Aged Sours

It better taste Funky, thats what you're buying.

 

Im not an authority but I think the majority of wild ales are aged to let the yeast get sufficiently weird, and really the more funk the better with that style of beer IMO.

 

Sours/wilds/lambics/anything with non-Sacchro yeast will generally only intensify in flavor, meaning funkier, more sour, etc. Le Terroir, being a dry-hopped sour, will lose that hoppiness obviously, and since hops are a preservative possibly will not change as quickly as other sours, but it will still likely have changed for the better.

 

Le terror is also pasteurized and not bottle conditioned so flavor stability should be pretty good. Other than the aforementioned hoppy aromas.

 

It's pasteurized, so don't expect it to have gotten any more sour or funky.

 

Having had it both aged and fresh, I prefer fresh. Not a huge difference tho due to the pasteurization. Don't expect any more "funk". I prefer the fresh hop presence in Le Terroir. That's part of the reason it is one of my fav sours

 

Fresh is much better. There's a shop next to me that still has bottles at that mistake 8.99 price and I get one every now and then. The hops add a lot to the beer and it's definitely better fresh. Also as someone mentioned it's pasteurised so the bugs aren't going to benefit from aging. It's still a good sour for ~$9 regardless of how old.

 

Le Terroir holds up very well in my opinion. I still buy the '14 every time I see it.

On a side note, does anyone have any idea what time of year Le Terroir is released? The NB website does not say, and I'm wondering when I should start getting excited for '15.

 

The last two years they released it in the early fall. Prior to that it was last made about 6 years ago and I'm not sure when it was released.

 

For Le Terroir / Eternal Sunshine / Hop Bu / dry-hopped sours? Go for fresh as possible. The backbone beer isn't going to fall off majorly unless stored improperly, but hops are going to fade. Le Terroir is a bit unique in being pasteurized, so as has been said, you probably won't notice any growth in funk. The others listed are, to my knowledge, bottled with microflora, so you may lose dry hop character in exchange for increased complexity. Probably worth trying with some age, but likely not the brewer's intention unless stated.

For "traditional" sours (ie non-pasteurized, not solely soured in kettle, usually multiple microflora): age is a fine thing. Depends on what you're looking for. You're not necessarily going to get a whole new farmhouse in there or see the pH drop to some extreme, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. You'll likely get subtle growth from the non-sacch yeast which may balance the acidity more. If fruited or such, you may see a drop off there depending on the original profile and type of fruit. That said, it's not like a well aged LPK or Fou Foune is going to be scoffed at, and it'd probably be a delightful new experience.

For kettle soured beers, I've seen some debate and I won't claim super knowledge on it, but since you're primarily using one culture (lacto) then boiling off any life, you'll see some drop with time but likely more to do with storage and vessel. There's a thread on aging Westbrook Gose around here with some more info on that. I suppose you could add a strain of something new at bottling, but then I don't know why you'd do the kettle sour instead of souring before yeast pitch (just for better turnover of your kettle and since you'd be introducing cultures outside the kettle anyway).

Hope this helps a bit!