Cellaring for 20 yrs+

UB40 on a cork? They're a great band but I doubt they're down for that kind of treatment.

WD40 maybe, but I wouldn't use any kind of solvent on anything that's coming into contact with beer. Long term seepage through the cork would ruin the beer immediately. Since you're storing it vertical there should be zero contact with the cork anyway, but even a little solvent would destroy the beer and possibly be harmful to you.

 

Better. And true, the humidity in the bottle will keep it somewhat moist, but even Scotch experts recommend tilting the bottles once in a while to 'wet' the cork. Beer is no different.

 

Read Patrick Dawson's book "Vintage Beer". Far more thorough and researched than 95% of the anecdotal advice to found here (not slamming this forum, but I doubt that anybody posting in this forum knows as much or can say it as clearly as that book when it comes to aging beer).

-edit: I bet a 750 mL Samichlaus would be a good bet for holding up past 20 years and tasting good.

 

I thought I was getting pretty "aged beer savvy" until I read that book. Turns out I had a lot to learn. I just didn't know what I didn't know, and it has opened up the world of how to really age beer so that everything in the cellar is actually improving. Compared to my haphazard guesswork (which was still kind of fun), my outlook now is much more informed. And I think in 3-6 years I am going to have a bunch of very tasty beers, instead of stuff which is all over the map (and much of it being too old) like I do now.

 

I don't believe many corked beers actually have beer that come in contact with the cork inside the bottle while standing upright. Most are filled lower than the bottom of the cork. Also, in "Vintage Beer", Mr. Dawson talks about "ullage" which is a loss of liquid due to evaporation. Over an extended period of time, such as a couple decades, you'll most certainly experience this with beers and then there'd be even less of a chance that there will be beer touching the cork to keep it wet.

 

I believe, with all my heart, that the best way to cellar a beer is by placing it in the right environment* as a dry bottle and leaving it to naturally collect dust until drinking time. If you can completely avoid touching it for any reason, that's the best.

* Environment should be 50 - 65F and humidity somewhere between 50% and 90%

 

I wax my bottles with Brewers wax, you can order some on Amazon or any homebrew shop/online store. This is what breweries/wineries use and works perfectly for caps and corks alike. I would imagine beeswax would work too, but my feelings are that it would lack the viscosity that Brewers wax has for getting a good "one dip" coating. Just get an empty can, preferably vegetables (to avoid oil/grease from say, chili etc), and put the wax in that, then fill a small saucepan with water and use that as a double boiler for the can of wax. It takes a while to melt the wax, and usually my waxing days take a few hours so I do 20 or so bottles at a time.

But then again there is more that one way to skin a cat, or wax a bottle!

 

here is my review of a 20+ year old bottle

1987 bottle, from original eggenberg castle brewery.

Pour was a slight mahogany brown, light cola. Little head.

Sweet nose, dark fruit. Some alcohol.

Very similar to nose, although less alcohol. Sweet dark fruit and roasted malt. Back end was complete soy sauce. Like sushi dipping.

 

Taking a chance with this one: Avery's The Beast Grand Cru. Website says 10+ years. On the bottle, it says "August, 2014" (which is the month and year in which my daughter Avery was born). Hoping to open it on her 21st birthday. Call me a softie, I guess, but I got all the ageable, cellarable Avery beers to open on various birthdays.

 

Do you want heavy cognac or a balanced beer? If the former then drink now, if the latter then age as long as you want . Having never had it I cannot attest to the unfermentable sugar levels and how those will do with time. I know DFH 120 is great like a bwine after 5 years, I would think a similar beer would be looking at a similar or longer window.

 

Just ordered a copy yesterday. Looking forward to reading it.

 

Most readers have probably only been on the earth for little more than 20 years.....

 

only beer i have ever had that was over 10 years old and still actually good has been gueuze/lambic

nothing else has even come close to going the distance. i did have other vintages of Samichlaus that were younger that were good, like 10-15 years old maybe? i forget.