what happens to beer that is 2 years old?

Answer 1

First, the disclaimer. Anheuser-Busch's emphasis on freshness, including putting a "born on date" on each bottle, is not just a marketing gimmick. We're going to write here about cellaring beer for a year or years, BUT that's not what you should do with the average beer.

Most beers, including virtually all lagers and plenty of ales, are matured at the brewery and filtered. The fresher you drink them the better they will taste.

Only a few special beers -- including many of the strong winter beers currently on liquor store shelves -- will improve over time. Bad beer won't get better; if you expect to be opening a great beer in three years you better be laying down a great beer now. The key elements are residual sugars and yeast, so that fermentation is still going on (albeit at a much slower rate than at the brewery). Here are the basics:

- The best candidates for aging are barley wines, strong ales, some stouts (particularly imperial stouts), Belgian Trappist and abbey beers, and gueuze. Of course, you're not going to find many gueuzes outside of Belgian, and when you do you can't be sure how they've been handled. Thus they are best left to a trip to Belgium (visit a top flight cafe in Antwerp, such as the Kulminator, and try a few of the hundreds of vintage beers on their menu). Only a few strong lagers are candidates for aging -- the most notable being the famous Samichlaus.

- You want to know the history of beers you lay down. It may be exciting to find a dusty old bottle of Thomas Hardy's Ale (England) or Sierra Nevada Big Foot (California) on the back of a liquor store shelf but you don't know where that beer has been all these years. It may have been left out in high heat or freezing cold, subjected to bright lights or otherwise mistreated. Buy your beer fresh, label each bottle (both the vintage and when you bought it) and store it with care.

- Vintage beers should be stored at cellar temperature (55-60F, 13-15C). The yeast will do its best work in that range, but won't like sudden changes in temperature or being bounced around by frequent moving. The less light the better. (Last week we wrote about using a second refrigerator to cellar your beer. You may want to review that in the Beer Break archives.)

- Store corked bottles on their sides, bottles with caps (crowns) upright.

- Lay down more than one beer from a vintage; that way you can sample as you go along. You may discover a beer is starting to turn and decide to drink the others. Remember that fruit and spiced beers will lose those characteristics and that hop intensity will start to fade over time.

Don't be afraid to drink a beer when it tastes great, because there's every chance it may not be as good next time you pull out a bottle. Also, enjoying it now will give you a good excuse to add something new to your liquid library.

Here are just a few beers to get you started: Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, Bell's Expedition Stout, New Belgium Abbey Grand Cru, Boon Gueuze, Chimay Grand Reserve, Dogfish Head Immort Ale, Gale's Old Ale, Samuel Adams Triple Bock.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

In all likelihood it's gone bad. In general, the only beers that can keep for long periods of time are high ABV (usually 7% or more) bottle fermented types.

Answer 4

i wouldn't know. All the beer that is in my house gets finished within half a year.

Answer 5

the yeast will attract large amounts of alcoholic bacteria that could make even a sip deadly

Answer 6

it has yeast in it so think of what bread would be like after 2 years

Answer 7

It has been neglected... first you have to tell it your sorry.. then buy 6 more so he can spend his last minutes with friends then drink him first... if it taste bad you should have drank him sooner. follow this up by drinking his 6 other friends.

Answer 8

i don't know, but i have a six pack of bud from 2000. kept it because of the can design.

Answer 9

it tastes better...as long as you did not 'skunk' the beer...it will still taste great.

Answer 10

It becomes extra delicious. Drink it now.