Celebration ale verticals?

Discussion in 'Pacific' started by RedMedicine, Dec 15, 2013.

Tags:
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. RedMedicine

    RedMedicine Initiate (0) Jun 3, 2005 Oregon

    Have seen this several times around town. Most recently at Woodsman Tavern, but most years at Apex. Can someone explain the thought process of having seven years of a 6.8% IPA on tap? Am I missing something?
     
    #1 RedMedicine, Dec 15, 2013
  2. Spikester

    Spikester Pooh-Bah (2,027) Jul 14, 2007 Oregon
    Pooh-Bah

    I can see Celebration making it for one year but that is about it for me. After all it is just an IPA. I can't imagine it would be very good after the first year.
     
    #2 Spikester, Dec 15, 2013
  3. oregonskibum

    oregonskibum Initiate (0) Mar 14, 2009 Oregon

    Celebration is a fairly malt forward beer and does not rely on hops as a single flavor dimension (unlike beers like PtE). Because of that, the drop off in flavor is less pronounced. If stored properly, I think Celebration will hold for 4-5 years and still taste good. The 2010, for example, still tastes great. Does it have the fresh hop aroma of a new Celebration? Of course not. But that's not to say it's not a good beer.

    Why bother aging Celebration? Well, why bother drinking beer at all in the 21st century? We have clean water easily available. And beer/alcohol is a poison to our systems, leads to health problems, and risky behavior (duii, for example). But we do because we can.
     
    #3 oregonskibum, Dec 15, 2013
  4. HuskyinPDX

    HuskyinPDX Initiate (0) Jan 23, 2011 Washington

    ...and babies!
     
    #4 HuskyinPDX, Dec 15, 2013
  5. eatabagofbooger

    eatabagofbooger Initiate (0) Mar 27, 2009 Oregon

    Aging is a strange process. There are general rules (dark is better than light, high abv better than low abv, malt forward better than hop forward, etc), but there are always beers that buck these trends. I can name plenty of beers that "should" have aged well, but tasted awful after a mere few months, while some beers should age poorly wind up quite tasty with a few years or more. I wouldn't say aged celebration is better than fresh, but it is on par and a totally different beast. I've had a few verts over the years and have always been pleasantly surprised by the results.
     
    #5 eatabagofbooger, Dec 15, 2013
    muchloveforhops3 likes this.
  6. John_M

    John_M Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,849) Oct 25, 2003 Washington
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Shrug. I don't know what the thinking is behind aging a beer like Celebration, but it is interesting to try the different years side by side.... primarily because unlike most IPA's I drink, Celebration is still pretty tasty and fairly hop forward, even after several years of aging. Is it better after a few year's aging? I would say no, but that probably depends on individual taste.

    Based on previous experiences with the beer at Apex, I'm assuming that most folks aren't all that interested in trying aged celebration. The older versions were slow movers there in the past, and I think were available for a number of weeks afte they were tapped. Probably didn't help that at least at the the time, you couldn't purchase flights of the different vintages, and so had to purchase full pours (in this case pints I believe) of whatever year you were interested in.
     
    #6 John_M, Dec 16, 2013
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2013
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.