Observations from two wine cellars

Cool bottle to have. As for taste it's probably bland at this point. Never know.

 

appreciate the sharing. SOmetimes we need some perspective to remember how affordable beer is.

 

Certain sours and lambics tend to stretch the definition of "affordable" in my opinion. It's funny to me because I've always found those styles to be similar to wine somehow anyway.

 

I've tried cellaring wine and beer before. I can never get past about 3 months.

 

Some people complain beer is expensive. Then I stop in at Champane's by my house, a huge beer and wine retailer. I cringe at the "expensive" $18 bottles of Belgian beers, but then walk down the aisle and see $180 bottles of wine, and a little further is a cage with $1800 bottles of wine.

 

A few of the guys on the wine board I frequent are beer collectors (including my really good friend who posts on here). He always makes fun of me because of I'm always complaining about the price of certain beer. I get equal joy out of both hobbies, but the price difference on money spent on wine and money spent on beer is very drastic. There are plenty of subtle differences between wine collecting and beer collecting.

1) Never wait in line for wine. Almost everything, even if first come first serve, is done online/phone.
2) People rarely trade wine. On wineberserkers.com we have a whole forum dedicated to selling/buying wine, the opposite of BA where it's to facilitate trading beer.
3) Wine "bottle shares" (offlines) almost always involve some type of sitdown dinner.
4) bubble wrap v. styrofoam containers for shipping beer/wine respectively.
5) most importantly price. Sure there are plenty of wines cheaper than $18-30 beers, but most people aren't collecting those. You'll see many different levels of wine collectors, some that collect primarily in the $30-100 range, some that collect only in the 3 digit range and some that collect mostly in high 3 digit , 4-5 digit range for single bottles. Like the OP's friends, I've met multiple collectors with 10,000+ bottles of wine that go for thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars. Wine collecting is seriously crazy stuff.

 

Fortunately for us, drinking world class beers can be done without breaking $10 a six pack.

 

Agreed. If I was into wine or whisky or bourbon to the level I'm into beer I'd be several hundred thousand dollars in debt right now.

 

Another difference is that wine is an investment that increases in value.

 

I can get ingredients to make my own beer that could be as good as any made by any brewery in the world. Conversely, I cannot get, ever, for any price, grapes to produce wine comparable to the world's best, no matter my level of skill.

I believe it is proper and logical to complain that some breweries charge as exorbitantly as they do, and the comparison to wine we use to make ourselves feel better about it is self delusion of a masochistic variety. I hope we never get a pic of beer cellars comparable in cost per bottle to wine.

 

Just wait until you see the Bourbon County 2016 prices.

 

And the even greater number of new people in lines to get it.

 

The 5 figure bottles of scotch always amaze me.

 

As a wine collector new to this board, I have jumped fully into the craft beer craze over the past few months - especially the aged in barrel ones. My curiousity about the length of time they can be cellared is one of the things I am looking into. I am also exploring the various taste profiles of the different types of hops that are out there. Did a dinner with some of the Pipeworks Ninja's - really interesting.
I buy my wine both as an investment and for my own enjoyment. I have been approaching beer the same way that I first started in wine over 15 years ago - full throttle and eager to learn, and find my cellar filling up quickly with Bombers! So quickly, I haven't even been able to try some of them yet.
Definitely cheaper to get into then wine, a good thing, but not so much as an investment - limited production and doesn't last as long. More fun to drink and share with friends. Unlike wine, where, as mentioned above, most collecting is done online and direct with the wineries, I find myself at a few of my local stores each week seeing what new beers have come in.
I do think that there is something to be said about beer pairing and dinners - very similiar to wine pairing. We did the PW Ninja's: Citra, Simcoe, and Marilime. The Marilime was great for the apps, the Citra fell in with the mid-course, and the Simcoe was the closer with the entree. The weights of the beers had a lot to say in where they fell in. The Simcoe was heavier and more like a fine scotch, the Citra with it's Peach flavors and mid weight matched well with the Pork Belly, and the Marilime with it's light weight mouth feel and lime elements paired well with the oysters.
Looking forward to continued enjoyment and learning from these forums!

 

The fact that some things are more expensive than high-priced beers doesn't mean that said beers aren't actually expensive.

 

Any additional pics of the cellars? Would love to see more, especially the second one. cheers and thanks for sharing!

 

I am relatively similar in that I was always into wine (but never for investment, always just to drink) and I will say the big driver I have always noticed is that the really high end wines are driven hugely by investment buyers - I have never even considered buying the top wines because the prices are so inflated by speculators and the status attached.
I am starting to see beer head that way, and I am interested in seeing what happens

 

Because that part when I said I cringe at the $18 bottle of beer means that I actually think it's a fantastic deal!

 

I better post an ISO: now then