How long does homebrew last?

[BrewBrain]

At least well over a year for even lighter pale ales.

I found several bottles from a couple batches of slightly modified EdWort's Haus Ales in the back of my fridge. One batch was bottled last June, the other batch was bottled March 2, '08.

I sampled one and it tasted like a brand new batch of beer:rockin:. I took the rest to a birthday get-together last night and they went over very well. First homebrew experience for a couple people, too.

So, simple pale ales, 1year old+ = no noticeable degradation of quality at all.

 

[IrregularPulse]

no loss of hop character?

 

[BrewBrain]

no loss of hop character?

Nope. I don't think I dry hopped these, but the hop character was outstanding.

 

[lx302]

I've had some brew leftover over a year and they were great. The higher the SG the longer it will stay fresh. As long as they are in a cool dry environment and capped well and sanitized, I don't see why it wouldn't taste good for a couple years.

 

[woollybugger2]

they don't last too long around my house

 

[conpewter]

There's also a difference depending on what temp you store them at.

 

[carnevoodoo]

Is it weird that I totally doubt this? Tons of hop character will fall out of any beer in a year. That's just fact.

 

[Ceedubya]

When I picked this hobby back up last fall I was going through all of my old brew stuff and bottles and found a 6'r of lager I had brewed 4 years earlier.

I couldn't help myself, I just had to know, so I tried it. It wasn't bad at all, a little different than I remeber and it was WAY carbonated for some reason but it was drinkable (in fact I drank three and shared the others).

It had been under some boxes stored in the back room of the house, so it never should have been exposed to light or gotten very warm.

 

[BrewBrain]

Is it weird that I totally doubt this? Tons of hop character will fall out of any beer in a year. That's just fact.

Like I said, it wasn't dry hopped beer, so I can't attest to that. But, these were very good, hop-centric beers with plenty of hop character.

 

[Revvy]

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.

It's going to really depend on the style and the recipe...Barleywines may not even come into their own for years and if properly stored may be good for decades.

A hefe on the other hand should be drunk really young..

I've tasted year old bottles of beer, and none of them had gone downhill either.

An IPA may lose it's hoppiness over that time, and be more like a pale ale, but an Imperial IPA may be perfect in two years..Any strong ales like Belgian Strongs, Barley Wines, Tripels, Dubbels, imperial Stouts, may just be coming into their own then...Stouts and Porters may be perfect in two years...

Really just about anything will hold up, except for stuff like heffes and wheats that are meant to be drunk young.

 

[BrewBrain]

By the way, these were generally stored at refrigerator temps, but would occasionally have been moved to my fermenting freezer (low-mid 60's) for a week at a time while I used the fridge for crash cooling.

 

[ifishsum]

they don't last too long around my house

I'm right with you, once I start drinking on a batch it's usually gone in a couple of weeks. Unless I forget some, I'll probably never know what 6 month old homebrew tastes like Though really I don't start drinking most batches before 8-9 weeks old - I'm not a complete beer pedophile...