Your "aging" collection/method.

Exactly the same situation I'm in. I buy 3 of everything I like ( for 1 and 3 yr aging experiments) plus usually one of anything new, weird or rarely obtainable. I'm up to my leather wrapped sphincter in barley wines, stouts, scotch wee heavies, wilds and quads. Make me stop, lord!

I have a nice "cellar". When we remodeled basement, I put in a large closet for kids toys on the north side of foundation. Once I discovered it was always 55-60 F in there, it was declared " beer and wine" storage. Beside beer, the wife likes old Ports, Scotch and upstate NY Ice Wine ( late harvest grapes: after frost). I don't have the time & liver capacity to work through it in 3 years. Every 6 months I pull stuff that I expect is fading, and put it on the " drink soon" shelf.

The Old Ales and > 12% ABV , and bottle conditioned are the last to be touched. I first drink barreled beers > 1 year old and then those ABV< 12% that are not bottle conditioned. ( lowest ABV first) Then bottle conditioned beers with oldest dates and lowest ABV ( Belgians).

So far this "triage" system has led to great results, but I need to stop reading, learning about,and buying new releases other than a 6 of fresh IPA or a Saison in the summer

 

++++ I also follow this forum closely, contribute and follow others advice about what beer is worth aging, what is peaking, fading, or completely failing. I like old, smooth, micro oxidized , sherry like brews: so aging is a natural for me.

The trick is balancing purchasing versus consumption. I do not want the amount of beer in my cellar to motivate me to imbibe more than I already do. Nor do I want fear of poor outcomes to make me drink a brew before it is time. If I have one bottle that I'm debating about drinking or saving: I search it in this forum for other's past experience and thoughts.

 

I have a lot of beer in my cellar, though in my defense, that does include a bunch of homebrew.
Most of the non-ageable beers don't go down there; I have a "drink shortly" area in the pantry.
Some of the beers down there are ones I didn't really mean to age, I just sort of forgot about them (I don't have the patience to set up a spreadsheet, and everything is in boxes) Some of those age well, some not so much.
I do plan to get some shelving units at some point fairly shortly to organize them, I just haven't gotten around to it.;/

 

I've got two upright freezers temp controlled 50-55 deg. They each have 3 shelves that store upright. The bottom of each I have 1 by across allowing for a mass of bottles semi upright leaning on the compressor bump-out. Various in the doors also.

Most of my stash is barrel aged stouts and old ales. With other various barrel aged ales and wild/sour/lambics. A rule of thumb is if it's wild it has to be over 10%.

I've had very good results using this method.

 

Presumably that was supposed to say "if its not wild"

 

you are correct! My new phone has a very annoying auto correct/auto complete

 

Amen brother.

 

For a long time I just always bought extras of new beers I liked, after a few years I had a couple hundred bottles and my cellaring was turning into hoarding. Over the last year I took up drinking and have destroyed me cellar and got it down under 50 bottles. Beer peaks and isn't meant to be aged forever, after I got over the fact that "if I drink it its gone forever" I had many enjoyable bottles and only regret drinking a couple of them. My advice would be have a date in mind to drink bottles when you start cellaring them, then drink them on that date.

 

"Beer peaks and isn't meant to be aged forever, after I got over the fact that "if I drink it its gone forever" ... agreed!!

I know, and I'm trying to stop. But what if that very rare triple dry hopped imperial peanut butter pumpkin ale aged with cranberries in cinnamon schnapps barrels is NEVER made again....

Nah, Rogue will make it I'm sure

 

reading and learning here great info here

 

I started by cellaring by chance. I always enjoyed good beer and when a craft beer store opened, I joined email list. That was 2012. Well, late that november, I got an email about BCBS. I bought two 4 packs and decided to age some like the bottles say they can be. Slowly after some time, I got more and more. In two years of really trying, Ive built a cellar upto about 80 beers. Some are def mistakes and are being drank when I can. Others, well others have been true joys to taste develop. Im sure I will make more mistakes but so far havent had to pour any down the drain.

As a side note, I still have one BCBS in the cellar and hope to do either a 4 or 5 year verticle. Saving enough to do one every year.