Brewing Master

Question:

I have a Holiday Ale that I brewed for the Christmas of 91′!  Still have few bottles of this great stuff left and this year as last it was wonderful.  It is fairly string and containsa good amount of hops, honey, allspice, ginger, orange peel, and cinnimon. Tim Sauerwein NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Response:

I’m interested to hear of peoples’ experience regarding shelf life of homebrew after bottling.  Thus far, I’ve glugged the stuff down in a couple of months tops anyway, but I’ve made an Imperial Stout which is gonna stay on my shelf much longer. Assuming minimal aeration occurred during racking, how long could I expect to be able to keep my beer AT ROOM TEMPERATURE for it to still be drinkable? I know this varies considerably between beer types, so what is YOUR findings? Yours inquisitively, Paul Stanley.

Response:

Re: shelf life. I have found that some of my beers keep well over a few years!  I am down to my last bottles of a ginger beer and a spiced heavy Xmas brew (sort of a brown ale) brewed in winter 1993 and fall 1992, respectively.  Not all brews last this long.  However, if good sanitary technique is followed throughout, and the alcohol content not too low, most beers should last a year or more at cellar temperature (less than 20C).  It seems to help if "preservatives" such as hops or ginger (cloves too?) are used in judicious abundance.  BTW, my two ancient brews are heavenly.                                 – Jim Stewart

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