Bottling my 26 month old beer!

[EricK The Red]

Woops! I meant 15 month old beer.


I brewed a Brewer's Best IPA kit in October of '06 and dreaded bottling it in my kitchen. I have a baby boy and a Mother-in-law who are constantly tripping me up in the kitchen. So...over a year later, I took my beer to a freind's house and we managed to fill 43 bottles and it tastes OK. I'll have to wait a couple weeks to find out for sure.

We also made a new batch of Irish Stout while we were tearing up the kitchen.

 

[damo]

fermentation for over a year im very novice but wouldnt the dead yeast kill the taste

 

[Evan!]

All I can say is, I hope you repitched with new yeast at bottling. Otherwise, you're in for some flat beer.

 

[Joker]

Either new yeast or carb tabs. If not you will need to have an opening, priming, and recapping get together soon.

 

[EricK The Red]

Doh! Actually it's only been beer for 15 months. No I didn't re-pitch.

I'll let you know how it turns out...

 

[Evan!]

Either new yeast or carb tabs. If not you will need to have an opening, priming, and recapping get together soon.

Carb tabs or not, if you don't have new, viable yeast, I'd put some $$ on not getting a bit of fermentation. Carb tabs are just sugar anyway. They still need yeast for bottle fermentation.

 

[malkore]

i too think this isn't going to carb one bit. 15 months = no yeast left to turn sugar into carbonation.

 

[capcrnch]

Not meaning to hijack, but..
How long is "too long"?

I've had a batch sitting in secondary for 3 months.
I didn't think it would be a problem, but I wanted to make sure because after reading this, you guys got me paranoid!

 

[the_bird]

Taste it, that's the only way to know. Some beers WANT to be bulk-aged that long (dopplebocks and barleywines, for example). Others might be past their prime but still pretty good. In any case, I'd re-dose with a simple, clean ale yeat (US-05 or Notty) for priming.

 

[Joker]

Carb tabs or not, if you don't have new, viable yeast, I'd put some $$ on not getting a bit of fermentation. Carb tabs are just sugar anyway. They still need yeast for bottle fermentation.

Well there is my "one thing" to learn everyday. I have never used the tabs but was under the impression they were an "all-in-one" tablet that you dropped in.

 

[kaptain_karma]

I've kept a Beligain strong ale in secondary for about ten months, and it carbed slowly but thoroughly when I bottled it. I imagine most yeasts don't stay in suspension as long.

 

[EricK The Red]

Haha!

After only 3 days in the bottle, I opened one out of curiosity, poured it into a glass and shook it a bit.

I saw little bubbles forming from the bottom! Still really flat, but it had bubbles!!!

I'll report back in a week or two...