Cellaring Beer. Just Say No?

my "cellaring" is mostly unintended, resulting from 2 basic factors: 1, I like buying beer, and sometimes my rate of purchasing eclipses my rate of consuming. When this happens, the big stouts, barleywines, etc., can get pushed to the back burner... And, 2, in the way that someone stocking a bar might buy a variety of spirits, I just like having options. It's nice finding yourself in, say, an RIS type of mood and being able to pick from a number of candidates. Yeah there's a few exceptions to the rule, but for the most part I don't buy a beer with the goal of aging it.

 

Unless you need beer to survive, I can't see how it's a waste of money. Letting something sit doesnt cost you anything.

 

Most people have poor taste. So if someone says "X beer is better with several years on it," don't believe them. There is a pervasive mentality among some in the craft beer world that cellaring beer automatically improves it. Most people would be hard-pressed to explain how the drinking experience of a cellared beer improved, or how the cellaring had a positive impact on the flavor.

People also don't seem to differentiate between short-term storage and long-term cellaring. Short-term storage of a year or 2, for a lot of beers, provides pretty consistent and well-understood outcomes, such as the taming of overwhelming barrel notes, a reduction in harsh flavors or booziness that some higher ABV beers have fresh, less hop and adjunct flavor, etc. Cellaring, to me, means storing a beer long-term. Can't really put a number on it, but I'd say maybe 4-5 years or more, an amount of years which allows for oxidation and/or continuing slow-burn fermentation (along with other chemical processes) to play a significant role in the resulting flavor. This of course is specific to the type of beer being cellared. These processes also create flavors that will have a negative impact on flavor for a vast majority of beers. Which is why you should automatically be suspicious of anyone who claims that a beer is better with 5+ years on it, as details are most definitely needed before anyone should rely on such a claim.

 

In the years i know that some BA Imperial Stout don't get better with aged, so i try to drink them all. Butt barley wine is better in my optian to aged. But if you really want to aged something just buy a geuze!!! In 10 years you get the geuze you ever drink! There for a have aged many (200 bottles) geuze!!!!!

 

I am very new to cellaring but what really got me in to it was trying some 2012 expedition and 2012 breakfast stout. Both of those are delish fresh but a year makes them amazing.

 

I only "cellar" my rare sours and sours that I love and really heavy stouts (10% abv or above) that hopefully are barrel-aged.