The Bruery Fruet

What were the beers that you liked with age?

 

Off the top of my head, Rochefort 10 1 year and Old Guardian 4 years were awesome. Old Stock with 3 years was good too. Just as a personal preference, even if the main flavors are slightly better, if the alcohol mellows out I'd prefer it. Really hate pure alcohol flavor. I didn't like highly rated beers such as Hopslam and Double Bastard because I just tasted vodka. I do enjoy BA stuff though, and bourbon flavors in general.

I don't age beer to accomplish miracles, just to mellow out high abv stuff, which I've found works most of the time. Not for super long either, a year or 2.

 

i get where you're coming from, but i can only say two things:

1) don't assume it's boozy without trying it
2) don't buy high-abv beers if you're worried they might be boozy

(i realize they're contradictory)

as for aging getting rid of booze, not always. bcbcs 2010 actually got hotter with time for me, and so did abacus. i think they eventually calmed down again, but by that time they were shells of their fresh selves.

 

I think its more indicative of my opinion, that every anniversary has gotten better when drank fresh.
Fruet > Cuir > Coton > Papier

Anyways, some beers can 'fall off a cliff' one year, and then have a proverbial rope & ladder in subsequent years to make their way back up the mountain. . .

 

Didn't experience that with BCBCS, but I definitely experienced it with Abacus and with regular BCBS 2009/2010. I was quite puzzled by the whole thing, to be honest with you. I suppose the bourbon/alcohol notes just outlasted some of the other flavors? I wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

 

Maybe I'll drink it soon before they're off the shelves, and can buy another. Normally I'd always do that, just not at that $.

 

i agree it gets worse with age, but there's definitely bottle variation going on. some say it gets more muddled (my experience), some say it gets hotter (my experience), others say it cools down (tried 1 bottle like this).

that's another reason why i don't subscribe to this "age everything just in case to make it drinkable" mentality. if you're paying a premium price, shouldn't you expect that you're getting a premium beer?

 

agree. also, a beer "falling off a cliff" after bottling is much different than storing a lot of it in perfect conditions to be added in perfect proportion via solera method.

 

I had it fresh (a smaller pour at a tasting) and liked it a lot. Part one me wants to hunt down a bottle of shelves (I reckon there's still some to be found), but I don't want to drop $30. I'd open it sooner because, even though it may be a bit hot, it's a delicious bourbon/burnt sugar/caramel bomb.

 

I'll probably split the difference and drink it this winter. That kind of beer just doesn't sound appealing to me at all in this heat wave, but it sounds perfect on a snowy day.

 

I have Melange 3 2010 and b1 Chocolate Rain in my cellar because they are still hot.

When the rest of my Fruet bottles arrive, they won't last 6 months because there is little they are likely to gain through aging outside of trade value. This is why I don't have any Rare left.

Please, drink your Fruet. You'll just be pissed off if you don't.

 

also, if you're aging fruet, consider whether or not there's much wisdom in aging a solera beer brewed by a very successful, expanding brewery.

in other words, not only are you going to be able to buy it again, but you'll be able to buy it again with all the best aspects of aging beer built right into it as carefully determined by the brewer.