1 beer to cellar almost forever

The beers I'm planning to keep in the cellar for a long, long time are:

3fontenein gueuze 'golden blend'
cantillon gueuze
westvleteren 12 (just 1 or 2)
hair of the dog adam

I am sure this list will grow, but that's what's in there with no plans to drink anytime soon

 

I had a 4 year old Orval last week and it was great!

 

Very curious about this. Orval is one of my favorites and I'd love to try to age a few bottles for 21 years to my son's 21st. Seems like oxidation is a pretty big worry and while wasting $12 isn't a huge deal, maybe I should just get a nice bottle of wine(I know I know).

 

For the moment I still have 1 case of Orval aged for about 2 years. I don't know if it will age very wel for 21 years.... to long I think! But a man can only try ;-)

 

Dfh world wide stout

 

I think the lambics do improve with a few years, less puckering and richer at 5+ years. I've tasted some 10+ y.o. gueuze and it was fabulously settled in. Sadly not my bottle. I recentlyish finished a case of W12 at somewhere between 8-9 years. It was amazing and port-like, really fabulous, but there was a funny look about it -- when viewed at the edges or in the shallow bottom of the glass, rather than a uniformly brown liquid, it looked like dark stuff had precipitated out as flecks of brown in a blonde beer. Didn't detract from the enjoyment but it reinforced my impression that it was on the downward slope, and I was glad not to let it go much longer.

 

^ Yeah, 8-9 years is pretty old for a quad - I know they can do it, but you're taking a chance for sure. I only have 4 bottles of W12 left, and I plan to drink one every 2 years (give or take) which will put the last bottle at about 9 years. That's as far as I want to push it. On the other hand, I'll probably keep a bottle of Cantillon gueuze to 15 years of age just to see what it's like.

I have a variety of stouts, big porters and barleywines in the cellar as well, but IMO rarely does anything good happen after 3-4 years so my cellaring plans tend to be between 18 months and 3 years for those (and yes I always drink one fresh)

 

*Sigh* I was just turning legal drinking age in 1987...now get off my lawn [shaking fist]

 

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!!