Regret your beer collection?

Hell no- love it. And I will drink it. And it is worth the money. And ooh the taste...

 

I don't, but my wife does.

And I don't know why she complains...she gets half of everything anyway.

 

Write a book...'How I finished off the X number of beers in my cellar."

 

If you all are regretting your cellar, I will be happy to help you drink it down.

 

Not at all... I actually just started a proper "cellar" about 3-4 months ago. I love grabbing whatever beer I want whenever I want. As others have mentioned too... It's nice to grab a few bombers and bring them with you to parties and get togethers. Thanksgiving & Christmas are great if you've got a cellar... As long as the beers in my cellar don't decline substantially, I'm good. I'm not looking for my beers to improve, I just enjoy the convenience.

Will probably spend a few days in the summer getting a spreadsheet together. I'm hoping this will help to avoid a beer sitting for longer than 2-3 years.

 

Why dont you have a series of giant size LIFs?

 

Definitely been drinking down my cellar for a good year or two. I always like having variety so I'll probably try to keep it around 100 bottles minus a few lambics/guezes. As other people mentioned, I find that the quality of most of them goes down rather than up over a short time (1-2 years or sooner).

I also don't feel the need to chase every latest/greatest release because I've found that 95% of these "hyped" up beers aren't much better than what I can get for half the time, price and effort. That mentality has also helped decrease the size of my cellar.

I'll most likely always trade and still go after some of the new releases but not like I used to.

 

I just went over 100 bottles this afternoon and had a bit of a panic attack. I love having this much beer in my house, with a decent amount that I want to age for at least a couple years, but I am moving around April...

I move about 30 bottles last time, 15 minutes across town, but I was still nervous the entire time that something was gonna break. So, I am really starting an effort now to drink down my bottles that have distro in the same area that I'm moving. Most other rare stuff I'm trying to hold on to so I can contribute to some bottleshares in Denver, where I'm moving (get at me BAs).

 

I'm pretty sure my bottle-share buddies are enjoying it more than I am.

 

That's probably the best thing I heard in a while!

 

#3 keeps me awake at night. How long is too long?

 

moving a cellar is terrible.

 

This is me
Go Broncos
All cellar beers tomorrow.

 

No, No regrets. But I do plan to control it better. I've over bought, ever since I've been interested in craft beer. I'm 40 miles/40 minutes from a good bottle shop, so over stocking is easy for me to do.

 

You guys could always donate those excess beers to the needy. I know a great donation center, they'll even pay your shipping costs! Just message me for the address.

 

This is a great question. The answer obviously depends on your circumstances.

I started this beer thing as a hobby and before I knew it I was hitting every release I could find and making up to 5 trades a week. Soon the boxes started to pile up. It could take an hour to find all the bottles I needed to ship (but unlike Cavedave, I've found all my bottles). The next logical step was to build a cellar. At first it was very organized and had room to grow, but that soon changed. It wasn't long before I had cases stacked to the ceiling in the cellar. I did a rough count and I was over 1000 beers. I tend to drink 1-2 beers a week, doing the math, I realized it would take a looooooong time to go through this stash. I decided it was time to decrease my cellar. I've done a pretty good job thus far. I recently purchased a wine cooler that holds 500-600 bottles. Most of my 750's fit in there and I have a ~10 cases stacked next to that. So I'm down to 700-800 bottles.

Do I regret my cellar? Not at all.

-I've made some great friends through the beer world and that is worth more than all the beer in my cellar.
-I mainly cellar beers that could/would age well, so I rarely run into a bad bottle. If I do, I pour it down the drain and move on to the next bottle.
-Through this process, I've learned what I really like and now focus on getting those (BCBS, Cantillon, HOTD...)
-Friends love coming over as they know they will always be getting to drink something new.
-I routinely give family and friends random 6 packs to enjoy. This can often backfire when they ask where they can get more and it was a limited release beer and they drank my only one.
-We all need hobbies. Beer collecting/cellaring is a fun one that you get to share with friends.

 

I figured out a couple years ago I don't really enjoy the flavors that develop in aged beers so I stopped cellaring and collecting everything in sight. I have maybe 5 cases of lambic and other valuable bottles that I know are worth holding on to whether for trading or drinking.

I've even felt that sometimes lambic may be better within the first couple years depending on the maker or how the batch came out. American sours have mainly been better just after bottling. Few stand out in my mind as being worthwhile for aging.

 

www.cellarhq.com or www.beercellar.me

Also I'd like to point out that never do I regret having a cellar and I don't think I ever will, but I think the beer styles and specific beers that go into the cellar is an evolving process and mistakes are made along the way. For instance, I'm discovering that I'd like to cellar less stout and more quads. Quads definitely get better after a few years for me (not all, but select ones) whereas the improvement is less noticeable and more spotty on imperial stouts typically. I'm still experimenting with sour saisons, but I agree that most American sours are either just as good or better fresh. There are some exceptions but I doubt I'd take a sour past about 2 - 3 years except for gueuze.

 

I'm letting my cellar dwindle down to a few bottles now via beer shares, drinking with local brewers, and gifting brothers with solid brews.

 

I've had a similar experience but on a smaller scale. Last year I was purchasing every seasonal/limited release that was rated well because I hadn't had most of it before and wasn't familiar with a lot of styles. Our fridge got packed, and my little 9 bottle wine cooler was full too. I probably had around 75 beers total, which doesn't seem like much compared to a lot of other people here, but in our medium sized fridge in an 815 sq. ft apartment with little room, it was taking up way too much space. So I had a tasting party at the end of the year, but all of my friends that came ended up bring 6 packs of stuff that just replaced everything I opened up. It was bothering me how much stuff was taking up space so I've been trying to drink as much of it down as I can, along with minimizing my purchases as I know what I really like now.

One day though, I hope to have a house with nicely sized cellar to fit ~200 beers, where my friends can come over and peruse it and find something they've been excited about. There aren't too many better feelings than opening up a bottle that a friend has been dying to try.