Beer is more resiliant than you may think

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cheschire

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Apr 28, 2009
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Location
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So two years ago, I made an all grain pumpkin ale and let it ferment away. I got busy and ended up moving for two years and left the carboy at my friends house who I was renting a room from.
When I came back, the airlock had been broken and was filled with dried fruit flies. Luckily none of them got in.
There was a think beige film on the surface of the beer which I believe to be yeast. I think the layer of CO2 preserved the beer because I just syphoned off a gallon and its perfectly fine! It tastes a little old but not oxidized. I thought for sure it was malt vinegar by now
 
Wow. And I got worried when I had to leave mine for 4 weeks while I was out of town. What kind of conditions (temperature) did the beer endure in those years?
 
The rooms thermostat was set to 18c but I have no idea how warm it got during the summer. I live in Victoria BC
 
That film would probably be Brettanomyces, a wild yeast. It'll happen if you don't have perfect sanitation. Hell, there are sometimes tiny populations of them even in regular WL/Wyeast packs. Bottle/keg, and if bottled, drink quick. Brett takes months to work on complex sugars once they get ahold in the beer and it might still be working. You don't want bottle bombs
 
Its already been two years. No reason to drink fast or fear bottle bomb. You'd never know how resilient beer really is by all stuff that's posted here.
 
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