We tried 48 year old beer today.

[Devo9]

Awesome! I can only hope I am lucky enough to find something 1/2 as amazing as that!

 

[Raggedwood]

Awesome dude, sorry it was gross, but still.

 

[ralex999]

Sam Adam's Millium and it's Utopia is barrel aged then racked into bottles for a target of 25 years aging in the bottle. Some old records I dug up out of the 1850's indicate that the optimum for aging beer was around 7 years and with anything over 2 years being "really mellow" I am not sure it's worth $150 a bottle, but for "flat" beer in a brandy snifer, Utopia is quite pleasing. I really would like to get my hands on a bottle of 12 year old beer aged in a bourbon or French white oak Barrel. Can't even imagine what that would taste like. Great post guys, I really enjoyed it.

 

[lnd8]

Love the label

 

[critch]

good find revvy!

martin cornell(english beer writer) got to try something a little older...

http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/an-1875-arctic-ale-tasting/

 

[cdeme123]

Watch, some collector or something will come out tell you they would have paid $10k per bottle if you hadn't opened them. You're brave. Great find though. I should go to more estate sales looking for stuff like that.

Cheers

 

[Photog]

The brewery was located here, 43.731681, -83.447522. and there is nothing left of it.

One interesting thing is that the brewery had a tap on the outside where the community could get their beer there free. Sebewaing water tastes horrible and the beer was a way to mask the taste of the water. Sebewaing is a german town and they love their beer.

I have a couple of bottles of it if you know a collector willing to pay. lol.

 

[shoreman]

I think I have a pack of the golden pheasant labels at my house - got them off of ebay a long time ago if you are interested in them

 

[Oldskooler]

Nice.

I've actually had a beer called Golden Pheasant, but it's a Czech pils.

Actually it is a Slovak beer Zlatý Bažant witch translates to Golden Pheasant I spent a summer in Bratislava working and drank a lot of it. I thought it was excellent

 

[unionrdr]

I still have many cousins on mom's side in Bratislava. I'd love to get over there to visit.

 

[nickybhoy]

Awesome thread, a right good tale all the way through. The link posted about the arctic ale tasting session was good too! Rock on troops

 

[Oldskooler]

I still have many cousins on mom's side in Bratislava. I'd love to get over there to visit.

Man you owe yourself a trip. The most beautiful women on the planet

 

[sawbuck]

I got a bottle of this from a friend....figured I fire it up. Description on bottle says it will continue to develop for 5 years...so a bit passed that mark. (sorry for the non-beer clean glass)

A- Musty, yeasty sweet smell. Mixed with alcohol....slightly off putting.

A- Color has hlep up well....some settling and cloudyness.

T- Hyperactive caramel, alcohol burn, finishes the same. Not undrinkable, but not as pleasurable as a fresher brew. Wish I had a current version to compare. Finishes with some burnt caramel and bitterness also.

P- Still some carbination...very mild however. Oily and slick on the palate.

Overall- Think this sat too long

Brings me to a question for serious beer drinkers out there...I have a bourbon county rare from 2010...should I fire it up soon? Has anyone tried flights at different years (2011, 2012)....was waiting for a good occasion.

 

[screamin6]

Reviving this old thread here.

The B with a circle around it is the bottle manufacturer, Brockway Glass.

The 63 is the year the bottle was made.

How do I know this? I worked for Brockway Glass for one summer in the 80's when it was still around, in Freehold, NJ. That place was HOT and dangerous.

Here is some more interesting information:

http://www.glassbottlemarks.com/b-in-a-circle-brockway-glass-company/

Steve

You know what? Maybe the numbers on the bottom of the bottles aren't dates...or were dates when the glass was made, but not bottled. Maybe they weren't bottled til 1965?

I'm trying to find that in depth article that was in the MIchigan Beer Guide when MBC re-released the beers in 03. But it's not archived online. I know I have a hard copy of it for my book on thumb breweries, that I haven't worked on since before my surgery. I think it's much clearer than that snippet I found elsewhere.

 

[screamin6]

More Info from http://productmanufacturers.blogspot.com/2012/12/brockway-glass-co.html:

 

[screamin6]

Another link showing the same mold number as the original post:

http://oldglassbottles.blogspot.com/2012/09/temperglas-amber-glass-beer-bottle.html

 

[screamin6]

Last one I promise.

http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/Brockway.pdf

 

[RPCidery]

Great thread, Revvy. I have a similar situation, and I can't make up my mind exactly what to do about it. My grandmother passed away earlier this year (she was my last remaining grandparent), and in cleaning out the old refrigerator in her back room, I found this:

This bottle of Tech Lager was brought to my grandmother's house in San Angelo, Texas circa 1975 from Pittsburgh via visiting family. Somehow, it was never consumed and sat cold in that refrigerator (a 1957 Hotpoint that *still* works perfectly) for well over 35 years. It's in my refrigerator now.

I've often thought of drinking it, but until I saw this thread, hadn't taken the idea too seriously. Now I'm inspired. What do you all think I should do?

Sooo...did ya' ever drink it?

 

[TxBigHops]

good find revvy!

martin cornell(english beer writer) got to try something a little older...

http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/an-1875-arctic-ale-tasting/

Really interesting article! Thanks for posting. If you read it, be sure to read the comments all the way to the end. Love the comments from the stuffed shirts in Burton who somehow think they can own something that is in someone else's legal possession, or can hold a copyright for over 100 years. The final reply from "Bob" sums it up majestically.

 

[sudsmcgee]

I have an unopened bottle from a Chicago brewery in the 40s. I dont think I'm going to open it.

 

[augiedoggy]

I've got a large amount of unopened beers from an abandon farmhouse that had collapsed in the woods... when I was a kid we were explorinng the outbuildings and found one full of cases of beer I grabbed a handful of each kind. Theres iroquois, carling black label, genesee, genesee light and lots of splits of genesee 12 horse ale, genesee,Schmidts, and half a 6 pack of Genny pull tab cans still in the plastic rings... I also have a 6 pack of genny lager with the girl on the picnic scene on the cardboard holder. I found a small bottle of coke cola with it that had a date from the 40's on it (I'm not sure if they had stopped using cocaine in it by then?)

I also have an old can of Billy beer thats unopened... starting to leak at the top though...
I have no cool basement so I have then on a shelf spanning arcoss the ceiling above my bar...

The local Iroquois one is my prized possession and someday I'd like to try to harvest the yeast..

I remeber trying one of the bottles of black label when we found them (I was like 14-15) ...it was not very good

 

[unionrdr]

Some bottle collectors out there would love you. Shake your money maker!

 

[mesooohoppy]

A bucket list item is to drink a 50+ year old beer. I can only hope.

Thanks for sharing!