Why do we Cellar Beer?

I Cellar for taste but i also cellar for a hobby. Its kinda like a kid collecting Baseball cards. I get a weird feeling inside me when i have a collection of rare beers in my possession.

 

Because lambic and gueuze gets better

 

I would say it is 50/50 with what you have above for me.

 

When you lay a beer down in your cellar and commit to aging it for a year or more, it's like you're waving goodbye to a friend as they leave on a journey or move to some far off destination where you won't hear from them for some time.

When they return, you visit with them and listen to their story. Sometimes they return a better person, sometimes not, but the story is almost always interesting in some way or another.

Then, after they've told their story and have nothing left to give you, you toss them in the recycling.

 

For me it's about 2/3 "because I buy more than I drink" and 1/3 "gets better with time". But I'm working to actively shift that ratio by drinking down what I don't want to age and only buying stuff I do want to age.

 

Why do I cellar?

Ambition > Liver

 

Because it seems cool to do at first. Then (hopefully) you wise up and realize it's hardly ever worth it.

 

I'm 90% #1 and 10% #2.

I'm the exact opposite of you. For me it's lots of barleywines and lambics.

 

I would say that 90% of my cellar is simply me buying too much beer and completely back logged on drinking it. and 10% is just me wondering how a beer will evolve. Because let's face it, aging rarely makes it "better"

 

I would say honestly that I started cellaring because I wanted to be able to give back and share with friends who have hooked me up with some great stuff in the past. If I can give or share some beer they may have never had or that they've wanted to try, it's like Christmas to me. I really enjoy being able to surprise friends with some rare brews and be the giver instead of the receiver of some great beer.

 

I'm almost 100% #2
I like to be able to enjoy when I want, not when the brewer releases it

 

Because we want to pretend it has the same cache as wine.

 

'cause chicks dig a stocked cellar.

 

Because we like to show off to our friends and brag about all the cool beer we have.

 

i purchase way more than i consume...if i were to drink a bomber every night that was in my cellar, i would probably run out of bombers in mid july. i continue to trade for them, buy them and cellar them. i like seeing how a beer does side by side with aged vs fresh....

i also save some of my special beers for friends and family to pop open at the holidays or when we get around to share a beer....many of my family and friends cannot ride with me to releases and to the cigar city when they release a special beer.

 

buy more than i drink

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some beers get better demonstrably (e.g. bigfoot, olde school)

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simple curiosity ("i wonder what age/oxidation/etc does to THIS beer?")

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don't know

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i never expect a great beer to hold up though. beer almost always changes. if i taste a beer and it's world class, i want to kill every bottle of it ASAP.

 

I fall into the category of waiting to share rare/one time/hard to get beer. I save it for a nice occasion.

 

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