Opening and Tasting 40+ Year Old Beer

[MarkA]

I came across this the other night whilst heading down the 'Youtube rabbit hole'. Pretty interesting, though I doubt the beer tastes much like it did when first canned!

The guy also has videos where he opens food from the 70's and 80's to see how it's lasted.

https://youtu.be/YGOXmgpPS7A

[floydmeddler]

I remember watching this a while back and felt that the experience was kinda wasted on him as he doesn't drink beer much. I'd love to have tried them!

[f00b4r]

I have a bottle of this 1977 200th year anniversary beer from Bass that I am planning on both drinking and rescuing the yeast from (if it’s still viable), so I will give you my opinion when I do.

02ACEAC1-5862-4CCD-933F-FCF1DFE252B7.jpeg (1.85 MiB) Viewed 4601 times

I got it courtesy of Barneey via another member, who was local to the auction of a few bottles; they were still in the mint condition special cardboard carrier. I’ve never tasted beer this old but there are guys on the forum that have had beer from the end of Victorian period!
From what others have told me though, beer tends more towards sherry notes as it gets older, with them gradually dominating the taste.
I’m just hoping to get one of Ron Pattinson’s historic Bass recipes on the go if they yeast is good in that bottle.

[barneey]

In my experience, most old beers will all taste very similar.

I have a collection of 20 or 30 Jubilee beers, only tried a couple so far. I still have my 1977 Bass

The biggest tasting experiment was the 100+ year old Kings 1902 beer which I shared with fellow brewers on a meet up some 4 or 5 years ago, in Canterbury. we finished the bottle, most of it drunk some it saved for yeast experiments. The empty is now in the USA in a collection. Its quite an event opening a bottle of that vintage and thinking of what has happened in history since it was brewed. My grandad would have only been 4 years old, major world events and wars the list goes on......

My advice for anyone drinking old beers get a group of fellow brewers and all take a wee dram

[bitter_dave]

The biggest tasting experiment was the 100+ year old Kings 1902 beer which I shared with fellow brewers on a meet up some 4 or 5 years ago, in Canterbury. we finished the bottle, most of it drunk some it saved for yeast experiments. The empty is now in the USA in a collection. Its quite an event opening a bottle of that vintage and thinking of what has happened in history since it was brewed. My grandad would have only been 4 years old, major world events and wars the list goes on......

Wow - that's really cool Barney! I'm guessing it must have been high gravity? Did it taste nice?

The history aspect is great. Thinking about the people who made it and what their lives at the time must have been like.

I've always liked the idea of getting one of those Gales beers and keeping it for decades. Probably don't make it anymore since the brewery closed

[barneey]

Most if not all "old" beers will taste of wine/port/sherry notes, I cannot remember the ABV of the 1902 one, although a member of JBK might be able to see if there is any markings on the bottle.

The trouble normally is and certainly with the Jubilee beers I have, they might not have been stored under controlled temp conditions Much the same with any shop bought beers these days that have been transported / stored badly no matter how old they are.

A fun experiment at the moment is buying the fuller vintage ale every year, collecting say for 10 years & then doing a taste experiment opening all of them in one session but again that requires quite a few friends.

Still waiting for another special meet up to try the Tutankhamun Ale I have (original box and stored correctly) (this beer might be more of a gimmick), if the more recent history events if things go South rapidly I will at least be able to raise a glass or two to toast.

My final beer of choice though that I have been keeping is a bottle of the Brewdog Black Jacques (no matter your opinion on brewdog) this is an exceptional beer in my opinion, one of the finest if not the best beer (that suits my palate) I have ever tasted.

[IPA]

I regularly use a 1977 Shepherd Neame yeast that I salvaged a couple of years ago.

[f00b4r]

I regularly use a 1977 Shepherd Neame yeast that I salvaged a couple of years ago.

I have seen that you have salvaged quite a few old yeasts and it was mainly your posts that inspired me to try with an older bottle. Did you get the bottles from eBay or were they ones that you have collected over the years?

[MarkA]

I remember watching this a while back and felt that the experience was kinda wasted on him as he doesn't drink beer much. I'd love to have tried them!

I agree, it would have been better if he'd had a few beer-loving friends round. It's a bit like opening an old tin of SPAM and not tasting it because you're vegetarian.

I'm not sure I'd want to actually open a vintage bottle if I owned one. In the bottle, it's a piece of history, once opened it's just another empty bottle. Though, beer is made to be supped and not kept in a museum...........

[IPA]

I regularly use a 1977 Shepherd Neame yeast that I salvaged a couple of years ago.

I have seen that you have salvaged quite a few old yeasts and it was mainly your posts that inspired me to try with an older bottle. Did you get the bottles from eBay or were they ones that you have collected over the years?

These bottles had quite a journey before I breathed life into their yeasts.
They were collected in the early 1980s when I lived in Kent and stored in a space under the garage floor. Following a divorce they were shipped to Southampton in 1990 and stored in my garage. They were then moved in 1992 to another house and then shipped to France when we moved here in 2000. I started to recover the yeasts in about 2010
It can take a long time before they begin to show signs of life. The first one, Courage Russian Stout, took two to three weeks !!
Thoroughly sanitise everything and be patient.
Good luck

Ian

[Eric]

I was also fortunate to be with those at Canterbury to try the Kings Ale supplied by Barneey. The cork contained some mold, but the beer seemed unaffected. It wasn't a great drink and didn't taste like beer, not even my attempts in 1963. It had no off-putting aroma, nor anything to instantly spit it out. It had discernable sherry notes, but little or nothing else that might be thought of as tempting. There were other old beers of lesser age there too. Those showed similarities, such that despite not knowing how those originally tasted, it was possible to recognise a trait or trend of beer aging.

A sample of the Kings Ale was taken to attempt revival of the yeast, but it or I failed.

[f00b4r]

Thanks Ian. That’s quite a journey for the beer and some good control on your part for not cracking into them earlier.

Eric, glad to see your original efforts were so memorable.

[Trefoyl]

I was also fortunate to be with those at Canterbury to try the Kings Ale supplied by Barneey. The cork contained some mold, but the beer seemed unaffected. It wasn't a great drink and didn't taste like beer, not even my attempts in 1963. It had no off-putting aroma, nor anything to instantly spit it out. It had discernable sherry notes, but little or nothing else that might be thought of as tempting. There were other old beers of lesser age there too. Those showed similarities, such that despite not knowing how those originally tasted, it was possible to recognise a trait or trend of beer aging.

A sample of the Kings Ale was taken to attempt revival of the yeast, but it or I failed.

I was worried the King’s ale might be just sherry, mushroom and soy sauce, but as you said it had no moldy character despite the cork, and the soy sauce I read about in other tastings of King’s ale, presumably from autolysis, wasn’t there.
It had sherry, black cherry, tobacco, leather… and sipping it was enjoyable like the pleasant smell of decay of an old book. It wasn’t exquisite but also not terrible, the high abv helped the character, but the other beers, like an old bottle of Spitfire, were terrible. Mostly bad sherry with little else going on.

[barneey]

It was certainly a Grand Day out, I still have the Graham Wheeler BYOBRA book which we all signed + even got Graham to sign it (something he vowed never to do) the date of the event was 01/07/2016. I'll raise a glass tonight to absent friends.

Along with my other old bottles, I also have an Antwerpen Guinness stout, a 2014 bottle of Orval, Whitbread Forest Brown (funny shaped bottle), ABSTRAKT AB:22 and a bottle of Goose Brewery Yard ale, which at sometime must see the glass for a tasting session.

Edit just found a Dog f 10th anniversary bottle and to go with my collection of more recent 2017 to 2021 Fuller's beers a 1997 version.
I also have another bottle of what I am sure is Kings but its not in that greater shape (might be drinkable though?)