In a few days the wife and I celebrate our 2nd anniversary (and about 10 years together) and we are considering cracking open a homebrew I've been cellaring since February 2012 out of curiosity. The last one I had was probably fall of 2012 and was still good. It was an amber ale brewed with rose petals and rose hips (added near the end of the boil and steeped with the hops for 15 min after flameout). Hops were centennial and tettnang. Specifics have long since been lost but it was a fairly heavy malt bill, brought to a higher end FG for some residual sweetness. If I remember correctly it was around 5.5% ABV and 30-35 IBU. Anyone have any thoughts (or similar experiences) on popping a homebrew that old? What's the worse that could happen, it's totally stale and skunked or terribly oxidized?
Stale/oxidized is certainly possible. Skunked is not, unless the beer is in clear or green bottles that have exposed the beer to UV light.
I agree with @VikeMan that skunking is not likely, but beside the potential oxidation that you mention, any beer that has been store for a while has the opportunity for any unwanted fermentation to complete its work. So, it you bottled too early or added too much priming sugar and fermentation continued without your knowledge, you could have a gusher (this has happened to me), or if you somehow got wild yeast into the beer just at bottling time, that yeast has been having lunch for a while and you could have a real gusher as well as a sour. I don't think a 5.5% beer is complex enough for you to detect any improvement of flavor, so the beer is likely going to taste like it did when you bottled it if none of the bad things cited above have not happened. But it's nice to experiment to see what happens. Let us know how it goes.
Well I guess we will find out on Tuesday. Even if it's quite similar to when it was bottles i think I'd be happy knowing that I'm sanitary enough to have a brew survive almost 5 years.
I've brewed a number of times specifically for long term aging.. My thoughts are it'll either be great, or a terrible mess and I'll have to brew something drinkable.
Cracked it open, way different than in 2012, it's soured and thinned a little. There is still a little floral flavor in there. Kind of similar to Silly Sour but less tart.
