Can we age a sour?

Le Terroir is pasteurized and dry hopped. Drink it soon, I would say.

 

Usually sours age well, but that is a hoppy sour and should be consumed sooner rather than later.

 

Someone correct me but because it is pasteurized, doesn't that mean that aging will have no real affect on the beer? Doesn't the pasteurization stop any of the changes that occur while a beer is aging?

 

Oxidation should occur over time regardless, but pasteurization would stop any continued activity from the bacteria that caused it to sour (assuming Terroir is soured with lacto).

 

Well, kinda...

It kills any living bugs in there, so the yeast/bacteria won't continue working on the beer (to whatever extent they would otherwise). But, that bottle still has:

• Gas (mostly CO2, O2, and N2)
• Alcohol
• Water
• Sugar
• Essential oils from various flavorings

All those will still interact in all sorts of fun ways. I'm not a chemist, so can't go deeper... but my understanding is that's what causes stuff like hop breakdown, developing oxidized flavors, the muting of herbs/spices, etc.

 

All of NB's sours are highly pasteurized; hence, aging won't change the character of the beer nearly as much as a bottle-conditioned sour. I'd drink it whenever you want - no reason to age it as it's character won't change much (if at all).

 

http://embracethefunk.com/2012/06/26/lauren-salazar-of-new-belgium-qa/

Best article I've read about New Belgium, it talks about La Folie, but I imagine Le Terroir is the same concept.

 

New Belgium put out a post saying not to age any of their beers and they were correct. I popped my 2010 and 2011 La Folies as soon as i saw the article and they were both terrible and oxidized. huge rust bombs. drink all NB ASAP!!!!

 

Good call! I have a 2013 La Foile that I will drink this weekend. Thanks for the heads up.

 

I would have to complerely disagree with this statement and tell you to possibly improve your cellar conditions or look at adding electrical tape around the caps to stop oxidization. I have done 2009-2012 and 2009-2013 La Folie verticals 4 times (see profile picture) and think the 2009 tastes the best.

I will say however that I think the quality of La Folie goes down every year as NB continues to ramp up production. 2009 and 2010 are full of smokey wood flavors that aren't present in 2012 or 2013.

 

You can find their post on beer pulse, my cellar is just fine, there is a picture of it in the Cellar picture forum if you would care to see it.

 

New Belgium always says no to age their beers, but almost every time I go to their brewery, they have vintages for sale. I bought 2011 La Folie not too long ago and Vrienden. This past weekend they had their Trans Kriek from 2009, 2013 and 2014 for sale. So they aren't really practicing what they preach. It should be noted that they don't pasteurize their Brett Beers (Biere de Mars, Wild2Dubbel, etc..).

Also even though their sour beers are pasturized, I think their beers hold up just fine for several quite some time.