Achel Extra bottle dating

Discussion in 'Cellaring / Aging Beer' started by daryk77, May 29, 2012.

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  1. daryk77

    daryk77 Pundit (925) Jun 16, 2005 District of Columbia

    So just helped out a friend with a few things and he pulled out a 750ml bottle of Achel Extra as a thank you. Brought the bottle home and looks like it has a best by date of Oct of 2011. Question is what date was this beer brewed (or bottled) on? Just trying to figure out how old this sucker is, looks like it has seen a couple of years anyway.
     
  2. allouez86

    allouez86 Pundit (999) Jan 24, 2009 Wisconsin

    I don't have any experience with achel, but a lot of Belgian brews have a bottling date of five years prior to the best by date. I know Rocheffort and St bernardus do this. Again, no experience with Achel but wouldn't be surprised if this is what they did.
     
  3. daryk77

    daryk77 Pundit (925) Jun 16, 2005 District of Columbia

    That is kinda what I was thinking. I was looking at some of the older reviews on BA, one reviewer speculates ~4 years and some bottles are reviewed around 4 years before the best by date. So around 5 years is probably a good guess based on this and the other Trappist beers best by dating.
     
  4. allouez86

    allouez86 Pundit (999) Jan 24, 2009 Wisconsin

    Upon further research, I haven't been able to find out exactly how achel does it. With that being said, I suggest holding on to it for 50ish years. At that point, no one will care if it's 48 or 53 years old. It will just be awesome regardless that you'd have a beer that old :wink: also, let me know how it tastes when you open it, I'm considering picking upmarket few next time I'm out.
     
  5. daryk77

    daryk77 Pundit (925) Jun 16, 2005 District of Columbia

    it has been surprisingly hard to get info on Achel compared to the other Trappist breweries. After consulting the book, brew like a monk, it looks like the head brewer from Rochefort, brother Antoine, wrote the recipe for Achel bruin and extra. I would think he would have a similar bottle dating. I also wrote the abdij an email in my rusty Dutch asking about the bottle dating, no word back yet.

    Will definitely post when I crack it, been years since I have had an Achel beer. See how long I can hold out.
     
  6. DonDonson

    DonDonson Crusader (423) Dec 5, 2006 Wisconsin

    I have a bottle that has a best by 04/2010, so this would mean a bottled on date of 2005 possibly? But if you do get any feedback I woulad appreciate to hear the feedback.
     
  7. daryk77

    daryk77 Pundit (925) Jun 16, 2005 District of Columbia

    No feedback yet, I am guessing they really don't care about bottle dating questions at the abdij.

    There is a review from March of 2012 for a bottle with a best by date of 2009 that seems to have faired pretty well, so this beer seems to be aging nicely (as expected.) Bodes well for your 2010 and my 2011.

    anyone else had experience aging this beer and how it fairs?
     
  8. BearsOnAcid

    BearsOnAcid Pooh-Bah (2,239) Mar 17, 2009 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    Bottle dating is marked 2 years from bottling. I emailed them once about some old bottles I had that were imported before their contract with Shelton. I opened one bottled in '09 last week that was fantastic. 2-3 years seems to be the sweet spot.
     
  9. allouez86

    allouez86 Pundit (999) Jan 24, 2009 Wisconsin

    I was at the store today and checked a bottle and it looked like it said 2017 for a best by which would leave me to believe it was bottled this year. But bearsonacid heard from the source so I can't really argue against that.
     
  10. BearsOnAcid

    BearsOnAcid Pooh-Bah (2,239) Mar 17, 2009 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    That's weird. Maybe they changed or their label machine messed up. I bought my '09 from a freshly arrived case and it was notched at 2011 so there's also that.

    Do you remember how many years were printed on the label and what order 2017 fell in?
     
  11. allouez86

    allouez86 Pundit (999) Jan 24, 2009 Wisconsin

    I want to say that it had a date similar to a rochefort or abt 12 dd/mm/yyyy. I should've studied it better as this thread was in mind when I was looking at it. My memory tells me that it was something like 07/06/2017. Next time I'm there I'll double check. Or any of you fellas should take speak next time you're out. I definitely could've misread, so a second opinion would be great.
     
  12. daryk77

    daryk77 Pundit (925) Jun 16, 2005 District of Columbia

    Well the mystery continues. It seems like two years would be a short time considering the other best by dates with other Trappist breweries, but again, if they confirmed it I would think that would be accurate.

    BearsOnAcid, how old were the bottles you were asking about when you emailed them? Maybe they changed their dating system with the new labels? It doesn't seem like they are going to get back to me....
     
  13. BearsOnAcid

    BearsOnAcid Pooh-Bah (2,239) Mar 17, 2009 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    The 8° bottles I had were marked best before 2004 which means they were bottled in 2002. Obviously, it can't be much before that since they didn't start releasing it until 2001, according to Wikipedia.

    The whole thing is sort of weird because they had D&V International stickers on them instead of Shelton Bros. I asked about the sticker and they said they've been contracted with Shelton since 2001 and didn't comment any further. They could've been mistaken about that date.

    Maybe they've recently started marking their dates out further in-line with other Trappist breweries since I emailed them, which was mid-2010.
     
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