Buying beer store "aged" beers.

Bought a 2010 Jolly Pumpkin, Lucierga (sp), hope it ages okay.

 

I have bought several two or three year old bottles at liquor stores and have yet to be dissapointed. I take into consideration light exposure and temp when deciding to purchase and assume the conditions I find the beer in are the same or at least similar to the conditions they have been in. I have mostly purchased belgian beers such as pannepot and oerbier reserva as well as plenty of Abbaye St Bon Chien bottles

 

Anything outside of IPAs/DIPAs I'd buy "store aged" in a heartbeat.

 

If they haven't been in the sun, then go get those suckers! The 09 WWS I had on tap a few months back was incredible, heard the 08 is peaking right now too.

 

Not worth it.

 

I love finding old beer on the shelves. Just be aware that these haven't been "cellared". Chances are they have been at room temp and exposed to a lot of light so you're taking a chance. I've been burned once or twice. Note to self: only buy green bottles if you see them come out of the box.

 

Just recently picked up what I think is an 07 or earlier Old Ruffian, it still has the old label. For 7 bucks, figured it was worth a shot.

 

I just found a couple of 2009 Old Guardian on the shelves of a Binnys in Chicago. Whats up with Stone being kept for years at liquor stores? I'd have loved to find that Old Ruffian

 

It's weird because I've been in that liquor store a good amount of times and this was the first time I saw this bottle. Not sure how it got there. Maybe magic!

 

I just broke out some almost two year old ST Gemini and FFF Dreadnaught to compare to some fresh stuff. I did this with a big group of people who are NOT sophisticated beer drinkers and most are not the type to ever order an IPA by themselves.

Every single person thought the older versions were SIGNIFICANTLY worse and nearing the realm of being undrinkable. So my guess is that it would be crap. The ones we had were slightly less carbonated and just a mess of caramel with some underlying bitterness that wasn't like a hop-pleasing bitter.

btw... this argument comes up a lot on here. People like to say an aged IIPA is the same thing as a barleywine. To each their own, but my experience just two days ago was really poor with aged IIPA.

 

This makes it sound like it was just one big experiment and you sat back and didn't partake.

"Aren't you going to enjoy any of this beer? It's your party after all."
"Back off, man. I'm a scientist."

 

Haha that's not far off. I had done this before for myself (though with 1 year aged) so I knew the result. I did this as part of a sort of "education" event for a bunch of friends who want to learn more about beer. Brought out some verticals, aged IPAs, regular vs. barrel aged versions, sours, etc.

 

Shawan? I'm 85% sure its from the beer managers personal stash and they tend to price most of those bottles very fairly, I got an '08 WWS for $12 2 weeks ago. They are selling an '09 Black OPS for $50 though, thats a little insane.

 

I think we talked about this not that long ago.

I've bought a few that i'm guessing were just left on the shelf, 2011 Bigfoot and 2011 Stone Belgo Anise IRS. Luckly the shelf they were on was in the back of the store, away from all the windows. I haven't tried either of them, so I can't comment.

Personally, I wouldn't of bought them or anything else, that wasn't known for aging well. However it turns out, it was a small gamble in the grand scheme. I've drain poured more than what these two were worth.

 

I would give bottles like this a shot.

 

It's a no-brainer for the 2008 DFH WWS.

I spent the the second half of 2010 and the first half of 2011 buying vintage beer from every place I could find it. Does every beer work out - nope. But I did manage to score things like:

2005-08 DFH WWS
1998 & 1999 Victory Old Horizontal
2006 Allagash Curieux
2004 Avery Beast
2002-04 Brooklyn Monster
2000 Chimay
2004 Cantillon Kriek
2000 Cantillon Bruoscella
2000 & 2004 De Dolle Dulle Teve
2005 De Dolle Oerbier Reserva
2003 & 2005 De Dolle Stille Nacht
2006 DFH 120 Minute
2004 DFH Olde School
2008 Great Divide Old Ruffian
2002 Hanssens Oude Gueuze magnum
2005 Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza
1997 JW Lees Harvest Ale
2000 Liefman's Goudenband
2004 Thomas Hardys Ale
2002 Rogue Old Crustacean
2007 Stone Old Guardian
2002 North Coast Old Stock
2002 Victory Storm King
2005 Weyerbacher Prophecy
2001 Ramstein Winter Wheat

And, common sense to look at where the beer is being stored is important as well. A case of 2005 Stille Nacht that's been living on top of a hot refrigerator isn't something you'd likely want to bring home.