Forums have been very quiet of late so thought I'd post something Lately I've been thinking of simply going through my beer cellar and drainpouring 1/3-1/2 of it. Being honest with myself a lot of these beers will never taste good and I will never want to waste my energy drinking them. It's been a learning process for me and if anything I like to think this has helped deter me from buying even more undrinkable beer in the future. It's an interesting phenomenon how some beers will be bulletproof if aged for 10 years and can even taste better after this time, yet some beers will start to taste disgustingly oxidised after only a couple of years outside of the fridge. I have started to keep more and more heavier beers refrigerated based on the expectation that they simply will not age as well as they have a reputation for. I am now a firm believer that the only beers which should be routinely aged are Belgian lambics/gueuzes, barleywines and a minority of quads/imperial stouts. Imperial stouts, in general, tend to taste much worse after aging. I'm unsure why so many people seem to advocate aging them. Personally I can give shoutouts to: - Murray's AA series - 8 wired imperial stouts - Cantillon Mamouche (!!!) - HopDog SuperBeast series - Hargreaves Hill Phoenix and RIS?? - James Squires Rum Rebellion Porter (lol) For all holding up well/improving/still being interesting with age Anyway, does anyone have any particularly good or bad experiences with aging Australian beer or beer in general? Anyone else want to drainpour half their cellar?
Good thread premise. I suppose when ageing beers there is a few things to consider. Firstly, how are the being stored? To truely cellar things properly, it should be dark, cool (13-15c ideally) and consistent in temperature. I would hazard that the majority of peoples 'cellars' don't fulfil all of these requirements - especially the temperature consistency. Secondly, ageing beer or wine will not make them definitively better, just different. I also find that beers tend to go in peaks and troughs. Worthingtons white shield and orval are great examples of this. You really need to put down multiple bottles of a beer and try it a regular intervals (quarterly, 6 months, yearly) to find when they hit their straps. I had a fullers vintage ale 2013 after 12 months, and it was not tasting great. A second bottle I had just the other day was fantastic. Finally, the brewery in question. If they have a poor packaging process, you're sunk before you even begin. I don't have a proper cellar, so these days I don't bother. A friend of mine does, and some of the beers he's cellared have turned out great. I'm of the opinion that you need to go whole hog or not at all. Beers I've had that cellar well: MPB Imperial Stout, Murray's AA, Orval, Fullers Vintage. Not really much of a list, but then I don't currently cellar anything.
You and me both! We've already essentially discussed this privately, but my interested for the majority of the "scene" has been waning for months and months. I've come to the conclusion that I'd like to only keep around a small variety of Lambic/Geuze, a few select stouts, maybe a few crates of Fantome. Add some whisk(e)y to that and I'll be very happy for a very, very long time. P.S: Your box should've landed today mate! P.P.S: Completely agree on Murray's longevity, AA only improves (in my experience) and Wild Thing doesn't start to go down-hill for at least a few years.
So I'm not the only one feeling this way then. The only thing that keeps me afloat is when DTC holds events such as the one this weekend. Otherwise, it just feels I am drinking the same shit. I'm probably going to start drinking my cellared imp stouts and keep my lambics and sour ales for a while.
I have thought about this soon myself... More-so fridge cleaning though, my cellar isn't all that huge. But I have beers in the fridge that I just have not touched in nearly a year or more. Thinking of doing a mass-tasting, taking only 2-3oz of each and pouring the rest. This way, I can clear the room for beers I care more for now. The way I think of it, a tasting at any bar/brewery likely cost as much as I paid for the whole bottle in many cases (many single 12oz bottles of nothing special, for example).
