I was pondering a few old bottles and it got me thinking about the prime age for BBA stouts and how that affects their trade value. I try to save most big BBA stouts for a few years and drink them after 3ish years in the bottle. However, I’ve had some beers, the most memorable being ‘14 Vanilla Rye drank in ‘17, that could have used more time. Or maybe I just wasn’t ready for that level of vanilla bomb. My wife made me drink vanilla extract for comparison. Anyways, do you all have a “drink or trade by” date for BBA stouts or other BBA beers? What’s your preferred age to drink them and how old would they have to be before you’re not interested in receiving them?
Really just depends on the brewery, and sometimes luck, as the highest quality processes can still experience flaws or errors. I just had a 6 year old Voodoo bottle that was unbelievably delicious. I also had a 6 month old bottle from a different brewery else that was already way past its prime. It's a crapshoot. The only bottles I really reliably trust in the cellar are lambic, gueuze and wine.
I have 15 or 20 bottles of BCBS dating back to 2014, give or take. I usually would buy 3 or 4, drink 1 or 2 and save the rest. Now I've got a "collection" and am unsure what to do with it. I drink one of the 2019 or 2020 ones this past year and it was fine. Not spoiled, but probably wasn't worth the time/energy I've put into it.
You could fly to WA and do a giant vertical with me. I’ll supply palate cleansing Saisons. And Oysters.
Did you stop drinking entirely? I would drink one every few months. BCBS tends to hold up pretty well, and can be fun to French press something simple in them too if you tire of that (coffee, coconut, etc.).
I always used to buy multiple BCBS base variant and a few other variants pre-pandemic as well as Founders KBS/CBS, Lagunitas Willetized, Avery barrel-aged brews, a few Dogfish Head barrel aged brews and a couple of local brewery barrel aged beers from 2015 & 2018-9 and age them for 4-5-6 years. Anything pre-pandemic (from about 2018 on back) always seemed to age well with not much flavor fadeoff/lack of carbonation nor anything improving too much either. Then around 2019-2020 to today, when I bought & cellared them, all my barrel aged stouts, barleywines, etc. really seemed to drop off in flavor big time after two years, even the old-reliable-standbys like any BCBS, Willetized, KBS, etc. Nowadays, I try to not let anything age past 18-24 months tops regardlesss. It's a crapshoot indeed but more importantly, since a lot of BA brews are now asking an arm & a leg price wise, I'm not paying $25-40 or more for a 16.9oz. bottle only to have it go flat and flavorless in a year and a half or two, let alone rolling the dice on aging it (even properly cellared or refrigerated) for 3 years or more. Especially since all of my 'old-standby-reliables' haven't tasted as barrel-aged to me since....well.....pre-pandemic.
Damn, so you’re telling me big pharma ruined BBA Stouts too?!? Jk. I thought something similar though, but I always just thought it was the novelty. I started trading around 2012/13 and up until ‘18 or so had a lot of fun collecting bottles, aging them, etc. Now I have more fun in sharing beer with the few people who appreciate it, or people who have no idea what the case of sours I share with them are.
I mean, as far as BCBS goes, I've been hearing that. But also been hearing that since 2015. I do think several of the post-2020 bottles have been messy or hot, but some have been great too. It's been over 5 years since the pandemic. Anything bottled then is reaching the end of even its cellar life by now (again, unless it's lambic or wine). Hate to repeat myself, but those bottles from Voodoo I've had recently that blew me away were pandemic releases. So really, I still feel personally it all depends.
No i have not stopped drinking. In the two weeks since I've posted this, I've consumed two of the bottles. Not a lot, but a big deal for a hoarder like me!
They were good. As I suspected, they didn't really benefit from sitting for so long. But for a 6 or 8 year old beer, it was good!
BCBS verticals are one of my favorite bottle shares. We did 2014-2022 once and it was a ton of fun to taste the older beers next to newer.
I still cherish my 10 bottles (out of 36) Pannepot Grande Reserva 2005, still going strong. I really don't know what "past its prime" means.
My personal opinion is 10 years tops for most beers with the exception of lambics, oud bruins and the like I prefer BBL beers with some time under their belts. Often the bourbon flavor is too strong for me when they are young. Not balanced.
This is consistent with my experience as well. I host a stout party at our house every year, and pour verticals mostly of Fremont stuff. Surly Darkness as well. Everything else is a Hodge poge of different stuff. Generally, I've found that 3 to 4 years is the sweet spot for most bba stouts, but there are always exceptions. Fremont Rusty Nail seems to age very well, while regular Bbomb... not so much. It's always interesting to see how the different beers mature with extended aging.
