January 2018 Cellar Reviews

Central Waters Fifteen

Purchased at the Anniversary Party & lovingly cared for since, this was a top-shelf, world-class beer fresh. Interested to see what Father Time has done to it.

What he's done isn't nice. Fifteen was once a fudgy bourbon bomb, but now it's all on mute. The bourbon is about 80% diminished; while present, it's nothing you can't get in most BA shelf beers. The chocolate too is faded, leaving just a sweet, malty stout that's still very good, but nothing like what it once was.

Happy to have it in my glass last night, but long aging of CW Anniversary beers is not in my plans again. I'll be working through my backlog here in the next few months.

 

rodenbach vintage 2012

additives are very noticable , such a shame

 

12/26/16 Frootwood

Surprisingly not a bottle of cherry syrup. Actually mellowed out really well with huge woody, and vanilla overtones. Kind of like sucking on a cherry pit. Medium body with decent carbonation still so it didn't feel like cough syrup. Overall I'm glad i held on to it for a year, did really well

 

What additives?

 

Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine 2016



Bottled on 12/17/16



A

Murky burnt sierra. Minute, streaming bubbles along the side of the glass. Beige head.

S

Big piney and resinous hop aromas. Sweet alcohol note. Figs, dates, raisins, purple grapes, dark bread, sourdough bread, fresh pumpkin, Burnt sugar, caramel, hint of tawny Port wine, ripe banana bread.

T

Huge hop profile of pine. It's resinous. Very bitter. Lots of dark fruit on the flavor profile as well, but this beer is not overly sweet thanks to the hops. Lingering, warming heat finishes nicely with a prominent hop bitterness. No notes of oxidation or really any unexpected flavors.

M

Moderate level of carbonation. Smooth.

O

This is a very nice American barleywine. I generally don't like this style. I prefer English Barleywines. In this case, the main contribution from the hops is a piney bitterness and I think it works nicely. For 15% the beers drinks easily and theres enough to offset the bitter hops.

Overall an enjoyable drinking experience but there is still too much of a dominant bitter hop profile for me so I'll hold onto the remainder of these and try one again in another year. The alcohol, which I would no longer describe as "hot" will probably mellow out even more in the next year.

 

Drunk a Founders Dirty Bastard last night canned Sept 2016:

No longer is it dark ruby red but rather caramelly milk chocolate. The taste also had more caramel to it than fresh along with chocolate, figs, dates, raisins, and prunes. It was no longer velvety in texture which I enjoy from a fresh can of this beer but was still easy to drink and still enjoyable.

I would mainly prefer this beer fresh to a year. Had this beer a year old and it was almost better than fresh, but perhaps it falls off after a year. But since I still have more left aging I'll continue to age to see what the future holds.

 

According to the book Vintage Beer, sometimes there is a transitional period with aging where the flavors haven't quite developed well. Essentially, you might find it does get better as it sits longer, but it could be the opposite. It's hard to say without trying. In any case, Dirty Bastard is a good choice for an experiment considering its availability and cost!

 

Weyerbacher Sunday Morning Stout - bottled 1/30/17, best by 1/30/19.

pours into the glass jet black, with dark brown head. nice aroma of mellow bourbon, espresso, dark chocolate. both bold and complex yet the flavors are well integrated and smoothed out. thick, full bodied, velvety smooth mouthfeel.

so at right about 1 year in the cellar, this is tasting great.

 

Will is a great fella.

 

2010 Smuttynose Baltic Porter

Bummed to hear about the brewery going up for auction. My last bottle of Baltic Porter, it's good stuff. Pours black with big tan-colored head. Great head retention still on a 7+ year old beer. Aroma of cocoa powder, toasted marshmallow, vanilla. taste is similar, but dry - not sweet at all. thick, full bodied. Overall - still doing great at this age.

 

R&D Wild Bitter:

This is drinking really nice right now!

Pours a tall head over 3 fingers tall with decent retention of the head. Aroma of pineapples and light funk. Left the yeast in the bottle; body of the beer is straw yellow that is not hazy. Taste is much the same with a few more nuances. Lots of pineapple hops notes with a hinting of other tropical fruit (slight mango sweetness, guava, papaya,etc) hops are no longer bitter and also do not taste stale. Really liking how the hop profile has changed here since it was fresh. Funk is really starting to develop nicely. Earthy and slightly fruity brett notes. Light dusty barnyard funk. Mouthfeel light bodied...I still dont know how the heck Dan made this 10% beer drink so easily like its half the abv. No booze. Moderate carbonation levels. Very faint dry finish.

I am ecstatic that I have several more bottles of this beer to continue to age. I feel this will continue to age for another 5 years and the funk will dial up in this beer with more time! I also feel this beer will age similiar to R&D 2009 Golden Ale which is still drinking fantastically after almost 8 years in the bottle.

Beware: R&D Wild Bitter is developing into a real sleeper beer for those belgian beer / funky beer aficionados! I dont think many people appreciated this beer fresh, but its really going to become something. Its great now, but I got good vibes for where this beer is heading!

 

Trying to drink down some of my beer fridge and found a 2013 The Kaiser. Actually still pretty good and no oxidation but turning very sweet. We will see how much of it I can finish as I doubt it will be all of it.

 

A store by my house has had these in their coolers for almost a year now, I just picked up a four pack of perfectly aged SMS for under $14. Truly a steal!

 

2012- Epic Barleywine, Batch 10
A - Dark amber color that faded quickly.
S - Caramel, candy sugar
T - Caramel malts, brown sugar, no hops, dark fruit, well balanced
M - Medium to low carbonation, smooth
O - Pretty decent for the style, aged well

 

A number of years back he posted about an amazing tasting including beers over 100 years old (Bass Kings ale 1902 I think was the oldest). Anyway, when I saw that I thought I would just have to do something along the same lines myself one day. My little English barleywine tasting wasn't nearly as epic, but it was super fun all the same.

 

I thought he mentioned that he had or drank an 1869 Ratcliff.

 

Haha I actually think I remember the post you are talking about- I recall someone posted an epic tasting of all of those “unobtainium” beers like the Ratcliff, Prince’s Ale, etc. I would love to be able to taste that history and wax philosophical about the passage of time and civilization.

 

Tonight working on reducing the size of the stock in the cellar. This evening's beer has been in the basement quietly waiting it's destiny since 2012. The beer is Hanssens Experimental Cassis Lot B (IIRC probably brewed in 2011) with a very long shelf life. While many didn't care for this beer I enjoyed my last one enough to buy and cellar this one for 5 years. The uncarbonated Fruit Lambic seems a bit less complex than I remember but still is very tart and showing lots of black current flavor with touches of oak.

 

Dogfish Head Immortal Ale

Bottled on 1/22/2016

A:








S: Raisin, cherry, vanilla and faint notes of peat, faint islay single malt (think Ardberg not Lagavulin), sweet sugary/maple syrup, vegetal, earthy, umami note I'd describe as overcooked collared greens that is actually quite off putting. I did not get in this aroma in the beer fresh. And often get this type of aroma with beers using maple, so I assume it is from that. As the beer warms this aroma seems to be overtaken more by the maple syrup, which is a good thing.

T: This beer actually does not have a ton of flavor. There is some maple syrup sweetness, and nutty and woody oak flavors, some sweet dark dried fruit notes like date as it warms up. A touch of bitterness on the finish.

M: Medium level of carbonation. Smooth and full bodied.

O: I did not love the aroma on this one, but the flavor profile has some redeeming qualities. This is my first time experimenting with cellaring this beer, and the experiment did not live up my expectations unfortunately. I think I'll stick with cellaring the high ABV DFH beers which have worked out very well for me. This one is only 11%.