How many cellar-ers ...

Whenever I see questions like this I'm always reminded of that scene from Sideways when Giamatti's character ends up drinking his rare wine out of a coffee cup in a fast food restaurant because he was waiting for the perfect time to drink that perfect wine and it never came. In other words, any day is a good day to crack open that beer.

 

The "share it with someone" is the primary concern/motivator for me and those beers make up a decent chunk of my cellar.

 

I often buy beers for the sole purpose to cellar them. I crack em when I want to. Not just for any special occasion. Cracking open an been is fun. Made even better when it is for sharing.

 

I primarily cellar a beer if I know (from experience) or suspect that it will improve; alternatively, I cellar a beer if I know or suspect it will develop some interesting characteristic(s) it can't have when fresh. The number of beers I have put away for specific special occasions is very small. In fact, off the top of my head I can only think of one, Traquair 2020 Ale.

 

I'm new to cellaring, so I'm pretty much just cellaring bottles for verticals right now until I'm able to find a personal 'sweet spot' for the beers I like via experimentation.

 

I've only done this once (Rare), and when I noticed myself doing so, I decided to have a "whale day". Rather than waiting for a special occasion for the beer, I made the beer the basis for a special occasion. Setting a date a couple of weeks in advance to create some anticipation (and invite some friends) can help.

 

I've bought a few to do future verticals with at tastings because it's a lot of fun and really interesting. Every now and again I'll buy an extra bottle or two of something that I know will trade well (now or down the road). Most often, there's just too much I want and I buy too much and the barleywines and big stouts end up in the cellar.

 

Your question is quite typical i feel of a lot of people on this site......something i struggle with all the time. Sometimes if i get a 1 off really special beer im not necessarily cellaring it, but im storing it for a couple of reasons. Sometimes i just want to be able to look at it for 4 months since it took so much money/time to get it. Theres also another aspect of once it being in your possession to hold it in order to even increase the hype more of drinking it. Its all really nerdy and weird stuff....but hey, its fun

 

Your four-year-old is only worth 25$?

 

That's my original intention, saving it for a special occasion or a good bottle share. Then friends come over, you get inebriated and you start sharing your hard to obtain/expensive beer only to see the empty bottles the next day wondering what it tasted like.

I learned off my mistake and I put those certain bottles all the way in the back or buy two, one to share and one to save.

 

Damn. Now I have to get some friends so I can share my goodies with them.

Now taking applications if you live in the MPLS/STP area....

Actually, some of mine are for verticals, a couple simply because they have "Best After" dates on them, and a few just to see what happens.

 

I have too much beer, now, that is awaiting the "perfect time", so I have decided to start digging in and sharing more and more. I've come to the generalization that most beer is best consumed fresh. I have a lot that I have tried first and then put some aside to see what they can accomplish over years of cellaring, but, as for now, a lot my stuff will be seeing the inside of my glass and shared with a few good friends.

 

A friend of mine (we're in MSP area) just cracked 9 solid beers last night from our cellars/ stocks...

-2012 Lift Bridge Commander
-Toppling Goliath Naughty Temple
-2012 Stone RIS
-Evil Twin Biscotti Break


As well as a few others... Some hurt to pull from the closet, but it was worth it for a fantastic night!

 

New (to me) beer is for drinking; it'll last as long as it takes to line up the schedules of the people that I want to share it with. If I buy a case of Oude Geuze, it's there for me to pretend that it doesn't exist for the foreseeable future. There isn't too much I'd want to hold onto for more than a year or two though. I've seen a lot of bottles get worse with age.

 

I just started my cellar collection last year. It's a closet cellar, so I don't really intend on going past two years for most of the stuff anyway. Already I'm finding myself opening up bottles for trivial reasons, things with friends. That being said, I am saving a 2 year-old Westvleteran Extra 8 for an impending career milestone. It should come within a month or two.

 

When I first started keeping beers around it was for that reason... but now I'll open a $30 bottle to drink by myself any day of the week if the mood strikes. I do put some beers aside for a bottleshare just so that I'll have something good to bring, but that's it.

That said it is nice to share some of those beers so I'll try to get a buddy to come help me out. It's not usually hard to get someone to come drink your delicious beer

 

I'd say at least half of my beers fall under your description. Some are probably reaching the point of no return, I need more special occasions to drink them!

 

Thank you. This is exactly what I'm doing and I have like thoughts and conclusions.