Aging Barrel-Aged Beers: General Guidelines, Other Advice?

Many people will sit on a -bal beer to allow the heat to die down. Keep in mind while the booziness and heat may smooth out in time many of the more enjoyable characteristics in the beer will become more subdued as well. Distinct malt flavors can be sacrificed for the sake of subdued booziness, IMO it is not often worth it.

 

It's usually a good idea to age your bottles inside of the barrels the beer came out of. Most breweries are happy to hook you up for this purpose if you just give them a call.

 

Just like any other brew, it depends on the beer. And your taste buds.

For my two bits, I love the FiftyFifty Eclipse line - but it's one that I feel needs to be consumed within a year, or it gets weird & ashy. Deschutes Abyss is one that lasts for years & even improves. Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Barleywine is (most years) kind of harsh & colorless out of the shoot, but turns into a beauty queen after one year. Great Lakes Barrel-Aged Blackout peaks at 2-3 years. Firestone Walker Abacus/Sububa should be consumed as fresh as possible, before the barrel loses its vibrancy.

So, it varies wildly. And you'll get wildly different opinions on just the beers I've mentioned above.

 

Absolutely depends on the beer. There's really no over-arching rule for these. For example Bourbon County Stout will age with grace. 5 year old BCBS is like liquid velvet. On the other hand, beers like the Firestone Walker Anniversary series don't tend to do so well after about 2 years. They just lose their Oomph. The depth of flavor they begin with really fades. I wish I had the opportunity to try XIII fresh.

 

I like where this thread is going. Things like KBS I like to drink the year they were bottled in. My theory is that it's going to be a damn good beer right off the line if they did everything correctly.

I don't have much experience with verticals of any BA beers but I don't think I really care to have that experience either. I don't want to taste a 5 year old BA beer that tastes like shit next to a 3 year old of the same beer that tastes great.

I have heard recently that DL 2010 is drinking well right now so maybe 2 years is great for it. Based upon the comments above I guess I better drink my Eclipse EC12 from 2011 by the firepit soon!

 

Not sure if you're referring to the BA version of Dark Lord but the regular version certainly betters with age and seems to peak around 2-3 years.

In my experience BA beers differ beer to beer. I agree with most that KBS is better when bottled rather than a year old. The barrel taste fades a bit and although the beer gets 'smoother' the subtle tastes seem to disappear.

A perfect example of barrel aged beers that will age especially well after bottling are lambics. Grab a Cantillon or Drie Fontienen and throw it in your basement for a year or two and compare it to a fresh version...much better.

All in all, there may be certain style or beer specific guidelines that are prevalent but it's totally up to the drinker to decide what is better. Everyone's going to have a different opinion of what beers to age but it's up to the drinker's preference.

Experimentation is the best way to decide which beers are best when!