A few years sitting on a store shelf?

I think you have a good shot at being OK. Stores usually have a constant temp, which is good. With the store temp is higher than cellaring temp, the aging process was accelerated, but could be preferable. Since this beer comes in a box, you don't have to worry about light-struck. So, as long as those beers weren't stored in a hot back room at some point, they should be fine.

I say good find!

 

I've always wondered this same thing. I recently bought a 4 pack of st bernardus abt 12. The pack was bottled 2 years ago. What do you guys think?

 

I love buying old, dusty bottles of stouts/barleywines/etc off store shelves. Whose got the resources for proper cellaring anyways?

 

I bought a Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Black Barleywine in 2013. That was bottled in 2010. It was on a shelf in a well lit store of ~70 F for 3 years, and it was corked and caged. It was a tremendously delicious beer.

 

So seems like you guys don't care much about the beers sitting on shelves and not being stored properly

I just cracked the st bernardus and it tastes pretty damn good! Sat on the shelves for 2 years lol!

 

Unless you're in it for the long haul (5+ years), slightly higher (or lower if refrigerated) than cellar temperatures and normal store lighting shouldn't do much, if anything, to hurt the beer.

Like CowsandBeer, I love buying certain shelf-cellared beers and I'd add brett beers, BSDA/Quads/dubbels, and lambics/wilds to that list.

 

I bought some Delirium Nocturnum from a place bottled in 2011. I bought from cooler.. Its fantastic. Gonna see what 6 months at cellar temps will do..

 

I've had good luck with buying older stuff. I've never seen a problem with any beer I've bought being aged in the store.

 

I recently bought some 2008 Monster sitting on ashelf for 7 years and the beer is still tasty

 

So if you all are saying that it's no big deal then my question is...

Why hasn't the light from the store for YEARS affected these bottles??

 

Thanks TankerSteve. Can anyone else confirm this about store light vs sunlight when it comes to skunking beer?

 

I think this question all depends on the beer, saying that, i think the Fuller's vintage ale would be fine in this scenario.

I guess you would just assume it has an accelerated age on it. Since it was obviously kept above 55 degrees....it might just drink a little older than it actually is.

 

Temperature affects beer more adversely than light. This is especially true when the beer is in amber glass, which negates ~95% of light. Most imported "skunky" beers are that way because of the temperatures experienced in ocean shipping containers, and a little bit because of the green glass that doesn't stop all light.

 

I am not trying to be controversial but the above is contrary to everything I've learned or experienced in the beer world. Please, if you (or anyone) has any information from an expert (which I'm not nor do I purport to be) I'd love to see/hear/read it.

I've tried in excess of 10,000 bottles and I have a lot of beer in three cellars (one a large walk in). I can only tell you that light far more than temperature has affected beers to my knowledge and based on my experience.

Also, simply a story from a personal conversation that I had with now a good friend and an older guy who is one of the most knowledgeable and experienced guys in California and has been a distributor of beer for longer than 35 years and considered one of the most experienced in the industry long before the current craze.....he told me (in about 2007 or 08, although I've known him since the early 80's) that he keeps cases and cases of beer in his garage, some which have been there for several years. He's concluded that they are just fine. (Of course, not the styles that are intentionally meant to be consumed very fresh, such as IPAs and the like) I have found his advice to be sound and I've actually spent three years experimenting with non barrel aged stouts. (I've concluded that there is no reason, at least for me, to age barrel aged stouts - the brewer has already aged it for me!) In any event, for three years I experimented with stouts. I took the same bottles out of the same case. Some went into a 53-54 degree cellar; some went into a cupboard in my kitchen and some went into my garage, high, to get as much heat as possible.

Conclusion based on admittedly a most unscientific experiment: (and, for all you haters this was my experience and observation only; my opinion only and not intended to be advice or the gospel....)

Cellared bottles: pretty much like when released and showing little age or oxidation.

Kitchen cupboard bottles: Some good and some showing signs of heavy oxidation - pretty much what one might expect.

Garage bottles, stored high and subject to more heat: The best! All in all showed wonderfully and were very well received at every tasting. Every bottle opened so far has been really good, none showing damage and none that were bad. I still open one of these bottles from time to time (the last time being about 3 months ago) and they continue to drink wonderfully and, yes, are still in my garage. These bottles show the most "favorable" aspects of aging being well integrated, balanced and with an integrated and pleading mouthfeel and retention of nice flavor profile.

Again, just my nonsensical experiment for myself but I found the results interesting.

All bottles used in the above came from a single full case of bombers of 2008 Stone Russian Imperial Stout, which I concluded was the perfect stout for this experiment, it not being my favorite stout or my least favorite stout and was one that, if nothing else, I knew was well made.

 

The only conclusion you can draw from your experiment is that a beer will age differently at different temperatures and that higher is not necessarily worse. This is backed somewhat by the paper referenced here.

I've had far more beers ruined by oxidation than by skunking (green bottles notwithstanding). In my experience, the primary kind of light you need to worry about is sunlight with other normal lighting having either an undetectable or no effect on a given beer.

 

I'm not disputing any of what you said necessarily. After reading my post again, I think I should clarify/add.

Bottle color/light penetration is the first and foremost cause of "skunked" beer once it has arrived to its destination. Bottles are not generally exposed to light at all once they get into their secondary packaging at the point of origin. Once they reach a store and are broken into their selling packs (6pk's mostly), then they get exposed to light, often for months at a time and in a green or clear bottle. (mostly imports from Europe and Mexico)

However, when beer is in transit, you can attribute most to all "skunky" flavors to the temperature/shipping environment. Ocean containers easily reach the triple digits on boats sitting in the sun during the summer. Not only that, but the containers usually sit in the port while they are processed through customs. Also, keep in mind that freezing and thawing is an issue here as well.

Overall, what I'm saying is that if you get a beer straight from a shipping container at a port, it will basically taste how it does from a store unless the store has set the beer out for a significant amount of time. This is why I say temperature causes most of the negative effects to beer. The easy solution is to keep a lean supply in wholesale and retail and bottle everything in amber. As for cellars, there is no reason your cellar shouldn't be in the dark because cardboard boxes have lids.

 

Good info guys, thanks