Shelf life of bottled homebrew

[derbyowl]

I always bottle my beer in 2 litre pop bottles. It is stored in a cool ( this time of year cold :grin: garage ). What do you think a likely shelf life would be.

 

[Phil]

Depends how strong the beer is, how hoppy it is and whether it's in the dark or light.

A 3% mild would have about 6 weeks I'd guess but a 7% IPA at 100+ IBU would probably last for a couple of years or more with good sanitisation.

Not sure of the impact of the type of bottle. I'm guessing it shouldn't matter.

/Phil.

 

[Frisp]

bout a week in my house :thumb:

 

[derbyowl]

Depends how strong the beer is, how hoppy it is and whether it's in the dark or light.

A 3% mild would have about 6 weeks I'd guess but a 7% IPA at 100+ IBU would probably last for a couple of years or more with good sanitisation.

Not sure of the impact of the type of bottle. I'm guessing it shouldn't matter.

/Phil.

Thanks for the detail Phil. I am the 'kit' bodger of this forum so I have absolutley no idea how strong my beer is (But it certainly is not 3% :grin: )
Its a dark garage that gets reletivley little light into it. As far as sanitisation is concerned I bleach the bucket and I rinse out all the bottles and that seems to work OK for me. I do think that sometimes the cleaniliness thing is overplayed in home brewing after all tap water used by most people is not Sterile!, the fermenters are not air tight, and we are by definition brewing in an amateur environment. ( Although the set up you have got looks on the fringe of being a professional one if but a scaled down system.

Any other thoughts on Shelf life will be welcome.