longest you have let bottles sit?

[RickC1970 15]

After bottling what is the longest you have let the bottles sit? After the 4 week wait time does it continue to condition and if so when does it peak? I'm just curious.

[Cato 3,919]

My dark beers with higher gravity condition the longest. I've tried them at 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, but 3-4 months has been more the sweet spot for those.

My IPA and pale ales that are a bit hop forward I'll start on as soon as they carb up, which is about 3 weeks. Their best when the hops are fresh.

[Shrike 6,549]

I have seven bottles left of Lock, Stock, & Bourbon Barrel Stout that I bottled 25 months ago.  Those are my oldest.

[DEFbrewer 190]

4 hours ago, RickC1970 said:

After bottling what is the longest you have let the bottles sit? After the 4 week wait time does it continue to condition and if so when does it peak? I'm just curious.

 

I'm like the tootsie pop owl in the 70's commercial.  I don't let them sit much longer than the suggested conditioning time. I heard from the forum, here, that the yeast continue conditioning the brew as it sits in the bottle. So mouthfeel has a lot to do with it. Start with the recommended conditioning time. If the taste isn't yet right, condition another 2 weeks, and so on. Glass bottles and oxygen barrier PET bottles will let the brew remain good for a year or more, PET bottles up to a year i think.

[Jdub 3,235]

5 hours ago, RickC1970 said:

After bottling what is the longest you have let the bottles sit? After the 4 week wait time does it continue to condition and if so when does it peak? I'm just curious.

i have read on this forum and others that hops fade over time. that is true. i have found that ipa's where you have multiple hops additions and is more or less the main feature of the beer, you really need to start drinking after 3 or 4 weeks. like @Cato said the dark ones age with grace. my Black Moon Rising keeps amazing me every time i pop one. It's several months old now.

[kedogn 2,722]

The longest I ever let one sit was just over 4 years.  It was a Bewitched Amber and well... it was horrible!  I will also say that it sitting around that long was on accident, as we had moved and that box didn't get discussed until after our next move  

[kedogn 2,722]

6 hours ago, DEFbrewer said:

Mr. Owl!   Man, that takes me back to Saturday Morning Cartoons when I was a kid.  #SimplerTimes!

[scouterbill 885]

I still have 9 bottles of Belgian Spiced Ale (the 2013 Winter Season Ale) brewed in September of 2016. The last one that I tried (about a month ago) was still amazing. It all depends on the style. An IPA that old wouldn't taste anything like it did after 4-6 weeks, if it was even worth drinking at all. 

[RickC1970 15]

Thanks for the replies. I'll keep all that in mind. I knew that store bought beer doesn't usually age well (aside from the Sam Adams Triple Bock I tried many years ago). I jst wasn't sure on home brew.

[zorak1066 1,464]

let beer sit???  do you make a cake and leave it untouched like some kind of work of art? lol. the longest i let your average abv beer 'age' is 3 weeks. if it is a high abv like a ris i go about 2 months.

 

homebrew and aging: the longer you let it sit malts tend to come forward and hops tend to mellow. you'll eventually reach a 'sweet spot' where the flavors of hop and malt balance perfectly. since taste is entirely subjective, you have to experiment for yourself.   wheat beers and saisons are typically best young. heavy beers like stouts and ipa's benefit from some time. barleywines and other high octane beers really benefit from a lot of time. the reason for this is high octane beers tend to have produced fusel alcohols while fermenting. aging them allows the fusels to mellow out and the flavors to blend.

[DrMJG 221]

My Lenten Liquid Bread (Dopplebock) I let  sit for 6 months before the first bottle was opened and I drank my last just a few days ago.  It continued to gain complexity and flavor.  My Czech Pilsner I am fine with after 4 week.  So it really does depend on style, and ingredients.

 

 

[bpgreen 209]

I bought a kegerator some time back. For a while I was still bottling some batches, and until I got enough kegs, I'd bottle the last bits of kegs to free them up.

 

At some point, I kind of forgot about my bottles.

 

I'm now working through beer that was bottled in 2012 and 2013. A lot of it is over carbonated, but it's all ok (although I see that my tastes have changed over the years).

[epete28 691]

I have an Imperial Red Ale that has been sitting 366 days. I just put it in the fridge.

[76shovel 459]

I try t hold my imperial stouts a year, well, I try. I do have some that are at 13-14 months now.

 

A twist on this. How long if they are refrigerated? Do cold IPAs still fade as fast? Would imperial stouts ever go bad as long as they don't go flat?