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Author Topic: Lost and Found Beer Stories?  (Read 1569 times)

Offline Ale Farmer

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Lost and Found Beer Stories?
« on: June 20, 2016, 08:59:16 pm »
A few days ago, under two boxes of empty bottles, I came across half a case of saison I had brewed at the end of last summer--thought it was long gone. It's held up well and has me curious about other stories of beers lost and found. Any lost treasures you've discovered? Any that you wish you hadn't found?
George

Brew and grow...

Bottled: Belgian May Ale, APA, Wit, Pilsner, Rye Pale Ale, Pale Irish Ale, Dark Mild, Brown Porter, English Pale Ale, Amber Ale

Fermenting:

Next Brews: English Pale Ale, Spruce Porter, Brown Ale

Offline reverseapachemaster

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Re: Lost and Found Beer Stories?
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2016, 09:04:19 am »
My first all grain batch I got ambitious and tried to get into water chemistry. I was doing okay except I forgot to flip the digital scale from oz to g and added ounces of salts to the water. Needless to say it was very salty. I went ahead and bottled it and ended up using most of the batch to boil hot dogs. I forgot I had several bottles and discovered them three years or so after I brewed it. It gushed and tasted like the liquid from a can of black olives. Needless to say I dumped those bottles.
Heck yeah I blog about homebrewing: Brain Sparging on Brewing

Offline turkishrock

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Re: Lost and Found Beer Stories?
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2016, 11:08:47 am »
A few years ago, an old friend stopped by at a party I was having. He had a four bottles of an all-extract imperial stout that I had given him as a Christmas present - 18 years before. :o
He had  drunk a couple, then stashed the rest away in a closet and forgotten about them.
Since the party was awash with BJCP judges, we popped open a couple (once they were cold) and did a very impromptu assessment. There was still (surprisingly) some carbonation left, but about the only remaining flavor component was a strong suggestion of prunes (and other dark fruit).
Doug

Offline udubdawg

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Re: Lost and Found Beer Stories?
« Reply #3 on: June 22, 2016, 08:05:29 am »
this happens to me all the time, but usually with mead.  And the results are usually spectacular.  Just found a few more gallons of blackcurrant/raspberry melomel from a few years back.  I think a few of you tasted it at NHC.  Curt Stock of course said it "needed more fruit" but that's Curt; he'd say a piece of liquified fruit needed more fruit.   ;D

Offline toby

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Re: Lost and Found Beer Stories?
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2016, 08:59:39 am »
I have only a few.

1) I have a kolsch that I make for my dad from time to time (he's primarily a Coors Light drinker).  I sent him a case a few years ago (according to my records, brewed on 9/2/13).  Well, this past fall, he calls me and asks me if it is still good.  I tell him probably not and ask why.  Well, apparently he had 8 left in the back of his fridge that he forgot about (he keeps his beer in a fridge in his workshop/man cave).  I told him to just hold on to them and they probably aren't drinkable anymore.  I popped one the next weekend when we went visit expecting it to be an oxidized mess.  I was surprised to find that it wasn't as bad as I expected.  It had a little metallic/carbonic twang, but was still relatively drinkable.  I am holding on to the other 7 bottles for use in either a beer judging class or a tasting exam.

2) I had a British IPA, I made for a beer fest a couple years ago.  It was a backup keg to the other two beers I was serving (an American IPA and a dark saison).  Wound up tapping it and had about a gallon left at the end of it all.  When we got home, it was late, so I just put the keg in the storage room in the garage, planning to put it in the kegerator the next morning.  Well, forgot about it until a couple months later on a brew day when I was grabbing what I thought was an empty keg to transfer sanitizer.  Poured it out of the keg into a pitcher to see what it was.  It was still drinkable, but since there weren't many EKG IPA fans, me and another guy were the only ones who had some (it was still winter time, so it was reasonably cool for our climate).

3) Bottled some wood-aged Scotch ale as Christmas presents a year and a half ago.  Wife was doing some cleaning in her craft room and found a bottle for her nephew that we didn't wind up seeing that Christmas.  We drank it.

Offline muzak

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Re: Lost and Found Beer Stories?
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2016, 09:07:53 am »
It gushed and tasted like the liquid from a can of black olives.

Briney the Elder.
John L.
---
Planning: Simcoe SMaSH
Bubbling:
Drinking: Saison, Amber Ale, APA, American Strong Ale

Offline 69franx

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Re: Lost and Found Beer Stories?
« Reply #6 on: June 22, 2016, 09:11:03 am »
It gushed and tasted like the liquid from a can of black olives.

Briney the Elder.
Nice!
Frank L.
Fermenting: Nothing (ugh!)
Conditioning: Nothing (UGH!)
In keg: Nothing (Double UGH!)
In the works:  House IPA, Dark Mild, Ballantine Ale clone(still trying to work this one into the schedule)

Offline ynotbrusum

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Re: Lost and Found Beer Stories?
« Reply #7 on: June 23, 2016, 05:04:05 am »
I brewed a Pliny from Vinnie's old recipe with a neighbor and put a couple small bottles in my kegerator.  Totally forgot about them for five years...surprisingly good when I opened them after cleaning out the kegerator one summer.  Muted hops, but very drinkable.
Hodge Garage Brewing: "Brew with a glad heart!"