Okay, this isn't what you think it is. I'm not talking about barrel aged imperial stouts that improve with age, I'm talking about everyday beers/styles that will still be drinkable past the best by date. My mom lives three hours away, and I don't get up to see her often. I'll buy a six pack when I go up to see her, and I'll have two or three. It might be six months or more before I go up again. If I bought an IPA or pale ale, the remnants of that six pack are generally no longer drinkable. What's a good bet for a beer that won't be awful past the best by date?
Maybe a British-style strong ale or a stronger, Belgian-style ale (Wit, Dubbel, or even Triple). Before I knew more about cellaring (and which styles I preferred fresh) these are the types that seemed to hold up best beyond five or six months. Assuming of course that they were reasonably fresh to begin with.
I've found that Summit Keller Pils holds up really well. At 5.1% you might only have to leave one or two there!
Most Belgian styles will hold up well. I would imagine Doppelbocks or similar malty German style to be fine as well. Of course most traditional sours will be great with age.
Good suggestions above ^^^^. Ive always found that Pils always taste good to me 6 months later as long as refrigerated. I seem to find a random one all the time in the fridge, and they taste fine.
All beers age, some good some not so much (BCBS 2015 comes to mind). It's a gamble, and no is to blame if it goes south after any reasonable period of time. Drink it fresh, it probably comes out every year.
Does anyone have an opinion on how these drekker brain freezes will age? I find myself not being able to keep up with them. But I also find myself not being able to resist buying them. I'm not talking years, more like months.
Fruited kettle sours should be fine for a few months. Fruit may fade over time but not very quickly and not as much with the high rate of fruit used in those beers.
I think it is often brewery specific. Sometimes it seems like Stone’s beers self destruct precisely on the best-by date. I had a Blissful Ignorance from Lupulin with several months on it that tasted great. I also had a Union Jack that wasn’t super fresh taste nice, though not as punchy as fresh. Prairie’s beers seem to hold up real well too (even their IPAs). Otherwise, the suggestion of European beers is a good one, though less so from Germany.
My "Sierra Nevada" comment is really a more generic rec for bottle-conditioned (or can-conditioned) beers--albeit SN is at the top of the game. If you really want to take to the extreme, something like Orval will hold up for many years if you like the style (partly due to the fact they bottle-condition with the oxygen-scavenging brettanomyces).
Just up a few days ago, and I had a couple Schell's Fort Road Helles with best by dates of February. They tasted pretty good. There was also a Farm Girl that had to be at least 8 months old, and that tasted like it hadn't aged at all. So I have two. Going to try the Keller Pils suggestion next.
