Does beer get better with age?

[vladamir]

About 1997 my sister gave me an aged vintage bottle of beer brewed with some special yeast/ hops etc. It is in a dark bottle inside wooden container. the Brewer instructs the recipient to continue ageing this beer for as long as one wishes and to enjoy it at some mature point in the future.

So, does beer get better with age? Do folks let beer age like wine or wiskey/whiskey? Should i drink it and if so when?:confused:

I've got a cuban a friend brought back from Cuba in '96 that will someday be smoked.

I ride all the old bikes.:D

[phlatlander]

Wait for me to get there, then I say we drink it.

Any idea how "aged" was it when you got it in 97?

[jh4rt]

;-)

As a part-time beer maker, I'm going to say no!

Eventually it will become wine...or something else. When beer is bottled, we typically put some sort of sugar in for the yeast to eat. This produces carbonation (C02 being a bi-product of yeast waste). So, depending on the type of "beer", I would say that at some point, the yeast runs out of sugars and die...and that won't taste as good.

I could be way off...

[ironspoke]

I bet that beer would be better than the 12 year old cigar.

[VinciB]

I've got a bottle of Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA that recommends aging as well. I think that really hoppy ales or barley wines do age well due to the preservative nature of hops, or the really high alcohol content can prevent the skunk metamorphosis. I could be full of $hit, but I do know that hops were added to ale to survive the extremely long sea voyage from England to the Indian Colonies, hence "India Pale Ale". Morale of the story, don't age Budweiser, age a 19%ABV Victory Old Horizontal barleywine.

[S. cerevisiae]

So, high alcohol/hops brews will age OK. Might be advantageous if the hops are particularly bitter or aromatic. Then aging would blend or mellow the flavors.

Generally speaking, beers (not meads) are better consumed in a more "fresh" state.

Dude, you've had this thing like ten+ years? Pop it and find out!

[MrTB]

Have been to the Festival of wood and Barrel Aged Beers in Chicago a handful of times. The beers are aged in used whiskey, sherry, bourbon etc. barrels for up to five years for said festival. Apparently strong scottish ales, strong ales, smoke beers, bottle conditioned ales among a few others are best for aging.

Good article here

http://www.sallys-place.com/beverages/beer/vintage_beers.htm

[althegud1srtakn]

not only beers, but also wines and pretty much anything meant for human consumption can only age for so long before it starts to head downhill. wine will eventually turn into vinegar, and beer into i don't even know what. i've never heard of aging beer, but even with wine, people think that it's only going to get better, when in reality it will do that for a while, but then get worse. with wine it depends on how it's made as to when the optimal drinking age is, and i'm sure it's the same with beer.

[Spatafore]

Generally speaking, the higher the alcohol the better the beer will age. Also the more hops the better the beer will age.

IPA which is a highly hopped beer was created many moons ago when the British had colonies in India. They added more hops to better preserve the beer on its voyage to India.

[Lockwood]

Most beers should be had when they're fresh. But some beers, like barley wines and higher hopped brews can age. In fact, even Chimay says that their blue label ale gets better with age. Just don't let that bottle of yours get exposed to too much light or a lot of temperature changes. store it in a cool...not necessarily cold...and dry place. but if you had it for 10 years...let's drink it up.

[vladamir]

Well folks I did a little googling after I got off of work in order to answer the question posed earlier while at work. What I have is a Strong Ale crafted by Fullers. The vintage is '99 not '97 (I was wrong). Also the container housing the bottle is cardboard not wood. Thats what I get for squirrelling things away in the basement.

Besides the fact of my faulty memory I have also discovered this:

Fullers Tasting Notes. (http://www.fullers-ales.com/vintage_ale.php)

Leading me to believe that if one can recently consume and enjoy a '98 then my '99 should be fine.

Also:

Beer Pages (http://www.beer-pages.com/stories/fullers-vintage.php)

Beer Advocate (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/71/19426/)

Beer Today (http://www.beertoday.co.uk/news301107b.htm)

Yep, there you have it. I'm a fool with a potentially good ale.:D

[davkatreb]

That Cuban Cigar is illegal as a motherf*cker. Send me the beer, postage paid and I didn't see nothin'.:D