Longest aged beer?

[3 Dawg Night]

As much as I want to enjoy the Utopias (I was saving it for a kid's college graduation or something equally as celebratory, so I could share it with a group), my family is pressuring me to sell it as we have a 2nd kid entering college in a few weeks.

@Dr_Jeff, I totally missed that you're in Henagar (sometimes).

@JAReeves How much you want for it? Maybe @Dr_Jeff and I will split it.

 

[JAReeves]

Thank you for the offer, I will look into it. Kind of sad, though, that this might be the only chance I have to taste it myself.

 

[passedpawn]

As much as I want to enjoy the Utopias (I was saving it for a kid's college graduation or something equally as celebratory, so I could share it with a group), my family is pressuring me to sell it as we have a 2nd kid entering college in a few weeks.

That'll pay for 1 book. I'd save it.

 

[MaxStout]

I have some bottles of barleywine I brewed in fall 2019. It's just starting to hit its stride.
Still a few bottles of a show mead from 2014 sitting in my cellar. I had one a few weeks ago and it tasted fine.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

@Dr_Jeff, I totally missed that you're in Henagar (sometimes).

@JAReeves How much you want for it? Maybe @Dr_Jeff and I will split it.

I'll likely be home for another week or so, maybe a week and a half.

 

[Jayjay1976]

My oldest beer is an RIS from late 2018, it has really developed in complexity with nice raisin and sherry notes. I used a Belgian yeast which brought some phenols but then it needed a bunch of time to smooth out. Has me wondering if just dosing with sherry before bottling would 'help' it get there in just a year or so. Also, bottling with corks promotes aging through very slow O2 ingress. Otherwise it takes ages for the tiny bit of exposure at bottling to do it's thing.

On storage conditions, I keep beers that I want to age in the garage year-round. The daily temp swings in warmer months pushes chemical reactions along, while the extended chill of Chicago winters makes the beer feel forgotten about. That's the trick IME, when bottles of beer feel unattended, thats when the magic happens.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

I'll likely be home for another week or so, maybe a week and a half.

Well, if your guy in Alaska is able to get you a bottle, get two, and I'll buy one from you when you make it back to North Alabama.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

On storage conditions, I keep beers that I want to age in the garage year-round. The daily temp swings in warmer months pushes chemical reactions along, while the extended chill of Chicago winters makes the beer feel forgotten about. That's the trick IME, when bottles of beer feel unattended, thats when the magic happens.

That's an interesting concept. I'm planning to brew a barleywine in a couple of months. After I bottle it, maybe I'll store half in my closet, which stays between 68-76 year round, and the other half in my garage. Here in Alabama, that's a swing from ~40F to ~90F over the course of the year. I'll be interested to have a side-by-side comparison in a few years.

 

[Jayjay1976]

That's an interesting concept. I'm planning to brew a barleywine in a couple of months. After I bottle it, maybe I'll store half in my closet, which stays between 68-76 year round, and the other half in my garage. Here in Alabama, that's a swing from ~40F to ~90F over the course of the year. I'll be interested to have a side-by-side comparison in a few years.

In R&D, we often subject prototypes to "rapid aging" which recreates the effects of several years of use in just a few weeks. There are several variables going on at once but temperature fluctuation is chief among them. Duplicating annual temp swings in month-long cycles using a heated and cooled chamber could possibly compress the aging effect even further.