So I realized I had a Altbier I brewed an back in September of 2023 and also again in September of 2024. The beer back in 2023 spent its entire life in a keg in my refrigerator so I’m curious on what I’m going to taste. Same beer and same recipes brewed the same way, well the best I could from brewing a beer a year apart and not really thinking I was going to do this. I plan on doing a blind testing by taking 4 cups 2 with the newer beer and 2 with the older beer. Mix them up on the bar top and walk away. Luckily I’m tying this up so I forget where each one is. I do this a few times.

Round 1 : I pulled 2 samples of each beer and placed on the bar. I moved them around without looking at them and stepped away for about a minute and pulled one. From these three I will sample. I sampled the beer keeping my eyes closed and they really all tasted the same to me. I picked one and it was the newer beer but wasn’t the odd one out. FAILED TO PICK OUT THE ODD BEER.

Round 2: As before pulled the sampled and placed on the bar moved them around and walked away for a minute. Went back over and moved around again and pulled one of them. After another minute of waiting I went and sampled with my eyes closed and this time I was able to pick up on a green apple note in the older beer. I had selected the odd one out. WAS ABLE TO PICK THE ODD BEER.

Round 3: Continued to pull my samples and wait as before. After tasting all three I had selected the middle one thinking I could taste the green apple and I had selected the newer one and it wasn’t the odd one out. FAILED TO PICK OUT THE ODD BEER

Round 4: After selecting the middle one again I had selected the older beer and it wasn’t the odd beer out. FAILED TO PICK OUT THE ODD BEER.

Round 5: After selecting the middle one again, based off tasting a little more bitter then the other two, I had selected the newer beer and it was the odd one out. WAS ABLE TO PICK THE ODD BEER.

Round 6: After selecting the first one I had selected the newer beer and it wasn’t the odd beer out. FAILED TO PICK OUT THE ODD BEER.

Round 7:After selecting the first one i had selected the older beer and it wasn’t the odd beer out. FAILED TO PICK OUT THE ODD BEER.

Round 8: After selecting the middle one I had selected the newer beer, I went on it being more bitter then the other and I had selected the odd beer out WAS ABLE TO PICK THE ODD BEER.

Round 9: After selecting the first one thinking it wasn’t as bitter as the other two, I had selected the newer one and not the odd beer out. FAILED TO PICK OUT THE ODD BEER.

Round 10: After selecting the third one, I had selected the newer one and not the odd beer out. FAILED TO PICK OUT THE ODD BEER.

So I was able to pick out the odd beer 3 times. This definitely isn’t significant that I would tell these two beers apart. While tasting I could have swarn I had tasted a difference either being more bitter or just the over all flavor and was very surprised to find out that I was wrong so many times. So what I can conclude from this is that in the case of the Altbier and conditions were correct for storage that beer sitting in my refrigerator for a year untouched doesn’t affect the flavors. I bet if I didn’t keep it refrigerated I’d be talking a different line but I can say I was very surprised by this.

The look of the two beers are different. The older one being more cloudy and a little lighter in color and the newer one looking crisp, which is surprising to me. I would have thought the older beer would be more clear as its had time to lager out but that isn’t the case. Wonder what caused the haze in the older beer.

Overall I couldn’t tell these two beers apart even though I would have though I could. They are both decent beers and unfortunately not my cup of tea but its someones.