Can any beer be cellar-ed or aged?

You can store and age anything in a celler. Not just beer. Some things are better not kept in a cellar however. Use discretion

 

yes, just don't expect everything to improve or stay the same...

 

Good question, OP. One reason you seem to hear more about special release beers being "cellarable" more than you do off the shelf beer has more to with the style of beer than the manner in which was sold. Special release beers these days are often big, boozy stouts, barleywines, or sour ales. Those styles tend to be more suitable for aging in a cellar.

The same style you find on the shelf will probably be just fine in your cellar but here are some things to keep in mind:

- Hoppy beer like IPAs generally aren't good for aging since the freshness of the hop flavors fades over time. You can start a whole thread here about how long that takes but let's just say for some people it's six months and others it's six days.

- Bottle conditioned beers with yeast sediment in the bottle will usually develop different qualities as they age. Cellar temp allows the yeast to stay active. You can toss these in the fridge but it puts the yeast to sleep which is why people tend to cellar them. Think Belgian ales here.

- Pasteurized beers don't develop as you hold on to them, they become older. Again, some people will give examples of pasteurized beers they've had years later that tasted fine. That's great when it happens but generally is the exception, not the rule.

- The flavors of adjuncts will fade over time. Love that raspberry sour or cinnamon stout? Cool. Just know that the fruit and spice characters won't be as strong in the future as they are now. Sometimes this is good. Goose Island's Vanilla Rye stout, for example, had such intense vanilla flavor at bottling that people described it as "artificial" tasting. Almost a year later the vanilla flavors have begun to mellow and are blending into the base beer much better. A year from now I expect it will be even tastier as the flavors continue to marry in the bottle.

- Higher alcohol beers tend to be better candidates for aging in a cellar. Not a hard rule here at all, but they're generally sturdier and can handle it more than a 5% ABV Hefeweizen.


I'm sure I'm missing a lot and others will add. Good luck and remember that cellaring can be great but it's possible to kill a lot of great bottles before you ever even open them. Read reviews of beers, especially vintage ones, to see how people describe the taste over time. Try to find the sweet spot that suits your taste and if given the chance, open a bottle 6 months too early rather than 6 months too late. Trust me on that one.

Cheers!

 

Most beer is best fresh. You can age anything, but most beers will not improve. I would only age high abv beers, sours, and smoked beers. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part that's all you want to age. If you want to get into cellaring I would recommend picking up the book vintage beer. It is cheap on amazon but I'm not sure about shipping to Australia.

 

To add to the other comments, Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot and Narwhal are both "off the shelf" beers that will benefit from being aged.

 

Imperial stouts age very badly. If they're more than three to six Weeks old you MUST dispose of them properly. Fortunately, I operate a disposal service for these especially dangerous beers. Just send them to Bob's Discount Stout Storage & Disposal and Small Engine Repair and I'll take care of them for you. KBS, FBS and Bourbon County Brand are notoriously unstable, requiring expert storage and disposal techniques, best provided by a professional such as myself. Hope to hear from you soon.