A Cellar Party!

Maybe a Cellarvember in addition to Cellaruary would help.

i am also available to help thin out cellars.

 

Actually, it wouldn't be a bad idea at all. The shares I've been to were usually light on food and heavy on imperial stouts and strong ales.

Yeah, we're not very good party planners.

 

Nothing here can compare to the cheeses available to!you . I know.

 

Cellarvember
DeCellarember
Cellaruary can be both in Jan and Feb

Look we have a whole Cellar Season!

 

If you invite a bunch of fellow beer cellar-ers to come over, and everyone brings the same amount of beer to the party, the net depletion of cellared beer would be zero compared to each person drinking their own stash by themselves. Sure, it could be fun and everyone would have a chance to try more different beers, but mathematically I don’t see how this would help eliminate more cellared beer than each person drinking the same quantity at the same pace on their own.

Now, if one person had a cellar party where they opened their cellar (or, in my case, beer fridge in garage) to a bunch of friends, then you could pretty quickly deplete several bottles (depending on how many people are invited etc.). I’ve considered doing something like this, and if I go camping with buddies I always bring extra beer from my cellar and share with anyone interested, but most of my friends don’t enjoy the kinds of beers that can be laid down for years. So my effort to drink down my cellar (which still has a couple bottles dating back to 2010 or 2011) remains a solo endeavor. Which is fine with me because our house is a mess.

 

EVERY season is cellar season!
(That reminds me: I've got some Stone Smoked Porter and Boulevard Harvest Dance I've been meaning to get to. That stuff ain't gonna keep forever. )

 

This is why I'd be perfectly happy with bringing the beer (plus enough wine and bourbon to pick up the slack) and just let everyone else bring food.

Apropos of nothing, I can imagine my relatives sorting through my hoard after I shuffle off this mortal coil and thinking, 'Wow, he must have been a lush!" Well, no, he wasn't. That's why he left all that stuff in the first place.

 

Right, it’s the beer equivalent of your eyes being bigger than your stomach. Some of these really old bottles are definitely not improving at this point. If I could talk to my 10-years-ago self I’d tell him to slow down, they’ll keep making more beer.

 

The beer-drinking dudes don't care about the mess - it's the wives that do!

 

In my defense, in my case the mess isn’t entirely my fault. And my wife would agree with this statement. Between the two of us I’m actually more organized and tidy, whereas my wife doesn’t mind clutter but also likes things sanitary. (I argue that you can’t get things “deep clean” without first dealing with the clutter, but that’s an entirely different matter I won’t get into.) Add to the mix a 16-year-old daughter, all of us very busy and both my wife and me working from home full time (plus a dog), and it’s all we can do to keep the sink from filling up with dirty dishes let alone keeping things organized, put away, etc. The last time this house was truly clean was about 11 years ago when we moved in. It’s a bit of a sore spot for both of us, to be sure.

 

Regularly. We call them Cellar Dives. I've pretty much stopped buying cellarable beers, and I'm down to about 6 milk crates worth of beer. A couple of my friends have whole separate rooms in their actual cellars just for their beer. Shelves and shelves of beer. We'll try to exorcise some of the Barleywine bottles next weekend.

 

This is how I'm imagining your arrival: