American wild ale - aging

With a wild ale, your results are as the name implies: wild, as in wildly unpredictable. Aging in General is unpredictable, but with wilds more so.

Drink one now, take detailed notes (mental or otherwise) then compare when you're ready to bring the others out of the cellar. The wilds I have had the patience and discipline to age have tended to be less funky and more tart.

Good luck!

 

Generally they will become more acidic (sour) over time.

 

Depends on the beer. Speaking with some of the bartenders at Toronado SF about the Beat b2 they had on the bottle list, they agreed that Beat actually hits its peak at about a year in terms of acidity, and then starts declining slowly over time, picking up a different character with more citrus/orange peel character. Don't know if this is true since I decided not to pay the $80 to drink the Beat b2, but thought I'd just add that as a counterpoint. I've also heard similar things about the other RR sours.. this seems to be specific mostly to the RR sours, though. Not sure how the other Wild Ales do; it could be highly variable as well.

 

It really depends on what the beer is. Some wild ales will age very well while others are best within a year or two. As @ProudBeerSnob said earlier, results are as the name implies. Some will be great, others not so much.

 

Does wild HAVE to mean unpredictable? Asking, not challenging. I don't know the AWA scene well but my understanding from talking to lambic brewers and purveyors is that some of the makers have a very good idea what they're pitching. It's not spontaneous fermentation, it's just use of uncultured yeast. (Philistine yeast?!) If the, um, infection is with something brett-y, than you might expect lambic-like results, where things get more sour for a couple years and then bed down, round off and grow more complex with less acidity. Again, I'm asking, and hoping to get more experience posting here.