Are verticals really worth it?

I think you're correct, but many still believe that beer gets better with aging. Aging impacts different ingredients in different ways. If one flavor is muted by aging it will likely enhance others, and if one taste intensifies it mutes others. Sometimes the changes are favorable to individual tastes, but typically any changes that happen with aging make the beer not as intended by the brewer.

I like what 6-12 months aging does for Prairie Pirate Bomb and Pirate Noir, but don't like what it does to KBS and BA Fidy. I've had year-old FBS gain a green pepper taste. And lighter beers such as Lagers just get dumped when too old. To each their own - but doubt I'll ever get into verticals. Most beers are better fresh, tasting as intended by the brewer who knows a hell of a lot more than I do about their beer.

 

I feel like you've answered your own question. "Worth it" is in the eye of the beholder and going to be case-by-case though.

 

They’re worth it if you don’t take it too seriously. Old heads buying cases of Bigfoot or anchor Christmas are a good example. It’s fun and it really doesn't cost too much money. Imagine trying to maintain a vertical library of a good whiskey or ...shudder... a fine wine?
Beer is cheap and you can cheaply see the effects of aging on a consistent product with a vertical.

 

What about those brewers who hold vertical tastings themselves?

 

...or encourages folks to age them such as the label on BCBS. Good point. I suppose it increases sales though, getting folks to stash some each year. And if the beer sucks after a few years it likely won't impact sales much.

 

It depends on the beer

 

It's worth it if your interest in beer goes beyond merely drinking it. Just like hanging around here reading other's thoughts on beer is worth it.

 

I tend to drink a helluva lot of beer fresh so when I get down to my last bottle or can of said year/style, I do tend to save it for a rainy day. A rainy day being an eventual fridge cleansing vertical. I basically set it and forget it. Ie I forget about them.

Now I've saved some bottles for 5 plus years only for it to not really be worth it. Like once a month I wondered how it was aging. Heck some aren't quite worth aging more than a couple months. I've never had a vertical where the oldest beer just blew the others away.


To answer your question. No I don't think verticals are worth it if you are building up a collection. But if you can save a few bottles, it is a fun experience. I hope that makes sense.

I have a bottle left of 15/16/17 kbs for an eventual night of vertical drinking. I have two years worth of ba 1050 and regular 1050. I'm not really building up any expectations. I think that's key.

 

I had some 2014 ten fidy on tap last year that was pretty good, hope yours works out for you.

 

Are verticals worth it? Well, I don't really do "verticals" (meaning tasting several years of a cellar beer side by side).

However, as a matter of curiosity, I did start a "cellar" of certain beers. Of those I have sampled so far, some have been really good, some good, but probably not worth the trouble, and one that apparently declined (if memory serves). None, though, became gawd-awful, and some I haven't tried yet.

My motivation is experimental curiosity, so even those that declined were a success!

 

All of your points about variability are absolutely true.

I have not done a ton of verticals, but my reasons are that they’re educational, helped me understand the sweet spot for certain beers, it’s just fun to experiment, I’m a hoarder and I like collecting things.

The only verticals I’m currently intentionally
building are Tilquin Gueuze and Orval.

Some happen by accident too.

 

I've only done a few verticals, and they have only been for two year*s worth (if that counts as a vertical). I learned what I needed to know about aging those specific beers from those experiments. To me, that's all a vertical is - an educational experience.

 

I do a lot of verticals (both beer and wine).

The goal isn’t to find the “sweet spot”

The joy is in seeing how things change, evolve, mature over time.

Older isn’t always better. But it’s usually interesting.

 

Lucked out on a Big Foot vertical earlier this year, they had 2012 thru 2018. It was great. The best thing is to just see how the beer changes and what "you" perceive the sweet spot to be. Everyone likes things different, and attending one of these just reinforces that. I really enjoyed that tasting and it sent me on a tear to buy every barley wine I could get my hands on

 

IMO very few beers improve when aged. The ones that do improve peak between1 and 2 years,

 

If a brewer were meticulous about their consistency, a vertical could demonstrate the effects of aging. Unfortunately many beers aren't that consistent even across batches in one year.

 

I've found that BA Fidy does not age well, starting to fall off at 6 months. I bought 10+ cans of 2015, and only recently finished them off. When fresh, BA Fidy really smacks you in the face - in the nicest possible way. Aging didn't do my 2015 examples any favor. The coffee fell off fast, but even the bourbon seemed less intense later on.

 

You're missing the part about having fun with beer.

Verticals are fun just to see how aging and beers vary year to year. It's not a clinical-sterile scientific process with all compounding variables removed. It's just a fun chance to drink and compare lots of good beer made across a span of years.

 

Well that's not very encouraging. From this year and last I probably have 8 or so stovepipes of BA Ten Fidy sitting downstairs. I did pull out one from last year and was still pretty astounded by it, but that particular can lived in the back of the fridge since its purchase.

Overall, I'm finding I really need to tone things down and stop aging so many beers.