What is your oldest bottle conditioned beer

[RAD]

Bottled 4 champagne bottles of IPA today (kegged the rest) and planning on aging them for as long as I can before drinking, I have put some hopes in one of them to compare the difference. What's the longest you have aged a beer and how was it?

 

[gaijin]

I've just started cracking some bottle aged Belgian style abbey ale which I bottled back in May 2014. At 8% alc, ABV it's becoming a much nicer beer - richer and smoother. It has been kept at Brisbane cupboard temps. It's not really a long time, but I've found that beers with volatile flavours such as dry hopped IPAs or spiced beers (spiced pumpkin ale) start loosing their sharpness 2 months in. For these beers, after 4 months, the flavours become flat, and hydrolyzed yeast flavours begin to dominate (at <6% ABV.). I'm not sure why the dead yeast flavours haven't come through on my Abbey Ale. All I know is my tongue doesn't care, and after a few bottles, I don't have enough brain cells left to figure it out.

 

[menoetes]

I've got a couple of Pales and IPAs that are over 14months old and was enjoying them around christmas. I have to say that I agree with Gaijin, anything hop driven that I bottled back then didn't age as well as I would have liked and has gotten a bit dull over time.

Conversely, the few dark beers I've made, a fewporters, dark ales and olds aged magnificently. Which is a shame as I don't generally like or brew many darker styles of beer...

They also have a strange taste, a bit like you get in an over-carbed beer, though the beer are not so - I don't know where that comes from.

 

[Yob]

Ive still got one of each of my first 30 odd AG brews... years old now and probably *****

 

[RAD]

So what is a good aging period or are you just wasting you time aging it for to long.

 

[Yob]

Stored cold, cool room cold, years, the warmer they are stored, the quicker they will stale

 

[neo__04]

Had a home brew stout the other night with my old man. 9 years old. Smoother than mothers milk.

 

[Yob]

Some beers do age better than others, if that were an IPA..
No dice.

Stouts are ones that are well.

 

[Yob]

I think it's Charlie bamforth who I remember saying "for every 10'c the rate of staling doubles"

Just saying...

 

[kevo]

I have one bottle of a terrible Belgian Dark Strong I made late 2007... Pretty sure it would taste like Vegemite - but can't bring myself to open it.

 

[stux]

Have a few 10 yo bottles of kasteele bruin. It's not homebrew, rather it's a Belgian quadruple. Tried a bottle last year, still good, flavour had changed a bit.

I moved the bottles into cold storage only a few years ago

I have a few of my own brews which are 2-3 yo, but they been in cold storage. The malt driven beers are as good as when I first tasted them

Found a keg I had lost down the back of a fridge, the brew was a good 18 months old and just as good as i remembered it

 

[mje1980]

I've got a beire de garde which would be around 18months. Last one.

Strong beers I like to age for a good few months at least. And funky beers?, well, the longer they're left the better they get IMHO. My brett porter was ok for a while but is now delicious after 9months. I'm trying to keep a few for at least a year. Though it's pretty damn good now so don't know how I'll go.

 

[Grott]

Various styles of stout at 3yrs plus and a wee heavy scotch ale (brave heart recipe) nearly at 4 years. I try the stouts from time to time and compare notes, always seem to get better and better. The scotch ale continues to improve but believe it will be at its best 5 years onwards.
Cheers

 

[barls]

got a few from 2010 they are all good and getting better. think i have one bottle of 08/09 braggot but ill save that for a little longer.

 

[Kumamoto_Ken]

I've still got the first ever beer I bottled, it must have been the summer of 1992/93.

Most likely a Coopers Lager kit with 1kg dex, probably fermented at about 28C in the spare room of the uni slum house I was sharing with some other likely lads in Clayton.

 

[Byran]

got a few from 2010 they are all good and getting better. think i have one bottle of 08/09 braggot but ill save that for a little longer.

Im very surprised you kept them that long barls......very

 

[crowmanz]

My oldest bottle is a Stout/Dark Ale 2 can bottled on 30th May 2014, but there is probably some other crappy kit beers hiding in a cupboard somewhere

 

[Rod]

I have some Russian Imperial Stout

brewed June 2010

8.7% Alcohol

like a Liqueur Muscat now

need to try one this year

 

[fraser_john]

I have an American Barley wine from 2005, two bottles left. Last time I tasted it in 2013, you could tell I had bottled it from the tap, but still very drinkable.

 

[stm]

Nine years old - perhaps a little past its prime but perfectly drinkable.

 

[drtomc]

4.5 yo 9% Baltic Porter - one or two left. Had one just the other day. Still rich, luscious, but some of the coffee aroma has gone.

4 yo 12% Belgian Strong Dark - in champagne punts. Still developing. Again, rich, smooth, velvety.

 

[TSMill]

Robust porter, bottled the day my first was born, April 15th 2010. I try to drink a bottle a year on the day, and have enough to see me through to 2020.

I drank the last bottle of my great uncles beers on the day she was born....it must have been pushing 15 years and tasted like brown soda water.

 

[RAD]

So what do you guys think would be best condition at room temp for a couple of months and then transfer to the fridge to condition for as long as possible.

 

[chubbytaxman]

A friend of mine just opened a Rodenbach from 1984 ..... Watthe ????? 30yo beer ... Surely it would not taste good.

He says it is a joy to drink - like losing his virginity again .... ?????

O .... K ....

 

[motman]

I tried some kit, kilo and bits I made about 15 years ago as a student. A porter and a stout, both stored in a cellar in vic. They tasted like a hop never went anywhere near them. Not bad but sweet and cloying. They weren't great to start with though, so no loss!

 

[Lozbrewer]

I watched Oz and James beer tour of Britain venture in to the royal cellar open beer from the time of Queen Victoria. Over 100 years old. Fortified, stale, virtually no carbonation but it looked like an amazing thing to do. Cork it, wire it and keep it for as long as you can! Good luck.

 

[MartinOC]

About 8 YO. ~10% ABV Porter/Scotch Ale.

Brewed September 1998, allowed to self-condition in a keg @ 4C, then CPBF'd in Feb. 1999, so not technically "bottle" conditioned, but self-carbed, nonetheless. Beers condition better in bulk.....

It took about 3 years to mellow-out, by which time it was starting to win prizes & went-on to win a few more (including an International 3rd).

I shared the last bottle of the 45L batch with my old man sometime in 2006. It was obviously past it's prime, but still superb (even if I do say-so myself.. ).

 

[Rod]

I have some Russian Imperial Stout

brewed June 2010

8.7% Alcohol

like a Liqueur Muscat now

need to try one this year

Had an old favourite last night 26th Feb 2019

in grolsh bottles , still had a good head

Try again next year

 

[dulcetbrewer]

Had an old favourite last night 26th Feb 2019

in grolsh bottles , still had a good head

Try again next year

I have 8 KB left of an RIS I made (AG) in 1995. About 8 years ago I had to open re-prime & reseal all the bottles (then about 16) as the crown seals had cork liners. Opened 1 on my last birthday (25th March) and it was still like drinking liquid velvet with licorice & chocolate still powerful. No, you can't have any. The 8 bottles will see me to my 83rd birthday. The cases got lost in a move, but have been kept in either my wine cellar (15C) or now in my cool room (3C).
Tony