A (stupid) Utopias question

munrets · Post by **munrets** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 6:26 pm

Hi all,

Funny situation: I bought a bottle of Utopias last December through the LCBO and brought it to a friend's (distant) place for New Year's. I had exactly one little taste of it and ended up leaving the bottle at his place.

Skip ahead to tomorrow: I'm seeing him again for the first since the bottle was opened and he mentioned that he was going to bring it back to me. The funny thing, though, is that it hasn't been touched since that night - just sitting in a dry place, nearly full, with the top tightly fastened.

So what do you think I'll find? I doubt it will be anything drinkable, but I'm curious. I'm also kind of glad to have the bottle itself.

Thoughts?

icemachine · Post by **icemachine** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 7:36 pm

Pretty sure it will still be drinkable, especially if not much has been taken out of it

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 8:55 pm

I've heard of people working on a bottle for some time, and Utopias already has a 'Madeirized' quality (plus very high ABV and gravity.)

Not stupid question.

Tapsucker · Post by **Tapsucker** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 12:43 pm

As a homebrewer I have a bottle capper and I often recap a big beer when I don't want it all at once. I don't have a mechanism to purge the bottle so I give it a little swish to release some of it's own CO2 to blanket the top of the beer before capping. Keep the bottle upright to minimize surface area. Also using a sanitized cap is important. I have a few big stouts that have held up a long time just fine doing this.
I would not recommend it for beers where you want to preserve a lot of hop aroma, but then again this can fade even before initial opening.

boney · Post by **boney** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 2:49 pm

This should answer your question, courtesy of Stephen Beaumonts blog.

http://worldofbeer.wordpress.com/2010/1 ... ear-later/

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 8:23 pm

boney wrote:This should answer your question, courtesy of Stephen Beaumonts blog.

http://worldofbeer.wordpress.com/2010/1 ... ear-later/

"Two-thirds empty bottle" - badly-stored on purpose as a worst-case experiment. Nice!

The very small 'ullage' (air space) of munrets' nearly-full bottle of Utopias should have allowed it to age in a way similar to an unbreached full bottle. I figure there's no way that a small amount of added oxygen affected it that much.

munrets · Post by **munrets** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 11:48 pm

Thanks for the insight, y'all. Bottle is now in hand - will report back soon.

irishkyle21 · Post by **irishkyle21** » Sun Sep 09, 2012 6:39 am

I've never had Utopia. The end.