Is 5 Year Old Homebrew Drinkable?

[BjornJ]

Update: Had the beer at lunch time today!


Three of us; Shane the brewer, tumi2 the craftbrewer and me the eh.. homebrewer?

Cracked it and poured into a chilled jug. Poured 3 half full glasses and had a whiff.
Slight homebrew smell, a hint of ..sourness?
No hop flavor.

The beer is clear, tried to take pictures with my mobile but the beer is clearer than what the pictures show.
Not a lot of head, looks pretty flat in the jug.



The color looks good, and it definetly tastes like beer!
Not as flat as it looks, just a little low in carbonation.
Has a bit of homebrew twang, but then again most homebrewed beer does have a slight twang of something or maybe that's just me



It had a nice and malty taste but still tasted a little watered down, if that makes sense?
A hint of sourness in the flavor but not unpleasant. No hops/freshness but a nice, smoooth bitterness if not very bitter overall. Guessing it was a draught kit kit, slightly darker in color than what kit Lagers often are judging from only having seen a couple.




All-in-all, not a bad drop at all!
The ageing had not destroyed it to a level where it was undrinkable, and I can easily say I have drunk homebrew tasting worse than that. I can easily say I have made homebrew tasting worse than that!


"What's that taste in my mouth?"..

The beer of yesteryear!








Bjorn

 

[Fourstar]

The colour may have been the effect of 5 years worth of oxidation. did you get any cardboard or toffee caramel notes to it (another sign of oxidation on a long term scale). Either way, intersting to see a standard ABV beer, kit hops lasting the ages!

 

[BjornJ]

Now, we are not beer judgers so hard to say what others would have tasted but no one said anything about cardboard or caramelly kind of flavors. I did not detect anything like that, only a bit of homebrew twang, easy drinking, smooth, if a hint of blandness/watery.
No hop flavor or aroma, just a smooth bitterness in the back of the tounge if you know what I mean.

Was fun, though!
And it doesn't take much to make a Wednesday interesting at work, hehe!

 

[raven19]

Nice work on drinking it, I would have also!

Interesting that after 5 Years, the cap was not rusted at all. I presume it was also fine underneath?

(Planning on bottling my RIS just in normal caps and aging it for as long as I can...)

 

[BjornJ]

The bottle cap looked as good as new underneath to me. I actually thought of checking since the beer was a bit low in carbonation.

Was fun to try an old beer, if not exactly as adventurous as "Steve Don't Eat It!"
My favourites are when he eats the canned silk worms and the fungus infested sweet corn!



thanks
Bjorn