Beer 4 Years In The Bottle.

[gunbrew]

A bottle was found Tuesday afternoon that was from my 4th batch of beer, am up to 27th now.
I bottled it in April 2006 and labelled 7 bottles for a mate, seems I only gave him 6 of them.

So last night I drank a beer that I bottled just over 4 years ago.

Back then I was making some fairly nasty, high alcohol kit beer.

Whilst it was not up to the standard of my recent brews the aging certainly had a noticeable impact.

A low carb Draft, very malty, smooth and easy to drink at 7.7%!
I noticed that the hops flavour had diminished to almost nothing.

One longneck and I was well pleased, wish there was more.

Moral of the story is to put more homebrew away for years

Dodgy mobile phone pic of beer attached.

It has made me want to put some bottles aside to age for a few years.
Considering that the hops seem to dissapear over time it would probably be advisable to make the beer very hoppy.

Anyone else have a well aged beer story?
Or coments on keeping beer for a few years before consumption?

 

[Muggus]

Good to hear that your old beer is still drinking well Gunbrew. Extended aging can be a really rewarding experience, though it rarely turns out well.

The oldest beer of my own brewing i've had to date was a dark Belgian strong ale from December 2005, drunk earlier this year.
Was a true cracker of a beer, especially after a year in the bottle. Have tried a bottle or two each year since then; was a bit hit and miss after 2-3 years, but the last couple of bottles I had were quite enjoyable - sherry/port-like, lots of honeyed dried fruits and autolysis flavours.

Most of the stronger beers i've brewed since 2004, i've generally hidden away a bottle or two for "extended aging". Seems to work best with stronger, darker beers with good hop presense. Very much looking forward to trying some of my barley wines and imperial stouts after 5-10 years in the bottle...if i can wait that long.

Interesting you mention hops too; coincidently I had a bottle of a hoppy American-style IPA bottled in October 2007 last night. Quite amazing how fresh the aroma still is after all these years, yet the bitterness has matured a good amount. There's definately aging potential in these sorts of beers too!

 

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I have a '98 Coopers Vintage in the fridge. The story about how it will be drunk is still in the development stage....

Booz