The Bar Towel

Torontoblue wrote:

JesseM wrote:Oh by the way, that 88 Goudenband BETTER have been good. A lot of good things came out of 1988, like me for instance! But all self flattery aside, it always blows my mind when I read about someone drinking a vintage from when I was born, or around then. To think that beer is actually is old as I am, it just seems, bizarre. It would be so surreal for me to drink a 1988 vintage .

You're lucky you can get beers the same age as you are. I dread to think what a beer from 1970 would taste like I guess if it was Grotney's Red Barrel then we wouldn't know the difference

Was looking at the beginning of the "What are you drinking now" thread and saw this.

I am one who can say I've consumed a beer older than myself. I'm born in 1964. In the summer of 1986, I was visiting a Great Uncle. He didn't drink beer, but knew I did. Suddenly, and gleam came to his eye and he said he'd be right back. He went to his basement and came back with a bottle of Old Vienna in a clear bottle from the early 60s. My grandfather had brought a him a case some 24 years or so later, it wasn't quite gone.

I drank it. Whenever I tell this story, I'm invariably asked if it was skunky and if it was good. No to both. It wasn't good, but not so terrible that I couldn't finish it.

So, is there a club for this?

There's a reason that case of OV never got finished in 24 years. And no I can't be in the club.

I did see a 1967 Chateau D'Yquem in Leipzig that I would have liked to try, and at a scant 999 Euros it would have been a Sauternes made before I popped out.

I drank 1974 Cantillon Gueuze, and I'm a '77.

I also drank 1972 Fonseca Port, and 1970 bottled MacAllan Scotch, 1971 bottled Highland Park and a small once bottle of Canadian Club 1977, which was distilled before I was born.

Also holding on to 1977 Graham's Vintage port bottles for some special occasion I havent decided what would be.

Whiskeys were far better than the beer. Its cool to drink one's own lifetime worth of aging, but not many liquids keep that long, and certainly not beer.

I've still to drink a beer from my date of birth, as was quoted above, but I have had other alcohols.

Taylor Fladgate & Fonseca 40 year old Tawny ports which were bottled from 2007 onwards; meaning they were produced 40 years previous. I still have a 2009 bottling of Fonseca.

I also had the amazing pleasure in trying a few samples of Taylor Fladgate Scion port which is from 1855!!!!!

I have a bottle of Thomas Hardy's '79 that was bottled about a month before I was born. Not sure when to open it...

I think my dad might still have a couple cans of Billy Beer sitting around. I wonder how those are holding up?

I have these at home, not sure if I'll ever dare to try them.

I once had a taste of an early 1940's Guinness FES that someone poured at an early beer festival. It was sour. It didn't seem that different in hopping or malt character from the current FES but I am grateful the current one is not remotely as acid. Still, an interesting experience.

Gary

Bass King's Ale - 1902. A bottle that was 70+ years older than me!
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/bass-no-1/11840/8067/

Have been "fortunate" to have sampled beer from several conetop and flattop beer cans...Black Horse, Dow, something American IIRC canned years before I was born.

Why? Because they were there and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The best I can say is that I survived the experience.

Back around maybe 2002, a friend gave me a couple of bottles of Jack Daniel's 1866 Classic Amber Lager. They were already "old" at the time. I told him we would drink them the next time he was at my place.

Well, he moved to the other end of the province, and the "next time" was tonight. And yes, we drank them.

On one side of the label, the twelve months are listed, along with the years 1995 and 1996. Nothing is marked, but I'll assume they were brewed around then.

Amazingly, the beer was quite good; certainly much better than I was expecting. Very mellow with a smooth bourbon flavour to it. Who would have guessed?

Sipping on a pre-Sleeman bottle of Maudite. 750 ml bottle caged with real cork born on October 15 2003. This was given to me a few years ago by a friend who had it sitting in his wine cellar from a Quebec trip years before.

No pop on 14 year old bottle, it has lost all carbonation. Flavour profile has raisins, bread, honey, surprisingly dry finish. Very easy drinking, no burn. It feels like I'm drinking a watery spirit. More interesting than good, but still not bad at all.

About 4 years ago when they still sold beer on Ebay in the UK I bought some old Courage RIS bottles from the 70s and 90s, including one from my birth year of 75.
Didn't expect much at all, but they were all great, the 78 was the best. Won't ever get a chance to do that again I'm sure.

El Pinguino wrote:About 4 years ago when they still sold beer on Ebay in the UK I bought some old Courage RIS bottles from the 70s and 90s, including one from my birth year of 75.
Didn't expect much at all, but they were all great, the 78 was the best. Won't ever get a chance to do that again I'm sure.

I did the same thing. The 1976 was pretty damn good, if a little soy-inflected.

Any advice on sites I could purchase old beer? I'd love to give something that ages well over long periods a shot.

Courage RIS, JW Lee's Harvest, Thomas Hardy, and I really don't know what else. Samichlaus? Fuller's Vintage Ale?