Aging Coffee Beers?

Mellowing them is one way to look at it. Coffee fades to almost nothing after extended cellaring. I'd drink them fresh.

 

If it's stored properly, the coffee in BCBCS holds-up fairly well over time. Personally I like it aged a little less than a year.

EDIT: However, it is intended to be consumed fresh. Laffler has said many times it's a beer that should be consumed within 3 months.

 

If you want to age a coffee beer, don't buy a coffee beer. Buy a regular stout or porter.

 

I'm having this ongoing dilemma in my head. I have enjoyed 1 BCS Coffee the day I bought it. I brought another bottle to a tasting 2 weeks ago (nearly fresh). And just yesterday I found a bottle shop with BCBCS, so I picked one up. I can't decide whether I want to sit on it for awhile, or just enjoy it fresh. It is a wonderful beer fresh. I must say that the first bottle was very strong on the coffee note, however the 2nd bottle (3 months old) was perfect. Not as robust as the fresh bottle, but still very very strong with coffee almost the perfect amount of coffee notes.

3 month old BCBCS > fresh BCBCS; according to my taste buds. I'm just curious where a year old bottle will be rated.


OP: If you have multiple bottles of some of these coffee stouts, open one now and see how you like it. If it too strong with coffee, then try opening one in a couple months to 6 months. See if the flavors are more to your liking, maybe the flavors melded together a bit better. However, eventually the coffee notes will fall off. That doesn't neccesarily mean your coffee stout is going to be a bad beer although.

 

I think it really depends on what you want your coffee stout to taste like. I treat coffee stouts similarly to beers that employ fresh fruit. I drink them fresh. Those fresh additions are the primary draw to me. Hell, they're often in the name of the beer for a reason, they're the feature attraction. At any rate, I just don't find, for the majority of beers, those fresh ingredients don't hold up. If you don't like your coffee to be aggressive, and want it to be more of a sideshow...age it, I guess.

 

Last years espresso oaked yeti still had a TON of coffee when I had it last week.

 

I am some IPAs and DIPAs...nice to meet you.

 

I had first batch Peche Mortel not too long ago and it is still as coffee-ful as a fresh bottle. Pretty awesome stuff.

I'm also sitting on a case of FBS and I plan on aging that one.

I think whether coffee fades quickly or preserves its quality in beer really depends on the beer itself.

 

Just like it's namesake Yeti is an enigma. A riddle wrapped within a riddle, and best aged on oak.

 

I'm hopefully hauling in a decent number of BCBCS bottles this weekend. I've had 2 bottles already and those were drank within 3 months of bottling. But I'm thinking I ought to drink these at 3-6 month intervals.. I believe I like the coffee but as more of a contributor rather than the main show- but its hard to know for sure until I taste a 1-2 year old BCBCS I think.

 

This is an interesting thread. I've picked up some BCBCS too; I guess I'll drink one now and cellar the other just to observe the difference. I was thinking of cellaring both for a while. Seems a lot of people cellar the Bourbon County Stout but hadn't thought about the difference w/ the coffee stout.