So I was inspired from another thread to make this one just to see how good we all are at aging our big beers so I was wondering what the oldest bottle of homebrew is hidden away in your secret hiding stash. I guess this counts from the date of brewing, not bottling and just for funzies let’s include wine and cider for anyone out there that does that although I’m really curious about beers.
Is it:
A July 2012 IPA you forgot about until now? You got some work to do…
A Barrel Aged 2010 Imperial Porter? Getting better.
A Barleywine from '07? Awesome!
Perhaps the vintage '05 Sour? Even more awesome!!
Maybe a 2000 Millennium RIS? Wow, I wasn’t even of drinking age at this point…
Or perhaps something older or in between???
The winner obviously gets online gloating privilege but also needs to divulge if there are any plans for consuming this alcoholic beverage.
I’ll start and definitely not be the best since I am a relative Big Beer brewing novice who has been hanging onto a January '12 version of Denny’s Old Stoner Barleywine. Getting close to bottling sometime in the nearish future. Hopefully when this thread pops up in 5 years I’ll have at least one or two still around.
Sure having only stated brewing a 2.5 years ago I’m sure that I don’t have the oldest but I’ve got ~10 - 2 year old Wee Heavy’s and a case of almost 2 year old RIS. My plan is to do some big beers every winter, bottle them a year later and then only drink 1/2 of what is left each year (eg - 24 during year 1, 12 during year 2, 6 during year 3, etc.) Eventually I’ll get to the point I can do a 6-7 year vertical tasting of my yearly RIS. :cheers:
For purchased beer I’ve got a 5 year old Rogue Imperial Porter that has been in my fridge the whole time.
the oldest homebrew is that '07 BW for my son. I also have a bottle of applejack from '05 or '06. I might have used White Labs Irish Ale for that one. I know I used 5 cups white raisins & 5 lbs. dark brown sugar in a 5 gallon batch.
I have about 10 bottles of ~11% barleywine left that I brewed Feb. 1, 2005, I made based on a friend’s milennium brew recipe. They are stored in my mother’s basement and about once a year when I go to visit I drink one and they are fantastic. They got stored away because I didn’t add additional yeast at bottling and they never carbonated, but it really doesn’t matter anymore!
10 years ago I brewed a batch of 18% cherry mead to give to my granddaughter Cherry when she hits 21 in 10 years. Otherwise not even my barleywines make it past 3 or 4 years. I plan to taste one next year when it’s been in bottles a decade.
I have my first all-grain barleywine attempt from 2001 in a keg. It turned out like rocket fuel. (O.G. 1.120, f.g. 1.001 - don’t ask, that’s another story). I’ll have to find it and give it another try to see if it has mellowed at all.
About 18 months for me. Its a RIS that i bulk aged with one oak spiral for 6 months. The oak spiral was soaked in a rum/bourbon mix for 3 months. I entered this beer in our local homebrew comp. last spring and it scored a 32.5. Not bad but i keep testing this beer and it seems to be getting more tastier and complex as it ages. The problem is that i drank too many of them and only have a few left. I need to learn some beer restraint. I have enough to enter next spring and we will see how that goes. Cheers and Beers.
A fewyears ago, I started making 1-2 big beers for aging. I make about 12-18 gallons of the biggie to ensure that I have enough to last for many years. The oldest is a Stone clone of RIS that I brewed Jan 2009 and Denny’s Old Stoner BW at 17% from 2010.
Prickly pear mead from november of '99, one bottle left, not sure when I’ll drink it.
Wee heavy from oct '11
Belgian strong from dec '11
barleywine from jan '12
only tried one each of the belgian and barleywine this summer, but looing promising.
[quote=“HD4Mark”]Mead '99
Dunkleweizen '02 (found in closet, not intentional)
Barleywine '04
Started kegging after that so not much gets bottled or that old.
2 cases of mead I either did not date or the tag/label fell off. A couple of those are going into the fridge right now for “testing” later.[/quote]
if you need a lab rat, I’m not scared. hahahahaha!!!
I have some random bottles from when I first started brewing in 2007. I think one was an extract fat tire kit that was pitched way too warm and the other is an ipa that came out way too sweet. I’ll probably crack those at some point for kicks but i’m sure they are terrible. I have a few bottles of barleywine from Jan 2010 that turned out decent but a bit on the sweet side as well. Also have some bottles of a Flanders that I made in 2010 that are drinking awesome.
[quote=“Edward Teach”][quote=“HD4Mark”]Mead '99
Dunkleweizen '02 (found in closet, not intentional)
Barleywine '04
Started kegging after that so not much gets bottled or that old.
2 cases of mead I either did not date or the tag/label fell off. A couple of those are going into the fridge right now for “testing” later.[/quote]
if you need a lab rat, I’m not scared. hahahahaha!!![/quote]
Looks like you take the prize thus far for mead and for beer.
I have one bottle of cyser from the late 90s (lost the notes). I made it before my oldest daughter was born, and she’s 12 now.
Also have a couple of tripels that are 8-9 yrs old.
I found two 1-gallon fermenters full of homemade wine in my basement when I moved in. I tracked down the previous few owners, and the guy who left them made them from the grapes still growing on the property in the late 1950s.
