What happens if I drink my (approx ) 18 year old homemade beer??

Don’t want to get sick. Any thoughts , insight , etc.???

I have NO idea but I want to read about it!

Well I drank it and lived to type about it. It was very sweet , without any hop characteristic, and the carbonation was fine. I will not be drinking the remaining 3 bottles . I have no recollection how the beer was back when I made it .

I can take up to 14 days for the bacteria to start growing in you to the point that their toxins paralyze you.

Please elaborate. Or tell me you are joking.

I think what he says is true as a general statement, but has nothing to do with beer.
If the beer was truly spoiled, you would not let it into your mouth.

That is pretty cruel to make a joke like that, and then not come back and say 'just kidding. LOL.

I still have two bottles of a GREAT IPA we made back in 1997. Back before most poeople had ever heard the term IPA. I wouldn’t touch it now, but not because it might hurt us.

The only theoretical brew that I have heard of that may hurt you- if honey mead contains C botulinum, it is possible for it to bloom and that would be deadly. But I am not sure that is actually possible either.

Why not try it??

If the beer was vigorously boiled for an hour, and handled in a sanitary manner afterward, there shouldn’t be anything harmful in the beer. Mead, if boiled isn’t an issue. Fruited meads are usually not boiled (boiling changes the character of the fruit) but held at a temp of around 180 degrees for an extended period to kill off any bad guys. I have several bottles of mead made by my late brother 20 years ago. They are finally starting to fade.

[rofl.gif]

A beer can collecting website that I use to visit had tales of a group of members, “Iron Gut’s Local ###”, that at collecting shows would open and share 50+year old cans and bottles of beer they had come across in their hobby. I never read any stories of anyone suffering anything life threatening but just can’t imagine why anyone would want to try a 50+yo (most likely) adjunct lager or ale other than bragging rights to say “oh yeah I tried xyz beer” [barf.gif]

Make a video and become a YouTube star (at least around these parts). Infamous is just as good as famous?

Make sure the bottle is still pressurized before drinking; if you open it up and the beer is flat I would stay away. If the cap was sealed properly and if the cap is not too rusted then you should probably be okay.

I recently tried a craft beer made in the mid 90s that had been stored in a wine cellar. I was surprised that it was actually pretty good, carbonation like a normal beer and tasted great!

To take this in a different direction, do any of you age commercially available beers (and “barley wines”)? I have had some Sierra Nevada Bigfoot after 20 years that was wonderful. Also Samuel Smith’s (forget what it was called, but came in those little blue bottles). Port-like.

Yes. There is an Aged Beer thread somewhere. Or maybe it’s called Old Beer.

I am a big fan of putting 1 to 3 years of age on bourbon barrel aged stouts, and am currently aging a few cases of assorted Lambics and gueze.

I have some Bells Expedition Stout that is over ten years old, some Chimay red and blue that is approaching ten years, and some other high ABV beers that are hid away.