Just had an Estrella from Spain that sat in the back of the fridge for 2 years. It was alright but definitely had a certain vinegary taste to it. Followed it with a 333 Sabeco from Vietnam again 2 years in the fridge. The 333 was extremely good. Makes me wonder if it was even better 2 years ago or if in some way it aged to be this good? I'm not aware of beer being able to age (in this case lager) anywhere near that long.
Virtually every beer will age differently. Hops are a preservative, residual sugars can act as a preservative, higher alcohol acts as a preservative, etc... Generally, light bodied, lightly hopped beers/ales won't hold as long. If they remain refrigerated and have a decent CO2 level, they can still last for years.
The 333 was probably at its best about a month or two after it was bottled depending on how it was being stored. It's difficult to say why the Spanish beer was turning. My guess is how it was handled before it reached your fridge as the biggest culprit but having a lager last that long in any case is a bit of a crap shoot.
Beer is meant to be drank immediately. Room temp, chilled etc. All the many different beers from craft, import, domestic whatever lasted me no longer than a week...
Only exception may be the barrel aged beers, but still those are gone within a week in my house. I just love beer.
I have a couple barley wines
(technically a very high malt, high alcohol ale)
that I made in my brewery that are 10+ years old, one is 15 years old and every time I open a bottle, it has developed different notes. It is stored like a wine and shows no signs of turning.
Some "fresh" beers are best drank a week or two after they are conditioned. Other hoppy beers - especially those with high bittering hop content need time to meld and tame the sharpness of the bitter.
It's really all over the place on when a beer is at its best. I opened a 20 year old strong amber several years back. I made it when I was in college and gave it to my sister. It sat in her wine cellar for all that time. Frankly, I thought it was going to be disgusting. Nope. It was really good. Probably hadn't really changed much over the last 19+ years but was still in great shape.
Don't really disagree, not really a wrong way to enjoy beer. Craft brewers are releasing their IPAs too early to get them onto the shelves and free up fermenters. Personally IPAs don't hit their sweet spot for me until they've had a month to age to lose some bitterness (we call it being too green) and have the hoppiness peak in aroma and flavor.
Aside from some session style IPAs I'd agree whole heartedly. Although, our session IPA was best after sitting in the brite tank for a month or so. I never got to see how it would develop beyond that as it usually sold pretty fast. As a brewer, I loved that beer. It was really inexpensive to brew because you not only use less malt but because you are using less malt, the hops really come through so you end up using less hops too. Cost was about half of many of my other ales and it was hoppy as hell.
