What is your oldest home brew?

I actually just found a bunch of bottles from my first batches today, going to taste them, review, then try to re create them with my brewing knowledge now. Going to be my third blog post.

Found batch #1 and #2 of MY first Wit bier recipe. and Me and my brothers first cookie stout. as well as a cream ale that was an extract kit from a shitty homebrew shop. Shocked me when I found them, Think My dad squirrelled them away while I was not looking.

 

Unless he was being very subtle, which is perhaps difficult to do when English is one's second language, Ilanko was not being sarcastic. He was quite literally answering your question.

 

I have a 2yo barley wine that is amazing. 12%, 120 ibu, and it was so incredibly boozy when I made it, now it's amazing.

 

I've got 1 bottle left of a Belgian Barleywine that's a little over 3 years old, as well as a case of the same recipe that's pushing 1.5 years old. Also have 1 bottle left of a Rye Saison with Brettanomyces that's 2.5 years old.

 

Drank my 5 year old smoked scotch ale today (before i saw this thread). I remember it smelling and tasting like a house fire fresh, but today the smoke is gone only malty goodness remains. Funny how that happens to homebrew. I've got one bomber left.

 

I've got a case of imperial stout I brewed in September of 2010 still hanging around. It was my fourth batch ever, and the last batch I did that was extract. I haven't had one in a while, but from what I remember it's not bad at all aside from being a little over carbonated.

 

Two bottles of 12 year old Belgian Dubbel (still tasty last time I tried one, several years ago I'm guessing). That was my 10th batch and it looks like it was my first partial-mash beer. Several bottles of 8 year old cider, one of which I am currently drinking, also very good. I've also various other old Belgians. Some have fared OK, others not so much. Still fun to take one out periodically and give it a try. One of these days I'll have to brew up a Barleywine and let some sit.

 

I have some 2 year old bottles of a ~12% barley wine. Reminds me I should make another so I have more lying around aging...

It was in primary for a month and then I bulk aged it for over 6 months, then it took another 3+ months to carbonate... This beer took over a year to be drinkable, so it is in a sense only 1 year old.

 

A half-fill of the first beer I ever brewed (a Nut Brown Ale). Not planning on drinking that....ever.

 

I have 2 10 month old bottles of the first beer I ever brewed (pale ale) and I dont ever intend to drink them. They are collector items to me.

 

vanilla bourbon coffee imperial stout bottled August 2010.

 

I've got some barleywine from that era too. I opened one last year and it was fantastic. Still carbonated too. So I opened another a few weeks later is was bland, just not much flavor. Still carbonated and drinkable, just disappointing after the previous one.

 

I have mead from 1996 that is still delicious, but I'm down to the last few bottles. This weekend I opened a bottle of my cherry brett I bottled in 2005, I think it was the last bottle. And my 2004 Flanders Red keg kicked Saturday night also. So now the oldest beer I have is from August 2012.

 

Someone has too many kegs available!

 

I have 4 years worth of barleywine sitting in the cellar. Had a tasting a few months ago of the latest 3 of those four years. One year old didn't seem any different except hop aroma/flavor diminishing, 2 y.o. had some beginning signs of oxidation with extra caramel flavors, 3 y.o. had some nice sherry/port flavors starting to develop. The 4 y.o did not get opened since I only have a few left and hoping to keep a couple for my daughter's 21st birthday in 17 years - that one is 12% abv (the others are 9%), so I am hoping it can last.

Drank a 5 year old altbier I had kept by accident - it tasted more like a weak dopplebock with all the oxidation, but was very pleasant to drink. None of these have exhibited any paper/cardboard flavors - and I fill bottles right out of a picinic tap without purging O2.

 

After Oktoberfest Saturday I now have 7 kegs to fill

 

I have a few bottles from 2003 that are, while a bit thinner these days, holding up nicely.

More notably, I made a spruce ale (using fresh spruce branches in the bottom of my mash tun) around 2008 that, with every passing year, gets better and better. Thankfully, I didn't like it all that much when it was young, giving it enough time to bloom into the lovely nectar I've got a few cases of today.