Revisiting My Classics

[bknifefight]

I love this thread! It makes me realize that I should be taking better notes on my beer. Right now I could tell you the style and probably an approximate number for the ABV and IBUs but that's it. When it was brewed/bottled? Uhh...

 

[Torchiest]

Great thread, love reading it.

I had a question about your apple jackhammer, how did you add the apple flavor and how much did you add? I'm trying to do an apple wheat and can't decide how much to add. Thanks

For that beer, I ended up make about 4.5 gallons of beer, and then I added 1 gallon of unfiltered apple juice. When it was fresh, it was pretty good, but definitely got weirder as it aged.

I love this thread! It makes me realize that I should be taking better notes on my beer. Right now I could tell you the style and probably an approximate number for the ABV and IBUs but that's it. When it was brewed/bottled? Uhh...

Yeah, I have everything logged in Beer Smith. I was thinking about going back and editing all these posts with the predicted ABV, SRM, and IBU, but I might be too lazy to do that. We'll see.

 

[Torchiest]

#021 Propaganda Pale

Brewed: 10-10-07
Bottled: 11-12-07

Pours a light amber, very slightly cloudy, with a decent fluffy beige head, about one finger tall, that is settling pretty slowly.

Still some decent hop aroma in this one. I'm getting pine yet again. I should review these recipes and figure out which hop is doing that. Some malty sweetness hiding there as well.

Sweet front, transitioning into malt for just a second before the hops kick in. I'm getting more citrus and sourness in the actual taste though. Some honey on the finish, while the aftertaste has some lingering bitterness with a little resin mixed in.

Pretty well carbonated, perhaps a little low, but the beer itself is light and dry enough that it's not a big problem. I'd probably like it a little bubblier though.

It's going down pretty smooth, even though pales are not my favorite style. You may have guessed this when you noticed that it took until my 21st batch to brew one! Still, nothing TOO wrong with it, but I'd like to try it with different hops next time.

 

[Torchiest]

#022 Donner & Blitzkrieg 2007 (Christmas Ale)

Brewed: 11-19-07
Bottled: 12-20-07

Preface: This is the worst batch of beer I've ever made. I screwed it up by using way too much molasses to prime during bottling. It was an experiment gone horribly wrong.

Pours very bubbly, brown, with a very light beige head that slowly grows as the beer sits on the counter.

Spices, maybe hops, and a strong bitter molasses aroma.

Ugh. Lots of spice in the first instant, wiped away by pure nasty bitter molasses foulness, which grows throughout and into the finish and aftertaste. You can't really taste anything else, except some vague sweetness here and there.

Very carbonated, bubbly, actually not too sticky or anything.

Undrinkable. It's a joke that I pull out a bottle of this every few months, hoping it may have magically improved, but it's been terrible since I first bottled it. Dumper.

 

[Torchiest]

#023 Black Helicopter Porter

Brewed:11-29-07
Bottled:12-20-07

This was a very good version of this recipe. So good, in fact, that I drank it all without paying attention to how many bottles I had left, until it was too late to save any.

 

[Torchiest]

#024 Bridal Cider

"Brewed": 03-08-08
Bottled: 03-12-08

I made ten gallons of this for my wedding, using a different brand of apple juice from the first time. It was fine, but I gave away tons of it and didn't save any because I still had some from the previous batch of cider.

 

[Torchiest]

#025 White Wedding

Brewed: 03-12-08
Bottled: 04-18-08

Pours a cloudy, dark orange, with a yellowish, almost orange puffy head about two fingers tall, which collapses at a nice moderate rate that makes me think it will last throughout the beer.

Smells a little malty, but lots of spice, phenols, no hops, not really sweet either.

Biting bitterness in front, swishing through to some maltiness, with a sweet and spicy finish, some bitterness in the aftertaste.

Well carbonated, nice slightly above average body, a little residue afterwards, but not extreme. Not really dry like a wit normally is, but very pleasant.

Extremely drinkable. I brewed this for my wedding to go with the cider, and people raved about it; although it's not my personal favorite, it's going down smooth and easy. Er, it went down smooth and easy. I finished the beer before I finished the review, which doesn't usually happen. I suppose that speaks well for the taste.

 

[Torchiest]

Batch 26 was my first kegged batch, and after that I started kegging a ton, because it's so damn easy. 27, 29, 30, 34, 36, 37, and 38 were also kegged, so I have a much sparser collection of bottles from here onward. I do still have bottles for 28, 31, 32, 33, and 35, but they're all from the last year or so, which kinda defeats the purpose of going way back.

This was really fun to do, and I hope maybe some other people decide to do their own revisiting threads, if they have some old bottles saved up. I think I'll do another retrospective a few years from now, once the current bottles age some more, and I get some more batches bottled up.

 

[bwomp313]

I'm definitely doing this from now on

 

[bknifefight]

Thanks for sharing notes on your first 25 batches

 

[KUbrew]

Thanks for the info, I'm going to try the apple wheat in a few weeks.

Your thread was very interesting to read. I've saved a sixer from every batch, maybe after a few years of brewing I'll go back and do something similar.

 

[FromZwolle]

i like beer

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Bumping this so I can read it all when I have more time. This is exactly what I started doing in December. I save one bottle from every brew. The plan is at one year from brew date to drink them.

 

[bknifefight]

Bumping this so I can read it all when I have more time. This is exactly what I started doing in December. I save one bottle from every brew. The plan is at one year from brew date to drink them.

Same here but I am going 1 year from the bottle date. I haven't hit 1 year on any of my beers since I started keeping track but I am looking forward to it and keeping it up!

 

[Revvy]

Good to know my near encyclopedic memory of threads on here came in handy for you.

 

[HomebrewPadawan]

I'll bump this thread 4 years later
What's the best way to store beer for years on end? I have read that the best way is to refrigerate, but I don't know where I'd store all those bottles (25-50) in the OP's example...

Cheers

 

[Torchiest]

Wow, it's already been four years? My first son was born the day after my last post on this, so I haven't brewed as much as I used to.

I also almost exclusively keg now, so I don't have a big stockpile of bottles anymore. I still have the last bottle of most of my first thirty or so batches. I've kept them packed in a cardboard box sitting on the floor in my office closet, along with a lot of other brewing supplies. It stays a steady 70ºF or so in there.

I have a beer fridge out in my garage, but that is dedicated to holding my two slim kegs now, so I couldn't keep these bottles refrigerated unless I had yet another fridge somewhere. Plus, at this point, I don't know that I'll be drinking them any time soon.

The longest I kept a bottled batch going was one of my early Belgians. I would pull out a bottle or two each year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. By the third and fourth years, it was awesome. But I just kept that batch in my closet as well. In fact, I pretty much always kept bottles in the closet until I was ready to drink them.

 

[HomebrewPadawan]

Wow, it's already been four years? My first son was born the day after my last post on this, so I haven't brewed as much as I used to.

I also almost exclusively keg now, so I don't have a big stockpile of bottles anymore. I still have the last bottle of most of my first thirty or so batches. I've kept them packed in a cardboard box sitting on the floor in my office closet, along with a lot of other brewing supplies. It stays a steady 70ºF or so in there.

I have a beer fridge out in my garage, but that is dedicated to holding my two slim kegs now, so I couldn't keep these bottles refrigerated unless I had yet another fridge somewhere. Plus, at this point, I don't know that I'll be drinking them any time soon.

The longest I kept a bottled batch going was one of my early Belgians. I would pull out a bottle or two each year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. By the third and fourth years, it was awesome. But I just kept that batch in my closet as well. In fact, I pretty much always kept bottles in the closet until I was ready to drink them.

Glad I bumped the thread! It got you back posting again
So you've just kept them in a closet all this time. That's sound way more doable than trying to find room for a 6 pack of all my brews in a fridge! I'll start doing this right away...your thread inspired me to let some stuff age!

 

[Torchiest]

Yeah, one thing I really keep meaning to do is brew another Belgian ale, put it in bottles, and forget about it for a while. Those definitely age the best.

 

[HomebrewPadawan]

Yeah, one thing I really keep meaning to do is brew another Belgian ale, put it in bottles, and forget about it for a while. Those definitely age the best.

If you want to send me a recipe for that Belgian Ale that ages so well, I'll brew her for my next AG batch!
Just send me a PM.

 

[Torchiest]

Major thread resurrection here!

I still have a single remaining bottle of most of the ones I reviewed for this post, as well as a couple others. Basically a full case of 24 bottles, one from each batch. These beers are now anywhere from 15-17 years old, and I'm kinda curious to finally finish them off, but I'm wondering if they're still safe to drink. Has anyone ever had a beer that old? And even outside that, I'm guessing the vast majority, if not all, of these will be pretty bad at this point. So it's debatable whether it's even worth it to open them as opposed to saving them for the memories. I made labels for all the bottles back then, so they look nice. Of course, I could still save the empty bottles afterward. Looking for opinions on all this stuff.