Two years in a secondary fermenter

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max384

max384

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Hey guys, I've got a bit of an odd question here. I haven't done any homebrewing in about two years now. Life (well, mainly school) got too busy and making beer got pushed to the side. I was cleaning out my basement today and came across my secondary fermenter full of beer! It's a dunkelweisen extract brew that I put in the secondary fermenter at the end of the summer of 2010. I completely forgot about it. It has been kept at a pretty constant 65-75 degrees and mostly shielded from light.

My first thought was to dump it down the drain... But then I got to wondering if it might still be okay. Maybe it might even taste good?? So what do you guys say? Have any of you ever let beer go this long before bottling it? Should I just forget about it and dump it? Should I give it a go?

Here's a picture of it:

20121207_173501-XL.jpg
 
Bottle it.

Worst case you're out some sanitizer for the bottles. Best case, you have the best story.
 
Not a good style to age. If you were clean in your sanitation it should be okay, but most wheat beers start to decline in a couple months. All of the yeast will have died and given off bad flavors, and you will be missing the taste they normally add to a weiss beer. I would dump it since it was a Dunkelweiss. However, I would not blame you if curiosity got the best of you.
 
It probably wont taste anything like it would originally, but i doubt its bad...chill a bit of it and if it tastes drinkable, bottle it.
 
max384 said:
...and mostly shielded from light.
Click to expand...

If the light is sunlight, this is what I'd be afraid of... Two years of getting some sunlight will definitely skunk the hops in the beer. By all means, try it out, I would. Hopefully it's better than expected!!
 
Taste it. That is the only way to tell. There is nothing in beer that will kill you (might make you gag, but you will live).

My suspicion, if it is not vinegar, it will be fine. Maybe not the beer you originally brewed.

........ But think of the tales you can tell on HBT about the beer you left for 2 years and ...... only you can write the next chapter in this story.
 
Id pull a little sample and see if its decent(drinkable) if it is im sure youll need some xtra yeast for bottling
 
Thanks guys! I've got my final exam this week then drills... So I'll give it a taste Monday after next. If it doesn't make me gag, I'll bottle it.


TheBeerist said:
No such thing. Pick one.

But with that said, bottle it up.
Click to expand...

Are you seriously confused about what I mean when I give a temperature range? The minimum temperature it has seen is 65 degrees F. The maximum temperature it has seen is 75 degrees F. The temperature range is 10 degrees F.

barrooze said:
If the light is sunlight, this is what I'd be afraid of... Two years of getting some sunlight will definitely skunk the hops in the beer. By all means, try it out, I would. Hopefully it's better than expected!!
Click to expand...

Any light it has gotten in the last two years was fluorescent. I kept it wrapped in a foil wrap, so very little light did actually get in though.

chuckstout said:
Id pull a little sample and see if its decent(drinkable) if it is im sure youll need some xtra yeast for bottling
Click to expand...

I would have never even thought of adding extra yeast and would have been left with some fiercely flat beer! Thanks. :mug:
 
max384 said:
Thanks guys! I've got my final exam this week then drills... So I'll give it a taste Monday after next. If it doesn't make me gag, I'll bottle it.
Click to expand...

Taste it Monday after next? That sounds like a recipe for another two years to me!

Like everyone else said, smell it, give it a small taste, then a little bigger taste. Go from there.

Don't let it sit another two years!!! Give it a sniff and taste asap! Move it somewhere you will have to trip over it so that it doesn't sit so long.


TheZer said:
Take a gravity reading...only way to be sure that its done fermenting.
Click to expand...

Now that's good stuff!
 
yeah wtf!! why would you find it and then rather than pull it out, take off the air lock and give it a wiff / taste you come here to the internet to ask.... do you look on your computer vs window to see if its sunny out side? how - why would you wate untill monday to check it??? if the air lock is dry it is vinegar period. now get your ass in there and check it will take 10 second... here i will even give you the steps. 1. get glass 2. remove air lock and pour in to glass 3. replace air lock 4. smell - taste 5. magicly know in 10seconds what we cant know, is it still good?
 
It's not going to kill you but it's probably not going to taste good either. It's probably highly oxidized at this point. It's worth pulling a sample out though.
 
mitchar19 said:
It's not going to kill you but it's probably not going to taste good either. It's probably highly oxidized at this point. It's worth pulling a sample out though.
Click to expand...

no, if it has oxygen it will be vinagar , thats how its made
wet perishables exsposed to atmospheric oxygen dont oxidize ( its not iron!) they decompose, becase its a food item we would call it spoilage, if you have a supply of oxygen to any damp food source the consequence is an unavoidable infection , if it is fermented beer you will likely get acetobacter going in there, it will turn all your alcohol to acetic acid, at this point it will stay is vinagar for years before decomposeing to the next step , all so you could have Lactobacillus and Pediococcus in there. they will all so make the beer sour. I really think that is all you have to worry about sour or not
 
I had a imp stout go bad on me years ago, whent on vacation and when i got back the cat or something knocked off the air lock, it was in secondry when i left. i was gone over 3 weeks , when i got back it was Crazy sour. i put it in a keg and forgot about it for about 2 years. then i pulled it back out and gave it a taste,, it was amazingly good malt vinagar. i made some fish in chips that day just it give it the final test. it was a hit. I put it all in old wine bottles and could hardly keep any for my self once the word got out.
 
His airlock is dry so it has been exposed to oxygen. I guess what I'm trying to say is it's probably going to have flavor characteristics similar to an old oxidized beer to the extreme. I've had something similar happen to me (let a beer sit in a secondary for a year) needless to say, it sucked. It tasted like water mixed with cardboard.
 
mitchar19 said:
His airlock is dry so it has been exposed to oxygen. I guess what I'm trying to say is it's probably going to have flavor characteristics similar to an old oxidized beer
Click to expand...

I agree that it's probably ruined.
I think oxidized beer might be good compared to whatever this is.

I would still smell it and taste it instead of posting and asking what it's going to be like.
 
Clayton said:
no, if it has oxygen it will be vinagar , thats how its made
wet perishables exsposed to atmospheric oxygen dont oxidize ( its not iron!) they decompose, becase its a food item we would call it spoilage, if you have a supply of oxygen to any damp food source the consequence is an unavoidable infection , if it is fermented beer you will likely get acetobacter going in there, it will turn all your alcohol to acetic acid, at this point it will stay is vinagar for years before decomposeing to the next step , all so you could have Lactobacillus and Pediococcus in there. they will all so make the beer sour. I really think that is all you have to worry about sour or not
Click to expand...

Not sure where you got that idea from. Compounds in beer most certainly can be oxidized.
 
I have five gallons of an American light lager that has been in my 'lagering' fridge for well over a year, at about 40'. I wasn't happy with the final results and just kinda put it on 'ignore'. Anyway, I don't really use the fridge for anything else and eventually 'ignore' turned to 'forget'. I remembered it the other day and decided to give it a whiff. Pretty good! I'll probably bottle it up this afternoon... :)
 
pabloj13 said:
Not sure where you got that idea from. Compounds in beer most certainly can be oxidized.
Click to expand...

sure they can. but the only why thats going to happon is if sterile beer is exsposed to sterile oxygen, and that my friend does not happon in the wild. all the beer we make is infected! there is no way small abounts of microbs dont land in the beer when you are putting it in the fermenter and then again when in the bottle but the number are so low that you drink it before it matters in most cases.

My point is that of you have a supply of oxygen ( ie empty air lock) you will have decomp destroy you beer quickly though the bioglogical processes of Metabolism 1000 times faster than what oxygen will do on its own.
Metabolism has the power of enzyme catalyzed reactions that will make all kinds of nasty stuff oxygen alone would never make.
 
Clayton said:
sure they can. but the only why thats going to happon is if sterile beer is exsposed to sterile oxygen, and that my friend does not happon in the wild. all the beer we make is infected! there is no way small abounts of microbs dont land in the beer when you are putting it in the fermenter and then again when in the bottle but the number are so low that you drink it before it matters in most cases.

My point is that of you have a supply of oxygen ( ie empty air lock) you will have decomp destroy you beer quickly though the bioglogical processes of Metabolism 1000 times faster than what oxygen will do on its own.
Metabolism has the power of enzyme catalyzed reactions that will make all kinds of nasty stuff oxygen alone would never make.
Click to expand...

There is no metabolism going on if there is nothing for the microbes to metabolize. Oxidation, on the other hand, is a chemical reaction that doesn't need "food" the way enzyme-catalyzed reactions do.
 
Clayton said:
yeah wtf!! why would you find it and then rather than pull it out, take off the air lock and give it a wiff / taste you come here to the internet to ask.... do you look on your computer vs window to see if its sunny out side? how - why would you wate untill monday to check it??? if the air lock is dry it is vinegar period. now get your ass in there and check it will take 10 second... here i will even give you the steps. 1. get glass 2. remove air lock and pour in to glass 3. replace air lock 4. smell - taste 5. magicly know in 10seconds what we cant know, is it still good?
Click to expand...

I'm still very much a beginner at brewing beer. I decided to come here and ask if it is even okay to consider bottling a beer that has been sitting in the fermenter for so long before blindly tasting it. If I hadn't come here to ask, I would have dumped it because I wasn't sure if it was even safe to consider tasting it. Because I came here and asked, I now know it is okay to give it a taste.

I'm waiting to taste it until I have time to bottle it, in the off-chance that it's even worth taking the time to bottle. After two years, I'm sure another week won't do any further harm.

Why all the condescending sarcasm? Ain't nobody got time for that!
 
Forgive the tone on this thread, but for non-beginner brewers, we would never even think about posting a thread online without (a) smelling it, (b) drawing a sample and tasting it, or (c) drinking a 12 pack and seeing if we die :cross:

One of the coolest things about beer, is that its virtually impossible to get sick on it. If you have anything that is (or even WAS) beer, then by its very nature, its too acidic and alcoholic for any known human pathogen to propagate. The only bug I can think of that MIGHT be found in beer is botulism, but for that, you would need a contaminated, oxygen FREE environment (like a home-canned of beer that's swollen up) before fermentation begins.

So again, for us, your comment about waiting a few days is kind of equivalent to someone posting in a baking thread saying "my cake just came out of the oven and looks a little funny, should I taste it?" Don't be scared homie! Smell it, if it doesn't smell like feces (literally) then give it a taste and post back! You have our attention. This situation is very cool and doesn't often come up.
 
max384 said:
I'm still very much a beginner at brewing beer. I decided to come here and ask if it is even okay to consider bottling a beer that has been sitting in the fermenter for so long before blindly tasting it. If I hadn't come here to ask, I would have dumped it because I wasn't sure if it was even safe to consider tasting it. Because I came here and asked, I now know it is okay to give it a taste.

I'm waiting to taste it until I have time to bottle it, in the off-chance that it's even worth taking the time to bottle. After two years, I'm sure another week won't do any further harm.

Why all the condescending sarcasm? Ain't nobody got time for that!
Click to expand...

Well I'm now about 20 times more confident that you will actually check the beer out. After it being forgotten for two years, I didn't figure you would even get around to checking out the replies. The fact that you did gives me a pretty good indication that you will do something.
I doubt the beer will be any good, but worth checking out.


ghpeel said:
One of the coolest things about beer, is that its virtually impossible to get sick on it.
Click to expand...

Man, you aren't trying hard enough! Lots of people get sick from drinking beer every day.
Up your dosage by about a half rack. Don't drink any water and make sure to have some bacon and eggs early the next morning.
 
ghpeel said:
Forgive the tone on this thread, but for non-beginner brewers, we would never even think about posting a thread online without (a) smelling it, (b) drawing a sample and tasting it, or (c) drinking a 12 pack and seeing if we die :cross:

One of the coolest things about beer, is that its virtually impossible to get sick on it. If you have anything that is (or even WAS) beer, then by its very nature, its too acidic and alcoholic for any known human pathogen to propagate. The only bug I can think of that MIGHT be found in beer is botulism, but for that, you would need a contaminated, oxygen FREE environment (like a home-canned of beer that's swollen up) before fermentation begins.

So again, for us, your comment about waiting a few days is kind of equivalent to someone posting in a baking thread saying "my cake just came out of the oven and looks a little funny, should I taste it?" Don't be scared homie! Smell it, if it doesn't smell like feces (literally) then give it a taste and post back! You have our attention. This situation is very cool and doesn't often come up.
Click to expand...


A Nick Diaz fan and a homebrewer? You are a true gentleman.
 
Wait, so 4 pages later and he still hasn't even smelled the dang beer?? WTH??

The least you can do is take off the airlock, smell it, and let us know. If it smells terrible, then beer is bad. If it smells like beer, then go ahead and bottle it and see what happens.
 
Looks like the headspace is not too bad so that's good. I am of the opinion that he should have the sanitizer ready and the bottles out to sanitized before he takes a taste. No need in exposing it to more O2 and then not bottling for a few days...but for goodness sake taste it and (hopefully) bottle it!
 
Blech!!!!

That may have been the worst tasting 'drink' that's ever made it past my lips! It didn't smell terrible (but also didn't smell good), but it had kind of a vinegary taste (and smell once I got it closer) with just a hint of dirty *******.


Looks like I won't be bottling this stuff!
 
Since letting my brew sit for a long period obviously isn't a problem for me, I'm tossing around the idea of making some mead. I've wanted to make some for a long time, but never followed through.


The problem is that I have no idea what mead even tastes like. I stopped by the local liquor store to buy a bottle and the only thing they carried was 'meade,' which after reading the label I found out was just white wine with spices added to recreate real mead flavor.

For those of you who have tasted mead, how would you describe the flavor?
 

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