Particular extract beer style that does well with LONG aging?

[Atrus]

So, my wife and I are expecting our first child - a little girl - in a few weeks. I thought it may be kind of cool to brew up some "baby beer" and stash a 6 pack of it away to open up WAY down the road, like 21 years from now.

It may be a silly idea, and I know the beer most likely won't keep that long, but even if it's not consumable, it's a cool little time capsule (at least in my mind - watch, she'll hate beer).

Anyway, is there a particular style or type that would give me a better chance of it being edible, if not even still good, two decades into the future? Ideally, I was thinking of something middle-of-the-road - amber/light beer-ish. I'd hope at 21 my little girl wouldn't be taking down Imperial Stouts or anything. I can't lager as I don't have the setup for it - I have the basic fermenter/carboy/dark cool basement brewing setup.

Again, I know this is a very long shot, but I figured I may as well stack the deck as best I can in my favor. If it's complete nasty swill by then, she'll still have some bottles with a cool label and whatnot dedicated to her!

Thanks!

 

[TopherM]

Anything that doesn't have high ABV does not last much more than 100 or so days, and anything with high ABV needs to have a VERY full body to mask the alcohol burn, so I think you are SOL on lighter beers or ambers being anywhere close to palatable in 20 years. MAYBE if you kept it at like 34 degrees the whole time, but that seems to defeat the purpose.

I think you are stuck with something like a Barleywine or Belgian Trippel... MAYBE a few stouts if they are 10+ ABV or 1.1+ OG. Those are the only styles I am aware of that are going to stand up to a super long aging process. And like you said, you hope your 21 year old doesn't have a taste for 10+ ABV beers.

Barleywine is going to be your best bet for what you want to accomplish, but I doubt you are going to want to go with that if you originally thought amber or lager. I've heard of people drinking bottles of Barleywine that have been aged for 10+ years and it being very good, but this style of beer isn't to most people's tastes in the first place - it is very heavy, sticky, and high alcohol content. If you don't have a taste for Barleywine in the first place, I don't think you'd recongnise it as good after a long aging, either, so go buy a Sierra Nevada Bigfoot or BluePoint Howling Bastard Ale to try before you even undertake this.

Good luck, it is a cool idea, but might be easier to pull of with a bottle of red wine

 

[McGarnigle]

Barleywine or Impy Stout or something like that. But 21 years is an awful long time for oxygenation to have a chance to take hold. Light-ish beers would be out of the question...you need to go big alcohol with it.

 

[Atrus]

Hmmm...thanks for the replies guys.

Looks like i'll just brew a batch of whatever I want (as the rest will be consumed by me, most likely late at night to the sound of a screaming infant) and set some aside as more of a novelty rather than with any actual intent to drink it. I thought it'd be cool to come up with a nice specialized label for her.

 

[bknifefight]

Make a mead. You can do it with extract equipment and aging 21 years is not out of the question.

 

[Jakemo]

Second on the mead. Do it! Add some special "girly" spices.... not that I have any idea what those would be. Maybe a more floral honey?

 

[Golddiggie]

Another vote for the mead. Or a really strong braggot. If mead, go with either Wyeast Eau De Vie yeast, or something else that can go to 21% (or better). Make it strong enough to hit that range too. I would set it all aside for the first two years until its really ready for drinking. Just make sure you set plenty aside and open a bottle on her b-day each year. If you bottle it up right you shouldn't get any oxidation and it will simply get better each year.

 

[avidhomebrewer]

As others have said, when I read your post, I was thinking mead too. I agree with Gold about the yeast selection.

 

[Atrus]

Awesome, thanks guys. Hopefully the weather is halfway not-swealtering this weekend and I'll actually get in front of the stove.

 

[Golddiggie]

Traditional mead involves no cooking/heat.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Another vote for mead (or a high abv cyser) here. I made an 18.75% cyser 5 years ago & I've been bulk aging it ever since. At last tasting it was still a bit hot, but was starting to smooth out. I think it might be ready to drink in another 3 years or so, maybe more. Regards, GF.