Which beer should I age for my future son?

give him the utopia as a 21st birthday present, best gift ever

how ever i'll take the king henry now, i'll be your other son in his mid 20's its all good

 

Was hoping to see some sort of lambic on the list

BCBS, I think. The Utopias probably won't change too much, given the ABV.

 

I was thinking of this with JW Lees.

 

How do you know your son will like any of those things? are you sure it's not just for you to have an excuse to keep a beer for 21 years?

 

Exactly

 

king henry or bcbs sounds very nice!

 

The Utopias and the King Henry will surely stand the test of time.

I'd also say an old ale would be fun and reliable. In sort of a reverse circumstance, I have a Founders Curmudgeon put away to give to my dad as a gift someday.

 

I have 3 bottles from my son's birth year (2011) that I'm going to hold on to...BCBS, Bigfoot and Samichlaus. From your list up top, the Utopias is the no brainer. I dont have very high hopes for my BCBS and there is no way a BCBCS will have any coffee left after 21 years.

 

Why do so many of the parents on here want to do this? When I turned 21, there's no way I would appreciate any of these beers.

Utopias? King Henry? RareR? really? The most meaningful 21st birthday beer wasn't a whale, it was a Budweiser with my dad. He woke me up at 8am on my birthday with an ice cold Bud on the back of my neck and we sat around and drank it. He said "happy birthday, son." If he woke me up that early and started lecturing me on how this beer was aged in a bourbon/cognac/bordeaux/port barrel for 23.65 months and I should appreciate how the dried fig notes come through the nose, I'd think he was drinking it for himself. It's not about the beer, it's about the time I spent with him. Shift to focus from the ritzy beer and turn it to making sure his 21 is fun for him. I didn't appreciate those beers then, and I highly doubt your son will either.

But that's not what you asked. My answer is JW Lees.

Congrats on the birth of you son, btw. Exciting times are ahead for you

 

The Utopias would be really special... Since the ABV is so high it can resist unforeseen problems that may arise with the other three... I.e. moving, power outages, etc... a lot can happen in 20 years. Plus its exclusiveness... I mean a 20 year old Utopias would be epic...Then again you could save them all each for a social occasion...like 16th birthday, 21st birthday, birthday, marriage, grandkids. Wow. Now I am freaking myself out...Ha sorry if I did the same to you

 

Utopias makes a lot of sense abv wise but i think a beer like bcbs would hold up to. Not sure what state you're in but I do have a bottle of sink the bismark which would hold up even better. just another to keep in mind

 

I'm doing the same thing for my son. He was born in 2011 and I have a couple bottles of 2011 Bigfoot and 2011 120 Minute that I'm sitting on for him. I'll agree that when I turned 21 there is no way I would have appreciated any of those beers, however I also had had ZERO exposure to any beers other than BMC. I grew up watching my old man drink Milwaukees Best. He has since upgraded to Bud Light and won't touch anything else. While I have no intentions of encouraging my son to drink while he's in high school, I do hope to introduce him to what good beer is and teach him how to enjoy good beer responsibly. I would like to think that by the time he's 21 he'll have much more of an appreciation for good beer than I had.

 

I'm going with a Surly Darkness from the year of his birth...

Actually... I'm considering a 21 year vertical starting with the year of his birth... Of course, I don't want to kill him. So maybe it's a party.

 

I agree on your Sink the Bismark...You are REALLY lucky...That bottle will be awesome long after we are gone. If you ever get sick of looking at it on your shelf hit me up and I will trade you for it!!! Ha... but I highly doubt that will ever happen.

 

I plan to lecture my kids for years and years about how I've bought and saved them the most wonderful bottles from their birth year. Then, when they turn 21, I'll buy them Budweiser.

 

RareR DOS growler shouldn't be in contention IMO. Out of these beers, I'd go with Utopias.

 

Just pick a beer and make him drink it when he is born...beer is always better fresh anyways