Long Term Aging Home Brewed Beer

Did he happen to say what style this 8-year-old beer is? My understanding is that unless a beer is higher gravity, it probably doesn't have as good of a chance at long-term aging.

 

I aged my last bottle of a robust porter I made for almost two years. It wasn't really high gravity, it was 7%, but it kept really well. I cold aged it so that probably helped preserve it longer. On the other hand I found an extra bottle of a hefeweizen I made 2 years ago and it tasted like sour apples. That was 5% and not cold stored.

 

I have tried pilsners that were aged five years and was not at all impressed. The same beer was probably very good at six months.

 

I've been aging a Westvleteren clone for well over a year now, and plan to age it for at least 3-5 years (I will still sample some of it from time to time). Apparently it keeps improving over time, and so far, I have noticed a huge improvement over a year ago. Belgian style beers benefit from aging, but some other beers to do. I understand that the hop taste diminishes with time, so IPA's will likely not benefit from too much aging.

 

If it's a lager then I can't see it holding up well at all for that long, but like the others have said if it's higher gravity and meant for aging, then it will most certainly improve! I've managed to keep an entire case of a Belgian-style barleywine that I brewed almost 2.5 years ago. It's also around 14% abv, so it ages like a fine wine

 

I have some bottles of a Quad that will be three years old in a few months. The beers now have a very big presence of dark dried fruit flavors from oxidation. I will save a few bottles to drink a year from now simply out of curiosity but I am not expecting them to be much 'better' for my palate at that point.

Like @premierpro mentioned, my lagers (pilsners) are best consumed with less than a year of age. At around the 10 month mark they are starting to taste 'old'.

Cheers!

 

Lagers (pilsners) can be unusual in terms of improvement over time because the tastes can be more subtle than darker beers. I've had some pilsners that were best immediately after lagering (for 4-6 weeks), while others improved 2 or 3 months later. It depends a lot on the hops. If the pilsner was a little too strong on hops, then after a few months the taste improved because the hops tend to lose a little of the taste. If they were a little weak on hops, they tasted best immediately after lagering. I've never tried a pilsner I made after 6-8 months or so, so can't comment on how well they keep after that time.

I should mention that I've saved some commercial braggots (beer and honey) for a year or so, and when I tried them, they had all turned into sours. I actually enjoyed them like that, but they were not supposed to turn out that way. So for sure, some beers you cannot keep for long, while other beers require long aging. Speaking of sours, they require long aging (well over a year) and improve after that.

 

I guess if it's a double bock or some other strong lager there's a chance it would be pretty good. But something like a helles or a pilsner...ehhhhh. Either way it (probably) won't kill you.

I have an 8% barley wine that just turned two. It's better now than it has ever been.

 

Well made homebrew will age just as well as an equivalent commercial beer. I've held onto few beers for as long as eight years with generally good results (mostly sours, imperial stouts, barleywine etc.). The only lager I've aged for a significant amount of time was 11% ABV (a strong wheat bock).

Saturday I brewed the second iteration of a recipe inspired by Courage Russian Imperial Stout. The first batch still tastes great at nine years old. I have a bottle around Christmas once a year. Planning on metering this one out for a few decades!

 

So far 1.5 year old is my longest. IRS or anything dark an over 8 percent has been great at 1 year. Then there are no more

 

I have had my homebrewed Pilsners (CAP, Bohemian Pilsner, 1896 Michelob) at the 10-11 month mark many times and IMO the term of ‘stale’ is applicable at this point in time. There are no flavors of cardboard or papery but the flavor profile is muddled. The beers are still drinkable (they are not ‘dumpers’) but they just are not as lively as they were just a few months earlier.

I should caveat that I store my beers in my basement at ‘room’ temperature. If they were continuously stored cold (refrigerator temperature) maybe they could last over a year?

Commercial pale lagers do not last too long. AB uses a best by duration of 110 days for Budweiser and AB utilizes the best QA/QC in the industry IMO.

Cheers!

 

I have read that dark malts (e.g., chocolate malt, black malt, roasted malt...) have anti-oxidative properties and my homebrewing experience bears this out. A few weeks ago I drank my last Robust Porter that was bottled in October 2014 and at over a year old it still tasted very good. I wish that I would have saved a few more bottles of that batch for continuing research (and drinking enjoyment).

Cheers!

 

Longest aging for me is a RIS that just turned 4 in Jan, last one I tried (a couple months ago) tasted great.

 

I havent aged any lagers (don't brew many), but have aged a few others.

Brown Ale ~2 years (tasted like sweet damp cardboard)
English Mild ~10 months (no oxidisation, but taste is now just 'meh')
Pale Ale ~12 months (reached a plateau, started to get a dull flavour)
Choc/Coffee Milk Porter ~2.5 years (was still good, but starting to thin out)
Tangello Sour ~almost 3 years+ (getting better, but only 2 bottles left )

plus a few other non-beer beverages that age well.

 

A guy in my brew club brought in a 10 year old barleywine that he deemed unprintable when he brewed it, but we all agreed it was incredible

 

An 8 year old homebrewed pale lager?

<--- Not ISO.

 

My longest aged beer was a Papazian recipe that lay in slumber for 10 years. It was oxidized and gross but didn't start off all that great either. I have bottled lambic like beers as late as 42 months old and still have a few gueuze approximations with a portion going on 6 years old though the oldest blended portion is quite acetic and only useful in small doses.