Six year old homebrew... not terrible

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This Christmas I'll be opening one of the few remaining bottles of a barleywine I brewed back in 2010. It took 2 years before it even really tasted good so I'm looking forward to trying it. Unfortunately the guy I brewed it with lives across the country so we can't share it together.
 
In late fall of 2006 I had a handful of my lab mates over for a "beer brewing party" while in grad school at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Each person got a 6 pack for their efforts, I believe it was an oatmeal stout. 18 months later we were sending off one of those lab mates to new endeavors, and stumbled across a bottle that had "lagered" in her refrigerator that whole time. We popped it open and it was as drinkable as ever.
 
In the summer of 99, while I was back in Massachusetts visiting, my mom told me she found a case leftover from my first batch, which I brewed in the summer of 1974, in the back corner of the basement.

I opened one, poured it in a glass, and after a short examination that did not include tasting it, poured it down the drain. The rest of the case joined their brethren in an unmarked grave by the side of my parents garage. It did not improve with age.
 
I opened a 20 year old berlinerwise last week. Turned a little dark and funky. Could be because I dumped in a lot of the crud from the bottom. Long time since I opened a home brew bottle of beer. I have been kegging for a long time. Out of practice.
 
I've been aging homebrews and commercial brews for some time now. I brewed a beer when my first kid was born, and gave it out instead of the old cigar concept. But I saved a few bottles. I gave my son a bottle on his 30th birthday, and we shared another to see how it was. Great! It was a light lager that ended up with caramel, dark fruit and malt flavors. It was only 3.5% ABV. Cleanly brewed beers can last a long time!

I try to brew at least one batch for aging every year, and put it away for the long term. Barley Wines, Imperial Stouts, Doppelbocks - the types of beer that age well.
 
I was given a bottle of barleywine from a friend brewed 1997, every year I keep saying Im going to open, only have to keep 1 more year to be 20 years old
Cheers
 
I have a corny full of a porter I made in 2011. When the O.G. was 30 points too high, I figured out my grain scale was broken. I fermented and kegged it anyway (10 gallons) and after 6 months it was far too sweet. I ended up dumping one corny because I needed the keg, but never dumped the second. I "found" the full keg recently when I needed another to keg a recent brew, but instead of dumping it, I tasted it. We've been serving it as "dark and mysterious" for the past 6 months with rave reviews...
 
I have a few bottles that are between 25 and 30 years old. We opened several about 10 years ago and they were definitely drinkable. Nothing too weird about them.
 
I haven't been brewing for long, so i don't have anything that old yet.
My beers usually won't survive 2 months after brewing anyway :p
 
marc0871 said:
I haven't been brewing for long, so i don't have anything that old yet.
My beers usually won't survive 2 months after brewing anyway :p
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You need to brew more and drink less. Some beers don't get good until after 3 months or more. The only ones that degrade (in my opinion) are the hoppy beers which lose the aroma in 2 to 3 months. :mug:
 
RM-MN said:
You need to brew more and drink less. Some beers don't get good until after 3 months or more. The only ones that degrade (in my opinion) are the hoppy beers which lose the aroma in 2 to 3 months. :mug:
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I know :eek:
But after 3 weeks they taste so good, i can't help myself getting another one.
By the time the freshness subsides and the more complex flavours are comming through, It's more often than not, all but gone.
More time for drinking than for brewing, doesn't help either :(

But hey; I get to experience the evolution of the flavours.
that's not a bad thing to learn too, for a beginning homebrewer.
 
My Homebrewing club is 30 years old. One of the founders stopped brewing some time ago, but hosted us for a yearly meeting. He would bring out aged beers to share to recognize what aged beer tasted like. At the same time meeting, another would bring a vertical tasting of barley wines going back at least 13 years. I had a 26.5 year old beer on Friday. Malty, oxidized, low carb, but still beer and safe to drink. We joked that his beers were old enough to legally drink themselves!
 
TitusCooker said:
My Homebrewing club is 30 years old. One of the founders stopped brewing some time ago, but hosted us for a yearly meeting. He would bring out aged beers to share to recognize what aged beer tasted like. At the same time meeting, another would bring a vertical tasting of barley wines going back at least 13 years. I had a 26.5 year old beer on Friday. Malty, oxidized, low carb, but still beer and safe to drink. We joked that his beers were old enough to legally drink themselves!
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I was at that meeting (though I wasn't sure until you mentioned the barley wine vertical: 2001~2016 with only 2 missing years in the whole thing?! Amazing the difference at between the '03 and the '05, then the followup difference at about '12~'13).
Rolf has brought out some of his most aged beers several times; sometimes not so hot, sometimes, a little surprising! I think the end result of that is a 26 year old beer should already have moved out of the house, dammit, you're almost too old to be on my insurance any more. :ban:

"Beer Old Enough to Vote" should be his new tagline. ;)
Nate
 
I cellar my barley wines and RISs. I have 3 batches currently in my cellar, all barley wines, of 7 years and 3 years. The 7-year old is spectacular. I brought it and a 2008 Bigfoot to our homebrew club meeting. The consensus was that it blew the Bigfoot away. I only have 5 bottles left of the 7-year-old barley wines so I will guard them carefully. I have over half a case of the 3-year-old. Not going to touch that for at least 2 more years.

Time to brew some more! I need to get a couple more batches of BWs and RISs in the cellar.
 
Found some of my original porter and red ale bottles from 1997-98 a few months ago in the back of my beer fridge. I knew they were back there and had just forgotten how old they had become. A buddy and i cracked them open during a brew day to see how they fared. I was fully prepared to dump them, but after smelling them, we decided to give them a taste. After passing the taste test, we ended up drinking them. Tasted great and no ill effects!
 
I love saving beer for years! I've got a ris from 2009 that I still have 5 bottles of that is great, just now getting that soy flavor in it which is a sign I need to drink it!
 
gaviga said:
I cellar my barley wines and RISs. I have 3 batches currently in my cellar, all barley wines, of 7 years and 3 years. The 7-year old is spectacular. I brought it and a 2008 Bigfoot to our homebrew club meeting. The consensus was that it blew the Bigfoot away. I only have 5 bottles left of the 7-year-old barley wines so I will guard them carefully. I have over half a case of the 3-year-old. Not going to touch that for at least 2 more years.

Time to brew some more! I need to get a couple more batches of BWs and RISs in the cellar.
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I age Bigfoot saving 16-20 per year. My oldest is 2008. I'm always surprised by how well the hops hold up to 3-4 years of aging.
 
If you want a good read on how to age beers, and what qualities make the best aged beers, try reading Vintage Beer: A Taster's Guide to Brews That Improve over Time, by Patrick Dawson. It's an eye-opener on techniques that homebrewers can use. The hardest part about aging beers is having enough left by the time it gets really good. I bottle a batch and then set aside a case. Drink the rest over a few years to see how it's progressing, but leave that one case alone for ten years. It doesn't help when you've got just one or two bottles left from each of many twenty-year-old batches. Too much stress. Brew to age, put it away, and continue to brew other great beers to drink. Then you're not tempted to drink just one more of your dwindling supply of that fabulously smooth nine year old Barley Wine. On a side note, meads seem to get really good after aging for five or six years.
 
I've got about 18 bottles of a belgian-style barleywine that's at 3 years. It was one of those batches that was still tasting a bit harsh even after 2, so I'm gonna hold off a bit longer to enjoy them. Longest I've ever gone was 4 years.
 
My Step father found a crate in the back of his garage from a batch he'd brewed (in an old school wringer washing machine BTW) 12 years earlier. He reckons it was wonderful!
 
danlad said:
Found a couple of bottles of a batch from some 6 (I think) years ago that I gave my dad.

If that is what oxidation and autolysis taste like, not bad ;)

So far as I can guess will have been a simplish pale ale, bit of crystal and brown sugar because most of them are...

Like a Fullers Vintage with a couple of years on it, but dryer. Somewhat sherry-ish, slightly cherry-ish.

What is your oldest accidental aged brew?
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I apologize for my bad English, I live in Argentina, and I think in Spanish :))
I keep a bottle of a barley wine made in 2003, for my father's 80th birthday. We opened another of that development with one of my children and a homebrewer friend in 2014, along with others from 2007 (barley wine) and 2006 (irish red).
All were very attenuated in bitterness, with structure and flavor to Jerez, without gas (they did not have corks, only crown type caps), but very well drinkable. There is a video of the comments on my youtube channel.
Actually they were well preserved and with an interesting flavor, so I then acquired an oak barrel with three uses of Malbec wine and I have waiting 250 liters of a stock ale in Stainless Steel (2015) to pass to that barrel with Brettanomyces clausenii for 5 or 10 Years, after conditioning it.
 
I have about 10 bottles that I brewed in the 80s, from before I met my wife in 1986. so, 30 years? I opened one a few years ago and it was pretty good. Still carbonated and tasty-given that in those days it was Munton's kits I was surprised and pleased. I have cases of other "old" ones, going back maybe 5 or 6 years. The hop flavours mellow, but the malt side does not seem to go off at all.
 
My brother and I made a bunch for family picnics (2009, 2010, 2011). My dad stashed some away somewhere and earlier this year he opened one of the last from the 2009 batch and said it was amazing. I had one from the 2010 batch last summer and it was very good. Not as good as it was in 2010 as it lost a lot of the hop character (40 IBUs) and some of the malt, but all-in-all it was pretty good. I tried a malty, mouthy Red that we cellared for about three years and found that the flavor had completely changed. Even two months ago my brother called to say he was opening one from 2010...

The torment!
 
I still have a few bottles each of batch #9, 13, 21, 51, and 54. I'm on batch # 227 now over about 13 years. I don't have terribly high hopes for most except for the Barleywine (#54 from ~2009). If you saw my basement, you'd think I'm a beer hoarder.
 
I have had a few bottles in the 4 to 6 year old range, all were good, but a few weeks ago I was given 27 old heavy glass bottles from a friend whos father was a brewer, they were all full and brewed 19 years ago. I had to try one just to say I had tasted 19 year old beer. They were very malty but clear, perfectly gassed and drinkable.
 
I brewed up some hard cider a couple years ago. It was really lousy when I first made it, but I put it in bottles, tucked the box away for a couple years and now it's a lot like a nice white wine. :)
 
You guys have inspired me to throw a gluten free creation (wife has celiac) in the fridge to see how it has become.... It is over 5 years old... could check records, but I am relaxing and drinking! It was INTOLERABLE (aftertaste) when new and improved incrementally with age... Too much sorghum and it just tasted like s--t... Was tolerable a couple years ago when I tasted it, so maybe it's great now!

I have routinely let beers age up to 2 years and never had a problem... Still have some sparking and regular mead that is from 2011, which is obviously fine (better really), and I like to let my strong ciders age for a year or 4 before I drink them... I'm running out though... Didn't I saw something about drinking and lazy? :)

Anyway, I will report back on the gluten free (pretty sure I had a thread on it, but maybe just questions in other threads... anyway... drinking... lazy...).

Cheers! (Commodore Perry IPA from Great Lakes at the moment...)
 
I'm 33 now, actively brewing for 5 years but I brewed my first batch when I was 21. The Oktoberfest we brewed was 8 years old when tried. My dad however, brewed some sort of ale with his colleagues in the 80's. The ring leader found multiple bottles in his basement this past summer... were waiting for an appropriate time to try one, (not sure if by "appropriate," I mean free time to handle being sick!) maybe I'll update when we drink it.
 
mr_y82 said:
You guys have inspired me to throw a gluten free creation (wife has celiac) in the fridge to see how it has become.... It is over 5 years old... could check records, but I am relaxing and drinking! It was INTOLERABLE (aftertaste) when new and improved incrementally with age... Too much sorghum and it just tasted like s--t... Was tolerable a couple years ago when I tasted it, so maybe it's great now!

I have routinely let beers age up to 2 years and never had a problem... Still have some sparking and regular mead that is from 2011, which is obviously fine (better really), and I like to let my strong ciders age for a year or 4 before I drink them... I'm running out though... Didn't I saw something about drinking and lazy? :)

Anyway, I will report back on the gluten free (pretty sure I had a thread on it, but maybe just questions in other threads... anyway... drinking... lazy...).

Cheers! (Commodore Perry IPA from Great Lakes at the moment...)
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Gluten Free was better, which is a little surprising give it´s age (6+ years), but still not what I would call good... Probably drank more than 8/12ozs though!
 
Six kegs of beer. Four completely full and two mostly full. I'd found three in a closet a few weeks ago, came back to the boards; realized I had claimed I had 17 kegs and could only account for 10. Went looking for and found the rest in the old coal cellar behind a few boxes of wine, three of which were absolutely full. I last brewed a nut brown in 2012. That was full, along with one of stout from 2010, a BMC clone, an Irish red, a Hefeweizen and an American wheat, all from before 2010.
The stout is lovely. The BMC is unexpectedly very dark, but mostly ok, I must have hopped the heck out of it as they still come through strong. The Hefeweizen is ok, a bit less to it somehow, the American wheat is kind of ok, the nut brown is bland and the Irish red is bad; really horrible. All the full beer kegs remained pressurized somehow.
So the oldest I've recently had was 8 years old. I had a friend over and we had a few pints. I always remember that the homebrew was kind of strong but I don't remember it being THAT strong. Time made me forget, I guess.
 

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