Avery Brewing on Cellaring Beer, Do you agree or disagree?

I agree because most beer really is better fresh. None of the Avery beers are bottle conditioned and most are filtered so its no surprise they don't think they age well.


Also, those guys seem pretty proud of their training in detecting off flavors.

 

Really depends on the beer. I've had very few problems thus far with any oxidation issues personally.

 

http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/avery-brewers-are-against-aging.69946/#post-995958

 

Some people are more sensitive than others. I've tasted oxidation in several aged beers: Old Stock, Bigfoot, Abacus, Double Bastard, Stone IRS, Old Boardhead (real bad), etc. These were all at least three to four years old though (except Abacus, that one was only a year old).

 

They're trained on oxidation.

 

<obligatory>I better go drink my entire cellar!</obligatory>

Interesting fact about Italian sours (that I heard) is that I heard they were intentionally oxidizing their beer to give it an acidic earthiness flavor, similar to Italian wine, since it appeases a lot of Italian's palettes.

 

I had a Mephistopheles Stout and thought it was incredibly bad but I gave them the benefit of the doubt assuming it was supposed to be aged for a year or two. Having heard their opinions now, I guess they actually just made an incredibly bad beer.

 

You're right, it's incredibly bad beer.

 

Yeah, terrible fresh. 5 years, its great.

 

A good majority of the positive reviews seem to be from people who put it down for 2-5 years

 

It's always going to be hit or miss, and it really is going to depend on how long you want to keep the beer around. I really doubt most people with cellars (or "cellars") are thinking about keeping their beer beyond five years.

If I was that sensitive to oxidation, not only would I have a 300-bottle cellar of nothing but sours. I would also store my bookshelf and magazines in a freezer.


I find it hard to believe a beer as whiskey-forward as Abacus could have oxidation flavors after a mere 12 months. I guess I'll find out next April. And if it does, I just won't bother with this company again.

 

I've had a 2006 bottling of the Reverend and the Beast in the last 12 months & they were both fantastic.

 

I couldn't give a right f---k what Avery thinks of people cellaring their own beers.

I'll do what I want to with the beer I buy, and if they're too incompetent to package beer in such a way that it will consistently be allowed to age properly, then that's their fault. Not mine.

Unrelated, I recently opened a Batch No. 1 of Rumpkin and it was like angels singing.

 

fuckwithmeyouknowigotit

 

Well if they don't bottle condition then I'm sure they are right, 98% of the time the only difference will be an increase in oxidation. So don't cellar 98% of Avery beers unless you like oxidation. Simple.

I don't think they are saying that nobody should cellar lambics because that would be ignorant as fuck.

 

While not as bad fresh, I think The Czar improves a lot with several years on it too.

 

Completely agree.

 

Barrel aged beers will always have some oxidation right at bottling time. Part of the barrel aging process is a controlled oxidation of the beer, just like with winemaking. And a year out? I've never tasted a non-sour/funky beer at a year in the bottle that didn't have significant oxidation. Barrel aged beers especially will show plenty of oxidation at a year. Oxidation is a very broad set of reactions happening to any bottled beer and accounts for almost all of the change in character as a beer ages. Fading of hop aroma, sherry, honey, raisin, richer malt flavors, paper, and harsh grainy notes are all indicative of oxidation and occur in any number of combinations as beer ages in the bottle. Bottle conditioning can slow oxidation but doesn't really add much outside of that, except for autolysis flavors from poor storage. Start really looking for the oxidation and you'll start noticing it. Some people are more sensitive than others, but most people are decent at picking it up with some practice.