Aging Beer - Should it really be up to us?

If by "very few", you mean "a large number of beers of certain styles and ABV that consist of a small percentage of beers sold in general", I suppose I agree.

There are plenty of beers that do just fine with age, but a little knowledge goes a long way in what to expect when you put some time on a bottle.

 

several deschutes' beers have. Atleast their Reserve series and Conflux series.

 

I mean a large number of beers, even beers of abv and style that are generally thought to age well. There is a huge difference between doing fine with age and improving. Even among cellarable styles there are few beers that I would call cellarable.

 

I'm amazed that some of you think a couple of months or a year or so is 'aging'. Get real, beers that do benefit from aging usually blossom after 5 years (Lee's Harvest Ale, Fuller's vintage Ale, the original Eldridge Pope Thomas Hardy etc, and can continue to develop for many years. Recently I had a sublime Whitbread Celebration Ale, 20 years old and I intend to keep the remaining bottle for at least another 5 years.

 

For the most part, I buy beer & put it down because I have to. I buy it when it's available to drink later when it's not available. Simple as that.
Besides, it's fun having a '10 Berserker, Abyss, B-Bomb.
Sometimes I just look at them. Some call it a sickness. I call it a hobby.

 

It's quite common for wine to be bought "en primeur" from the vineyard ( I detest the term winery) for the owner to lay down and mature. It's a much cheaper way for the consumer to get hold of mature wines.
BUT - as with beer, most does not either need or benefit from ageing.Some beers are good drinking at the time of sale but go on to develop different characteristics and ageing these can be rewarding.

 

Personally I like being able to choose for myself what to do with my beer.

 

some beer is meant to be aged - even by the brewers' accounts (e.g., Bell's description of Expedition pretty much specifically requests the buyer cellars some), and some - even if put out 'when it's ready', doesn't mean that it's ready for you. that's the kicker - the brewery may feel it's ready, but you may actually enjoy the product more if you've aged it some. case in point for myself: curieux (the flavors are a bit disjointed fresh, and combine very beautifully after at least a year) and behemoth blonde (goes from a malty DIPA into a very complex barleywine).

so if the brewery put it out because they feel it is ready; cool. i'll certainly take that into account, but i don't feel i am somehow cheating or disrespecting said brewer's opinion if i decide that i like so-and-so batch with extra time in a cellar. 'optimal consumption age' is a very sticky term, as there is no objective claim to when that is - if you like it aged, then age it. if you like it fresh, drink it. the beer police aren't coming over to raid your basement.

 

In most of my marketing classes, the term "Co-Creation of Value" applies here. Basically, the consumer enjoys the experience of being able to add something to the product and "improve" it. It has extra attributes to each consumer, if you are able to add to the experience, even just a little bit.

 

I think conversations about this general phenomenon would be easier to have if the terminology were less muddled -- people are doing (at least) three different things:
- Stashing beer in order to drink it soonish, without intending for it to "change"
- Maturing beer on a short timeline in order for the flavor to change in specific ways. I think many beers do benefit from this (many American sour ales after 4-8 months in the bottle, many Imperial/Double Stouts after a year or two). This is generally what people are doing when they describe the changes they desire as getting less "hot", etc.
- Aging beer in order to develop a different characteristic set of flavors, typically on the 5+ year timeline (this could probably effectively be divided into at least two categories, for the gentle oxidation that takes place in a barleywine or Belgian strong ale, versus the flavor development taking place over the same timeline in a traditional lambic).

Maturing beer can and in many situations is done by the breweries, though typically not for commercial release (or they'll do small-scale releases of "vintage" bottles, et cetera). Brooklyn has old kegs and bottles of BCS that they've brought to festival, Sierra Nevada has some very old kegs of Bigfoot, North Coast has sold old vintages of Old Stock, et cetera.

 

Yeah, like all you suckers who drink your IPAs before they turn into barleywines!

 

IMHO through out the years of past BA members and RB members and through trial and error or maybe just by accident on beer styles have found out certain beers can aged. Some breweries do recommend aging beers and some don't. And through my trial and errors any high abv beer even at 8 and above can aged. Now the key factor is. How long.???? For me that is a tough question and do I want to wait that long is even a bigger problem.

 

You spelled ah-Murr-caw wrong.

 

I definitely see vintage beers being a decent money maker for breweries that have the space. When they release Gratitude every year, they also sell some verticals for much more money and they sell out instantly.

It's definitely a market a brewery could easily capitalize on. Would I personally be willing to drop $300 for a vertical of Gratitude? No, but I may be willing to chip in a with a group of friends or a tasting group for the chance to.

 

I think this is something that most of us have fallen prey to on numerous occasions (self included), but there is no end game here. Once you start overbuying, you're never going to catch up unless you stop, and stopping means passing up today's releases in order to drink yesterday's releases. And then that just defeats the entire point of "buy now or it won't be around later".

Bottom line - there is way too much good beer out there nowadays to stash stuff away "for later", unless you genuinely plan on aging it.

 

Space is money though, and most craft breweries are rather small operations. Sure, storing a few extra cases of Gratitude is doable, but that is more of a fan service than a money maker. Even if they are able to sell a 3 year old vintage bottle for an extra $20, that storage space may have "cost" them $15, leaving only a meager $5/profit per bottle.

That said, I do believe there is a business opportunity for a 3rd party service to focus on long-term aging and beer reselling. The legalities seem like they might get in the way, but perhaps it could be structured in a way that filters the beer back to the brewery for sale.

 

Well stated sir. In fact, I am buying much less this year than in years past for that very reason. My stash still seems to be growing though -sigh-