January Cellar Reviews

2008 Thomas Hardy's Ale poured into a St. Bernardus Chalice. Holy Damn, this stuff never gets old. Back in 2009 when I didn't know a thing about craft beer and I was just beginning to try new things (mostly to add to my bottle cap collection) I bought a bottle of this and was so intrigued by the information on the label that I went on to become something of a small-time beer cellar aficionado and to read most of Thomas Hardy's major novels, and I am much better off for both. Needless to say, after all these years, this I am still in love with this beer.

It remains hard to describe for me, and most of the usual "aged" terms to really capture it. The aroma is truly vibrant. It is full bodied, very sweet but with a lingering bitterness lending balance. Rich, heady, but not abrasive. In no way "limp" as some beers can be after the 5 year mark- on the contrary it is assertive. Hell, even the thick and chewy dregs taste awesome. I would the yeast to spread on my English muffins while reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles with the rain pouring down outside and ashes from last nights cigar marking up the pages.

 

375ml 3F Oude Gueuze
vintage: 6th February 2014

So this has over 11 months on the bottle; just shy of a year.

Appearance: translucent medium orange bodied beer with 2 fingers of bone white head that drops down to thick ring around the glass. spotty lacing is left behind after the head quickly dropped down to nothing.

Smell: Intense acetic sourness. Funky sweaty armpit and horse blanket. Fruity, earthy, and oaky. Hint of white pepper. Lemons, white grape, pears, and granny smith apples.

Taste: Much the same as the nose is described above. Funkiness has moderate intensity and the sourness is slightly below the strength of the funk. Sweaty armpit and horse blanket funkiness with lots of mineral character and rotten hay flavors. quite earthy and oaky. Lemons, white grape, pears, and granny smith apples. Hint of fruitiness that finishes with a tannic oak and citrus. The sourness smells stronger than it tastes and the funk tastes bigger than it smells though it is not by much here.

Mouthfeel: light bodied beer with low carbonation levels. Clean, crisp, vibrant, and bright. Dry and tannic finish.

This beer is great aged as well as fresh. I really cant decide if I like it better right out of the gates or with some time on the bottle. This early in the life of this beer, it hasn't had much time to evolve. Yet is it pretty complex and delicious. This beer should be a staple for all funky sour beer lovers. It is always fantastic.

 

Just saw this, not hot at all. Just a little warmth going down the chest. It was delicious, the bourbon in it was near perfect for me and its got a nice mouthfeel that I love.

 

that bourbon cellar reserve really took a long time to mellow out. It will probably age for until 8 to 10 years. Such a great cellar beer that hold its own for a very long long time! I dig both the brandy and the bourbon cellar reserves of old stock.

 

This 2011 Sebago Single Batch is top tier. After six years this barleywine is free of infection, oxidation and still maintains a firm body with great taste. Most impressively is the balance of this beer. I drank a 2010 MoAS a while back and noted how sweet, boozey and unbalanced(yet tasty) it was. This beer sets the example of what a five year old BA barleywine should taste like: light barrel bourbon influence(until it warms), lots of caramel and chocolate, alight dose of dark fruits, no bitterness, balanced, smooth and easy to drink. Far from one dimensional...probably one of the best of recent memory behind Bell's Batch 6,000

 

2011 Alesmith Speedway Stout
Carbonation still present. Dark fruit aroma. No coffee flavor evidenced but chocolate flavor is present along with dark fruits. Booziness has also mellowed. Drinking fine if you don't mind the absence of coffee.

 

Thanks for the review....this is a great and WAY under talked about bbbw.....but 6 years? I think more like 3 and a half. WorlWorld class beer though for sure. The 2013 is just as good maybe better.

 

Yeah. Probably four. Degree in business and still can't add.

 

2010: Lots of cocoa, still a nice roastiness and a good deal of heat but very decadent and aging superbly
2011: It has sordove a gritty, chalky like feel, muted cocoa, tasted a bit of cardboard. This is just off.

 

The theory of evolution is at work....the only problem is the lack of carbonation on Bourbon Fred 2013.

 

I've got some 2007 in the cellar, after reading this I'll going to open one this week. Thanks for the reminder of this tasty beer.

 

So the 2011 sounds oxidized while the older one is great. Sometimes I wonder if this cellaring thing is just shit luck. Maybe one bottle isn't the perfect cap job, and so you get oxidation?

Thoughts, people?

 

This bottle is dated 9/27/13
Poured this only half way. I wanted to try half of I at about 40 deg and the other as it warms. The flavors really start to come through as I make my way through. All of the flavors are still like the fresh version: caramel, vanilla, a little oak. Really good. However, the two things that stand out to me is that the nose is very minimal and there seems to be a little bittering that is mildly unpleasant. That does go away a little as this beer warms up.
Final thought is to drink this beer within a year, much better.

 

In my experiences, I'd agree that there's definitely an element of pure luck in cellaring. It's about 50% science, and 50% the will of the beer gods. And the beer gods are capricious tricksters. Cellaring in the modern age is a relatively new enterprise; it's still an experiment from both the brewers' and the consumers' end. The best way to look at it is that every beer you age for a year or more is just that: an experiment. Part of the fun is that every aged beer you open is something of a mystery. If you can't deal with the fact that some beers will be ruined by oxidation and others just by new flavors you find unpleasant, you should stick to drinking beer fresh (and there's nothing wrong with that; cellaring is a niche within a niche, at best).

 

2012 SN Ovila Quad. Corked and caged, stored at 54 degrees F on its side. Smells of tame, balanced dark malt/dried fruit with a touch of yeast and rather dry. The flavor includes dark lightly "aged" malt (without roast/chocolate), pear, dried date, and low sweetness/low bitterness. This beer was tightly under control when fresh as I remember, and age has mellowed it further into a very drinkable BSDA. Quite nice, and certainly not worse for the last 3 years in the cellar. If this was still being brewed I would probably pick up another or two for aging just because the bottle and label is so damn cool it makes for a wonderful celebration beer, but I wouldn't consider it a cellar standby. Honestly I didn't expect it to be so good after three years, which speaks to the original beer's quality.

 

Mother effer, you better not drink all your good stuff up before I get back!

 

Not a chance. It's well stocked.

 

2012 Lagunitas Imperial Stout

Pours black mahogany and garnet hues with a khaki head; smells of licorice, blackberries, molasses, tobacco, chocolate- in that order. Tastes of chocolate raisins, vanilla, and tobacco. Mouthfeel is velvety, smooth, carbonation is medium yet adds to the smoothness. Damn fine, I think this is at its peak now, another year and it will start to go "rootbeer" and start to fall apart. Drink em if you got em!

 

XI.I by Brasserie Lancelot (Le Roc St. Andre, France)

Brewed November 1, 2008.
Enjoyed January 25, 2015.
Purchased at La Cave à Bulles in Paris, France.

This beer is brewed once a year starting the evening of October the 31st and through the early hours of November 1st (hence the 11.1% abv), which is when the Gaelic festival Samhain takes place. It is a unique barleywine style brew that is supposedly better after 3-5 years of age. The beer pours with a boisterous carbonation that quickly dies off to leave a quite still beer.

At 6 years old, this beer is unbelievably good and vastly superior to the fresh sample I had (and still remember). The tight character of the young version has given way to a much smoother one with hints of dates, rum raisin, dark aged fruits, and a sherry aspect that grows more distinct as the beer warms.

One of the better barleywines I will ever have the pleasure of trying and an absolutely stellar and truly unique beer experience that will linger in my memory for the rest of my life I am sure. Cheers all!

 

Stone Old Guardian 2013 Odd Release: Oak-Smoked. They replaced roughly 1/5 of the barley malt with oak-smoked wheat, effectively making a hoppy rauchbier wheatwine. Snifter.

Darker than I remember. Little head, less retention. Some sediment.

Aroma is a most unfortunate mixture of smoke and dirty, papery oxidation, with a side of raisins. Was not expecting the oxidation at all, never seen it in a 2-year Old Guardian.

The taste's only saving grace is that Stone's characteristic lack of subtlety means there is a strong enough smoke flavor to momentarily distract me from a horrendous amount of dirt and paper. A putrid combination of "bad oxidation" and smoke.



Shockingly bad. This was good fresh too, and held promise for extended cellaring. Hopefully this is just a bad bottle and my other one will be fine when I open it over Easter.