The First Beer You've "Aged"

It was probably BCBS. Back when it was easy to acquire several 4 packs without murdering someone or going broke.

 

In the late 1980s-1990s (exact order lost to history):

Thomas Hardy's Ale, Samichlaus, Gales Prize Old Ale, Courage Imperial Russian Stout, Fullers Vintage Ale,
Anchor Old Foghorn and Sierra Nevada Bigfoot.​

 

Grand Teton Double Vision 2013. Saw it on the shelf, had never heard of aging and it piqued my interest. A 300 bottle cellar later.......

 

Thomas Hardy Ale & Anchor OSA, both 1986

 

I usually can't wait for beers to be aged, so the first aged(by myself) beer I had was To Ol Liquid Confidential, which I passed to drink while summer. Damn I wish I had some patience to age beers

 

Chimay Grande Reserve.

 

Not sure why some in the community like pretending so much that beer is analogous to wine.

 

Curieux and the Sierra 25th Anniversary series.

 

FBS on purpose for a side by side aging trial, which I need to finish soon at the 2 year mark. I found Expedition to be best with a year on it. I've got a fresh Abyss that I'll wait for a year to open based upon the collective wisdom here.

 

'12 Abyss, which I still haven't opened...

 

Chimay Grande Reserve.

 

RR Consecration. 2 bottles @ 1 year, 2 bottles @ 2 years. This is probably a good case for not handing out "5" ratings--I didn't think Consecration could get any better than it was from a "new" bottle, but was mistaken at both the 1 and 2 year marks...

 

I had a 3-year-old Stone IRS on tap at a good beer bar, and it was so good I decided to start cellaring my own. I believe I started with Stone IRS, Barrel Aged BORIS The Crusher, and the inaugural batch of DFH Palo Santo Marron. Shortly thereafter, I discovered that a local grocery store was mistakenly selling 6-packs of SN Bigfoot for $9.99, so I stockpiled Bigfeet. I found that I really do enjoy most big beers (DIPA excluded of course) more with a year or two on them.

 

An amber ale by Oasis. Actually, my parents aged it, and by mistake. They bought it about ten years ago, put it in the cabinet above the freezer, and forgot about it until about two months ago.

First one I put in my cellar specifically to drink around Christmas this year was Old Backus by Freestate. Have since included some Expedition Stouts, and Founder's Imperial Stouts. We'll see how my first year of aging goes around Christmas

 

Bigfoot

 

Duck Duck Gooze 2013. Still got 4 in the celllar.

 

Yeah, like this dude:

 

That sums it up for me as well. On the commercial side of things I still have a dozen or so bottles of Thomas Hardy from between '87 and '92, as well as one Gales left from around '93 or '94. A few weeks ago I opened up an '89 Thomas Hardy and it was excellent. These days, the only beers I purposely age myself are certain homebrews: a solera "Barleywine/Old Ale" I began in '91 and have "topped up" by around 20% every year since then, as well of the batches of IPA I brew several times a year for the purpose of aging them for up to a year (in the original tradition of the style).

When I'm in a beer/liquor store, I also always look for bottles of SN Celebration and especially Bigfoot from the previous year (and usually manage to find some, especially of the Bigfoot); those two products hold up very well over time, at least in part due to the fact that they are bottle conditioned. I actually prefer both of them some months after their packaging date.

 

2011 creme brulee. Newer at aging. This happened because I bought too many and just harrowing to have 2 but i opened one at Christmas this yr and it was excellent