Advice for a Newbie

Most will say you shouldn't let the Baptist go too long because the coffee will fade.

 

Have you had any of them before?

 

I just had a Big Bad Baptist that was six months old. It was wonderful.

 

the coffee will fade on the BBB but that doesnt mean it will be a bad beer. plus since there is so much coffee in BBB i think it would take a long time to fade. with BBB id say drink it fresh and then try to get more to age.

 

honestly im not sure if you would see much difference in BBB after 6 months but that depends and how its cellared. BBB is pretty coffee heavy, i had some batch 7 recently and it was just like i remember fresh but it was kept refrigerated most of the time. im really interested to try one after 2+ years.

 

Tokyo* I'm not sure, but I really liked it somewhat fresh. Aging one now I think is from 2012. It'll go a long way I'm sure. Much like Meph from Avery

 

I hope I'm not hijacking your thread here, but I'm a newbie, too, and I couldn't find where to place this post.

If I'm looking to start a collection, what do I need to know? Are the requirements just "dark, dry place"? I'm currently huge into IPAs. Are there specific requirements to store them? How long can they be stored?

I was just about to pull the trigger on a dedicated beverage fridge, but the idea of storing them over time sounds intriguing, too. Any and all advice is appreciated.

 

Also new on the scene, so if I give some wrong advice, I hope someone corrects my mistakes.

Anyway, from what I've researched, the place you're storing beer should be dark, and cool, with very little temperature fluctuation. I'm not entirely sure why the fluctuation is so important, but the "small fluctuations in temperature" requirement for a cellar has been posted everywhere I've looked in my research. I've read that a cheap way to age beers is to do it in a closet in the center of your home, where temperature probably fluctuates the least. I don't think the space has to be damp, since most beers are capped, and those exceptions that are corked are also caged, and should probably be aged like a wine bottle, on its side.

You should never store IPAs. The hop flavor, which is what is the most forward flavor in an IPA, drops off very fast, so IPAs should be consumed as fast as possible. That is why everyone searches for the freshest bottle dates for IPAs, but not really so much for other beers.

Keeping beers in the fridge will slow down the aging process, but not halt it entirely. So, if you're a big fan of IPAs, a dedicated beverage fridge might be a good idea, so that you can keep your IPAs cold, and delay the aging of them until you get around to drinking them.

 

I'll post this here as well, since there's another thread similar to this.

As far as storing goes yes, you want a dark, dry place without much temperature fluctuation. If you can keep it between 45 - 60 degrees, that would be ideal. I currently have a wine cooler that's tinted and stays at 55 degrees.
As slevy221 said, keep them stored upright.

You can read more about storage on this page:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/101/store/

 

Other things to note:

- Bottle conditioned beers are well suited to aging, as they will develop.
- Pasteurized beers do not offer much of any reason to age.

There is no ABV rule or style rule. It's more about style but also depends largely beer-to-beer. For example, Cantillons with 5% ABV will develop wonderfully for 20 years.

Read this forum for a while, as there are TONS of threads about how long to age what. This forum tends to repeat itself every week. That's part of it. But more important than that, if you're thinking of aging a beer, drink it and pick out what you like or don't like. You will lose some flavours over time while others will become more prominent. You'll learn which ones are which (though it is always a little bit of a guessing game), or you can easily find out through reading this forum