I'm scared...

I'd chill one, open it, pour it, look at it, smell it, then taste it. If it's good, add drink to the end and repeat.

I cellar and age a little bit. Some beer gets much better with age (some doesn't, even gets worse). A couple years ago, I had a 2010 Brooklyn Black Ops (RIS done with champagne yeast) that I had fresh. To me, it was so awful that I almost dumped it. I opened another 2010 bottle of Black Ops 1 year later and it was amazing. I have a complete 2-deep vertical of Avery Mephistopheles (RIS at ~15+% abv) going back to Batch #1 that was bottled in Jan of 2006. I had an extra Batch #3 from 2008 I think, and it was awesome.

 

That would just be cruel. With a wife who is 8 months pregnant, there's no outlet...

And my neighbor's name is Desiree, so lord knows what might be in there!

 

Gotta know. Weekend? Major cliffhanger. Id be popping one in the freezer. Better yet, stirring with an ice bath.

 

I have to throw in my experience here, only because I was in a similar boat.
Last October (2011). I was approached by my neighbor and he said " you drink beer right..? " Do I ever! I said.
He proceeded to tell me about how somebody at work gave him these, but he doesn't drink blah blah... I was just more interested in the beer. He handed me a file box full of bottles. close to 24.
I browsed through them to find Bud Light, Bud, Corona, and a few other BMC type beers. And wait whats this I find, Its an Anchor Steam! I thought that this could be promising. later that night looking through the bottles It hit me.... I haven't seen labels like this since I was binge drinking the summer I graduated high school!.... It brought back memories, some I tried to forget. I found the date on most of the bottles to be 2000 or 2001. The Bud and BL had weird white things floating in them. After opening it the beer smelled like bad vinegar. I was hoping thew Anchor Steam would be drinkable, but it too had sadly gone bad.

That's enough of my story, Open those darn bottles already!

Good Luck!

 

The biggest unknown and concern if it were me is what condition was their relationship in when he brewed the beer? If the relationship was on the rocks he may have brewed up a cyanide stout or a hemlock hefe. Either way, its your duty to take one for the team and report back

 

I just got them in the fridge. Based on the look, it's something quite opaque. So I'm hoping we're talking amazing aged imperial stout here...

One thing I did notice was relatively inconsistent fill levels. While not truly important, what might potentially be a lack in attention to detail is not comforting...

 

Totally got us on the edge of our seats. I think bwarbiany is enjoying this

 

I will admit, there's a lot more interest in this than I was expecting. I am enjoying it

 

Someone should print up some tee shirts that say something like " I read the entire 5 pages of this thread and all I got was blueballs." I'd also buy one that said "I was on homebrewtalk.com when bwarbiany drank the hemlock hefe." Well done dgez.

 

Thanks Nostradamus!!!

 

So what's the status? Are they any good? It is the weekend you know...

 

It is the weekend... I just got home from the in-laws, so dammit, it is time for a beer. Or for whatever this is, anyway.

So I cracked one open. First impression -- not a gusher, not flat. It did hiss when I popped the cap. Very good sign.

Took a whiff. The smell was strong, I'll admit... But I'll get to that later. I assume you want to see the pour:



Small off-white head, fades quickly. Minimal lacing. Color is opaque & black. Carbonation medium to high, despite small head.

So, back to the smell. The smell was strong. Alcohol strong. Hard liquor strong. You know when I said I hoped it would be some sort of bourbon-barrel stout? I think that's exactly what this is. The smell was strong, but good. It was certainly not vinegar.

Taste/Mouthfeel: This was clearly a clean ferment. No harsh fusels, no sign of anything suggesting major off flavors or infection. Overall, I get bourbon and I get stout. And it's lacking any major alcohol heat, so it's either not overly strong or it hides it DAMN well. That's the positive. As for the negative, it's overly thin, lacking in a real malt backbone. I'd definitely say that if you were a homebrewer and told me you were giving me a bourbon stout, I'd expect more than what I got here.

The one thing I don't know is how strong this stuff is. Based on the thin flavor and the lack of heat, I'm guessing this isn't an imperial stout. I probably need to pull out the hydrometer and refractometer and plug the results into beersmith to figure out the OG.

Either way, I'm pleasantly surprised by bottle #1. This beer isn't great, but it's good. And I think I'm happy to know that I've got a bunch more bottles sitting in the fridge right now.

 

Oh, and I should point out that I woke up today, so I don't think it was a bourbon cyanide stout...

 

This thread is awesome

 

Thanks for the well written review! I'm glad they are drinkable. The inlaws will lead to drinking every time.

 

A beer a day, that's all we ask.

 

I drank a 30 year old bottle of Budweiser...it tasted more like a german lager than today's American ale...and surprisngly the carbonation was good...Oxidized a bit...but still drinkable. I would chill em up...get drunk for free If you don't like the beer then use it for making batters for deep fry. Zucchini blossoms and Pumpkin flowers were great.

 

bwarbiany...I have to ask...why are you drinking beer in a dirty glass? Bubbles should not be sticking to the glass. Do you have lots of calcium deposits in your water?

 

Was your kick stand out?

 

What makes you think it is bubbles? It looks like a frosted glass to me. Kind of equally retarded but not the same.

Lol!! You don't have to drink Pfizerbier for that to happen

 

It's not dirty (nor, bottlebomber, did I do a "retarded" thing and frost it). Frankly I don't know why the bubbles were sticking to the side of the glass. That never happens when I use the same glass for pulls off my kegerator. I was surprised to see that as well.

 

That happens with root beer... Could this be root beer? You said you weren't getting much alcohol character

 

Not any moreso than any other morning!

You know, the sad thing about this thread is how anticlimactic the reveal became. I can't say that I wish it had been an utter mess of a beer, but it certainly would have been a lot more interesting for you guys!

 

It takes a while for the arsenic to take effect. Keep drinking and give it time.

 

Don't worry, I spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder.

 

At least you got back to us on it. Did you follow the cheese beer thread? People were gonna kill that guy...

 

I think your beers can do that when they are super cold,ive seen my stouts do it.

 

Yeah, I just got a spare fridge to use for lagering, and these were stored there. It could be quite cold in there -- I haven't put a thermometer in there yet to see how cold these really are, but it seems cold in that fridge...

 

Inconceivable!

 

What about the other bottles? How did they taste?

 

Visibly, they all look to be the same thing, so I haven't gotten around to tasting the others. If there are any surprises, I'll let you all know, but at this point the anticlimactic thread I started will probably fade off into obscurity.

I guess my 15 minutes at HBT are up, huh?

 

You got way more than 15 min bwarbiany Its been an interesting read. It was almost a mystery novel for homebrewers: strange beers show up from nowhere, could they be poisoned, wheres the husband now, is it crap beer, bottle bombs, is he going to drink it? Crap like that never happens to me.

 

Unless the guy comes back for his beer.. Then it could get good again

 

Let's just hope he is not a member on here and sees this thread.

 

I haven't considered that. Boy, the odds are really stacking up

 

Bump, just to see what the rest taste like.

 

I want to see what they taste like as well

 

Subscribed just in case the "Jerry Springer: Homebrew Beatdown" fantasy becomes reality.

 

Update bump?