottle of the original batch of this beer was 20 years old when we tried it! man! did this beer turn some heads! it was fantastic."

 

[RCCOLA]

I say--go ahead and brew it. Try one once a year and if it starts to fade, brew another batch.

Give a splash of the faded batch to the boil and you have the sentiment added to the new batch.

Then drink the hell out of the faded batch until it's gone.

 

[MalFet]

this is what it says in his book. "as does a good wine, cherries in the snow offers a wonderful potential to mature beautifully with age (years), to be called forth for sinfully special occasions. the last bottle of the original batch of this beer was 20 years old when we tried it! man! did this beer turn some heads! it was fantastic."

I've read the book. Charlie Papazian is a nuclear engineer and perhaps the world's most experienced homebrewer. I don't doubt that he can brew a beer made only of light malt extract and fruit and have it last for 20 years. I do, however, doubt that you can. I doubt that I can. Papazian is a legend in the homebrew community for good reason, but he's got some eccentric opinions and his book is quite outdated.

You've got your heart set on it, and you don't really want to hear advice to the contrary. I mean it when I say that I truly hope it works for you. I have experience backing me when I say that I know it won't. Another brewer who made this beer and stored it in the fridge for only three years knows it won't. There are eight dozen other threads on this forum describing people's experiences with long term aging that explain why it won't. Do what you're going to do, but twenty years is a long time to wait for disappointment.

 

[kpr121]

I say--go ahead and brew it. Try one once a year and if it starts to fade, brew another batch.

Give a splash of the faded batch to the boil and you have the sentiment added to the new batch.

Then drink the hell out of the faded batch until it's gone.

I like this idea!