The First Beer You've "Aged"

Suprised to see so many Russian River sours here. With the exception of the non fruited Sanctification, my experience has been they lose their fruit and oxidize. Not my preferred way to drink them.

 

About three years ago a guy from work who knew I loved beer gave me a 2010 Dark Lord, and told me about aging it, so I stuck it in my wife's "wine cellar" (a closest in the basement). I forgot it was already two years old when he gave it to me and thought it was a 2012. I finally opened it this past November.

 

Homebrew. First commercial beer bought to age was samichlaus helles... still have it.

 

Ah god I went balls out and bought totally stupid stuff to age like porters and esbs, I didn't really understand cellaring until I started brewing. First cellar worthy I bought was 06 abyss with a sticker price of like $6.50 from the bottle shop in Pullman. Got about half a case at that time and managed to still have two left over a year later. Did a few side by side for science with the next year and the last of the 06 were gone.

 

Just started a cellar and I'm off to a good start I believe. First bottle was given to me by a friend. Black Butte XXVI, Also Put 1 Black Butte XXVII in there 2@ 2015 Abyss Reg, 2 Founders Imp Stouts, 4 Weyerbacher Sunday Morning Stouts, 1 15' BCBS, and 2 Narwhals. I also homebrew and do a RIS once a year and have 6 of my 14's left, 10 15's and still have 16's on oak. So I suppose my first aged beers would be my own, but I am enjoying the cellaring aspect of things so far, even though most of my BMC friends think I'm crazy for just not drinking them all instantly

 

How was it?

 

Avery " The Beast " Grand Cru. Had this at the 10 year mark and it was amazing!

 

Stone RIS 2012. I'm starting a vertical but saving at least one of those bottles for my son's 21st birthday in, gulp, 2033!

 

Totally agree on Bigfoot! Also this is the first year I've tried a Celebration about four months old and I like it better than fresh! How old have u tried it and what was it like?

 

I've had bottles of Celebration 8 to 10 months after production which were delicious. There iscertainly some fade of the hop character by that point, but not entirely...and unless one's palate is so jaded by the American tendency towards pungently bitter hopping rates, Celebration most certainly doesn't turn into a "malt bomb" (a descriptive which I've come to hate almost as much as the term "craft beer").
So depending of course entirely on one's individual perspective, time is not the enemy for either Celebration or Bigfoot.
Quite a few beer aficionados I know actually prefer these two brews after some cellaring.

 

It was really, really good. I was a little nervous when I realized it was older than I thought, but it was a "Wow" for me. Very flavorful and so smooth - no alcohol feel at 15%, which was amazing.

 

'13 Expedition

 

I think Temptation is great with a few years on it as well (also no fruit added). Beatification is of course fantastic with any amount of age, though it has been a while since Ive had any of the first few batches.

 

There are two sides to the question. Which beer did you first put away? or which was the first cellar beer that you opened? I've only been cellaring for a little over a year and the first bottle I put away was a 2014 Abyss. But I haven't opened that yet. Bigfoot 2015 was the first that I opened and compared it to a fresh 2016. I really appreciated how the year smoothed out some of the edges in the beer.

 

I'd be willing to wager that World Wide Stout was the first.

 

HotD, Adam

 

Also new to aging, but:

2015 Bourbon County
Bell's Expedition Stout
Abyss and it's variants
Regular and BA Darkness
Backwoods Bastard
CW BA Stout and Barleywine
BA Narwhal

Side note, I found out that Big Bad Baptist and WootStout don't age well at all.....

 

Victory V12 - a 750 ml was always to big for me to want to try to take down by myself so it sat in the beer closet for several years before I brought it out at a tasting. In the meantime I started aging Stone IRS and and North Coast Old Ale. It's gotten out of control since then.

 

Bunch of jerks with your hobby enjoyment!

 

I think for me the first was a four pack of 2006 NC Old Stock. Have one bottle left.