Shelf life in bottles
-
RichardG
Shelf life in bottles
Once I've bottled my brew, how long can I reasonably expect it to last?
Re: Shelf life in bottles
it depends on a few things,
where it is kept, cellar temps and lower are good ~10C, higher and your bottled beer may keep on fermenting too much, giving you a gusher when you eventually open it, and a strange, probably dry taste to it.
How good is your sanitation is another factor, if you are a bit lax, problems might not be noticed in a few week old beer but if it's been stored for a while, nasties may start to manifest themselves.
The strength of the beer, this partly goes hand in hand with the last one, the stronger it is the less chance of being spoiled by nasties as they are killed off by the higher alcohol, also more hops in a brew will help this, as they have an antiseptic 'keeping' property, as used in the original IPAs.
I reckon a beer could be good easily for 5 years, probably a lot longer if it was originally brewed correctly with good sanitation practices. Bitterness will mellow in this time and you may lose a bit of the aroma etc, so if you're planning on a long rest in the bottle, maybe brew it with a bit more hops. You just have to look at the reports of those couple hundred year old or so bottles they recently found in Burton in the cellars, like a fine aged wine was the report from the tastings.
I did an Authentic IPA last year, it was 7.8% and had a conservative 80 IBUs, I deliberately over-hopped it for this reason. I tried a bottle now and again, but after a year or so, the mouth-puckering, inner-cheek-stripping bitterness had subsided and turned into an amazingly rounded and floral taste. err, it's all gone now, it was too nice to leave any longer.
where it is kept, cellar temps and lower are good ~10C, higher and your bottled beer may keep on fermenting too much, giving you a gusher when you eventually open it, and a strange, probably dry taste to it.
How good is your sanitation is another factor, if you are a bit lax, problems might not be noticed in a few week old beer but if it's been stored for a while, nasties may start to manifest themselves.
The strength of the beer, this partly goes hand in hand with the last one, the stronger it is the less chance of being spoiled by nasties as they are killed off by the higher alcohol, also more hops in a brew will help this, as they have an antiseptic 'keeping' property, as used in the original IPAs.
I reckon a beer could be good easily for 5 years, probably a lot longer if it was originally brewed correctly with good sanitation practices. Bitterness will mellow in this time and you may lose a bit of the aroma etc, so if you're planning on a long rest in the bottle, maybe brew it with a bit more hops. You just have to look at the reports of those couple hundred year old or so bottles they recently found in Burton in the cellars, like a fine aged wine was the report from the tastings.
I did an Authentic IPA last year, it was 7.8% and had a conservative 80 IBUs, I deliberately over-hopped it for this reason. I tried a bottle now and again, but after a year or so, the mouth-puckering, inner-cheek-stripping bitterness had subsided and turned into an amazingly rounded and floral taste. err, it's all gone now, it was too nice to leave any longer.
-
RichardG
Re: Shelf life in bottles
Thanks there Garth. I'd only been thinking in terms of months, maybe upto a year. So your comments are most reassuring. 
Kenny850;...errr, what can I say?
Kenny850;...errr, what can I say?
-
JayBee
Re: Shelf life in bottles
Apparently White Shield, if you can get hold of it, is pretty good afer 10 years.