I went hunting around in my parents’ basement to look for empties while I was over for Thanksgiving dinner. Instead, I found an unopened case of Belgian Ale from when my father and I took our brewing class… in 2005. It was stored in a good place, the recipe is on the stronger side, and Belgians always seem to age well. I’ve got one cooling down in the fridge and I’m pretty geeked about trying it, tonight.
as long as it didn’t oxidize you should be good to go.enjoy it.
Sounds like the perfect x-mas gift to give fellow forum goers (hint)
Any ideas on what the recipe or style was?
It was definitely a Belgian (caps read “BA”) and I recall that particular brew day, because I wasn’t a fan of the style, then, and lost the vote. I don’t have the recipe book I kept for the class and, back then, I was much more interested in brewing new styles than refining them. That led to a bad habit of not writing anything down. My Dad was much better about keeping notes, but his recipe book will be much harder to find. All this leads me to believe the stuff will totally rock and I’ll be cursed with having brewed something awesome that I can’t duplicate.
I found out my brother already snagged one from the case, too, to compare with his first batch. I might need to find a new hiding place for the rest of it. 
Come on man its been over 4 hours now, how does it taste???
The suspense is killing me too.
Oh lord I hope he didn’t have a beergasm and fall down, striking his head.
Hah, I didn’t realize it was such a suspenseful situation. I got sidetracked by late-night work stuff, so the bottle sits… waiting… calling…
Now thats just wrong. Then again a beer is better when chilled overnight.
That is impressive self-control. I love my job but it has never sidetracked me from drinking a beer.
So how the hell was it?
Yes please! I’m interested to know.
Yeah! Come on, out with it!
I have kept a few beers that I made for a very long time, nothing high alcohol either.
They were 5-8 years old and were just fine. Earlier in my brewing process to which I remember them having some flaws but over the 5 years a lot of those flavors dissapated.
Sent a few to competitions just to see what they would rank knowing they were not great beers and they scored in the 30’s
Ha Ha +1
It was pretty good. I’m still not a huge fan of Belgians, but I like this one. It’s carbonated slightly higher than normal, but there was zero head. The initial, yeasty flavor was fresh-tasting and the sour was very mild with a little bit of citrus. Nothing terribly complex, but tasty. It didn’t taste alcoholic at all, but I know we hit all our numbers in the class (much easier with extract 
) and I felt it kick in later, so time did right by it. I’ll stick the rest of the sixer I snagged in with my long-term brews and try another when I make another Belgian.
My best way to describe it would be that, if someone handed me one at a picnic, I would drink the whole thing. If I went to the cooler, again, I would try something new, but I wouldn’t be disappointed if this was all that was left.
The color and clarity were average. I’ll throw a pic up, later.
