Looking for a beer to brew with a large aging window.

[Master]

So I am an airline pilot for my day job. And like a lot of airline pilots, it's pretty likely I'm going to either be out of work, or see a lot of friends out of work.

On an airline pilot forum we have talked about making an aged beer, that we will do a distributed brew, make enough for all the furloughed pilots to get some, and age it until the last guy is back from furlough.

Our best guess window is 6 months to 5 years. There is enough retirements to get all the projected furloughees back in 4-5 years on the high end (we have mandatory retirement at 65). Minimum window is 6 months, because less than that it's not economically feasible to furlough with the retraining cost when we come back.

I have basically a small commercial system. But a lot of the guys/gals are extract and a bucket types.

What I'm looking for is ideas for something that will be drinkable in 6 months, but also be able to age well out to five years.
Restrictions:
Needs to be workable with extract brewers.
Needs to ferment at room temp. (so no lagers unless they ferment at ale temps)
No funky stuff. I will probably also make myself a Lambic but that's a bit much for most.

I was thinking something I ferment out, chuck in my barrel for a while and fill up a couple cases of Bombers or regular bottles and let age. I think if we have people oak with spirals in the bottle that is workable for the people without a lot of equipment.

 

[Master]

Was running with ideas of Barleywine, Russian Imperial Stout, Baltic Porter, just looking for ideas for styles I may have missed.

 

[Cyclman]

Belgian quad...

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

+1 for the quad. Wee Heavy? Maybe an imperial dark saison?

 

[day_trippr]

I would consider the skills and capabilities of the distributed group, if possible, and take that into account when conjuring up a recipe.
Definitely would not do a barley wine because the odds are there will be way more fermentation fails than less aggressive styles.

I'd aim for a 60-70 point stout. Should be well within most folks skills, if steeping grains are included for the extract brewers their efforts should closely approximate the all-grain folks, and it will age well and can handle some club-handed packaging efforts (read: can handle some oxidation)...

Cheers!

 

[Stas StoLat]

So I am an airline pilot for my day job. And like a lot of airline pilots, it's pretty likely I'm going to either be out of work, or see a lot of friends out of work.

On an airline pilot forum we have talked about making an aged beer, that we will do a distributed brew, make enough for all the furloughed pilots to get some, and age it until the last guy is back from furlough.

Our best guess window is 6 months to 5 years. There is enough retirements to get all the projected furloughees back in 4-5 years on the high end (we have mandatory retirement at 65). Minimum window is 6 months, because less than that it's not economically feasible to furlough with the retraining cost when we come back.

I have basically a small commercial system. But a lot of the guys/gals are extract and a bucket types.

What I'm looking for is ideas for something that will be drinkable in 6 months, but also be able to age well out to five years.
Restrictions:
Needs to be workable with extract brewers.
Needs to ferment at room temp. (so no lagers unless they ferment at ale temps)
No funky stuff. I will probably also make myself a Lambic but that's a bit much for most.

I was thinking something I ferment out, chuck in my barrel for a while and fill up a couple cases of Bombers or regular bottles and let age. I think if we have people oak with spirals in the bottle that is workable for the people without a lot of equipment.

...
Go for the Gueuze!

 

[troglodytes]

CSIs Westy 12 clone in the recipes section is the best long aged beer I've made. It was good at 6 months old it was amazing at a year. I highly recommend it.

 

[Lefou]

If you like German style beers a weizenbock would work. It's a high gravity brew that works easily with fresh extract and "soft" bottled spring water. Anything around 6-9% ABV ages well. If interested, take a look at the link.
https://learn.kegerator.com/weizenbock/

 

[Lefou]

If you don't like the German-style wheat the recipe can always be modified a bit. I've made a similar beer almost like the above but substituted California ale yeast (WLP001). That yeast is strong and vigorous but won't give the essence or flavors the German yeast would add, and given the malt levels such a beer could stand up to some extra hopping, orange citrus zest, or oaking beyond a bock style, if desired.
The beer I made aged almost a year and was near 6.6% in 22oz. bottles. Very good, milder "holiday or Old ale" that will warm your face and feet in the colder months. Needs to be fermented cool to avoid fusels.
For this one it's a partial mash of 3lb. Vienna and .25lb German chocolate wheat (400L) mixed with 5.5lb of Briess Bavarian wheat LME. ZERO caramel or Crystal malts ...simply because it really isn't needed because the extract will contain the melanoidins already.
4oz Liberty hops @4AAU (36 IBU/ .56 BU/GU) boiled for 60min. 5gal in primary. The head on this beer is impressive.

 

[kestrelbrewing]

+1 on the quad. I just did a quad with cocoas nibs in secondary for one of the two batches I am going to give my wife's family for xmas (that's the only brewing she approves of). It tasted great when I bottled it last month, now it's going to bottle condition until December. If it tastes as good in 6 months as it did uncarbonated, I am probably going to do it again next year and let it sit in a bourbon barrel for a few months.