Cellaring my first beer (Abyss 2013)

As long as its out of light, and not at a ridiculously high temp, you aren't gonna hurt the beer over a couple months. Yes you can refrigerate. "Long term" is certainly more than a couple months.

 

How warm is your closet? Refrigerating a beer will slow the aging process, but that seems better to me than risking off flavors from it getting too warm. I'd say 50-55 is probably ideal, but you could probably get away with up to 65. Over that, I'd stick it in the fridge. Also, there's no reason not to throw it in the fridge before drinking it. I wouldn't keep it in there too long, though (or else let it warm back up a bit before you drink it). This one drinks best at cellar temp. It ages wonderfully, though, so enjoy!!!

 

Room temperature storage on a beer that big is pretty safe for I would say up to a year easily, provided it's dark and fairly constant temperature. In a 50-60F cellar that beer will last 3+ years before starting to "fall off" depending on your tastebuds.

That's a good one to start cellaring with, enjoy!

 

Closet should be fine. But if you want to age this, you might want to consider keeping it for 2 years or more. But two of everything, that way you can drink one when you want and stash one away for a few years. After a couple of years of doing this, you'll always have a rotating stock of aged beer you can enjoy. Especially with Abyss. I bought 2 2012 Abyss last year and I have no plans on drinking the first one until sometime next year.

 

Oh, this one will handle much much more than a couple of months! I've been lucky enough to be able to do quite a few verticals over the last couple of years. Since there is a lot of batch variation, each vintage ages differently. Here are my impressions, if anyone is curious. No detailed notes, more a brief description of how each one is aging, so you can get an idea of how long these hold up.

2006: still hunting this one down

2007: Absolutely fantastic last November, but this year it lost out to the 2008. Over the hill, but only barely.

2008: Second best last November, easily my favorite vintage this year. At it's prime

2009: (both infected and non last year and this year). Never cared much for this vintage. Oddly, if you just accept it as a totally different beer, the infected bottles are pretty decent.

2010: This was my favorite vintage fresh, and was easily a top vintage in every vertical I had from 2010 through 2012, but seems to have fallen off a bit this year. Still awesome, just slightly less awesome than before

2011: This is a great argument for aging. I thought this was an awful vintage when it first came out, but is drinking beautifully now. I liked this one even better than the 2010 this year.

2012: Didn't care for this one fresh, don't care for it now, but hey, look what happened to 2011!

2013: Probably the best fresh vintage since 2010. I've got high hopes for this one.

 

Just take the plunge and buy a small fridge; set it between 50-55 degress farenhiet. That way you will always have the beer at a steady the temperature and minimal light exposure. Under those conditions you will be able to cellar 3-5 years on that bottle of Abyss! By the way...nice choice of your first bottle to cellar, the Abyss is a fantastic cellar beer.

As a side note: if you love the Abyss fresh.... Why do you want to cellar a bottle? Drink all beer as fresh as possible!

 

I cracked a 2010 tonight, thought it was still phenomenal, though better fresh.

Just picked up a case of 2013. Going to crack one tomorrow at Big Sky, will report back...

 

What did you think? I drank a 2013 on draft on Monday night and I thought it was the best Abyss I've had compared to when I drank a 2011 and 2012 side by side 7 months ago. I'm thinking that fresh is actually better- screw the Drink After dates...

 

There has been a lot of batch variation from year to year with Abyss. Of course, tastes are individual and you might just prefer fresh Abyss to aged, but if your tastes are anything like mine, this is just as likely to be a result of 2013 being a superior batch to the '11 or '12. I have never liked the '12 and think the '11 has only recently come into its own, while the 2013 is my favourite fresh vintage since 2010.