Cellaring (non BA) Plead the 5th

just drank a 2012 yesterday,ages quite well. You lose some of the heavy roast character of course the chocolate notes come way up and the alcohol bite dies down. Dangerously drinkable with age but tasty. I agree fresh is good as well

 

Fresh is sweeter, but aged is mellower. One of my fav no bb aged stouts for sure. Such an underrated beer.

 

Yes, I did a 12-13-14 vertical the other day and enjoyed it greatly. jpizz is right about the roast character fading. I would add that you also get a little more of some dark fruit flavor as well. (Maybe it was there the whole time but covered up the the harsher flavors?) Definitely put away at least a four pack. You won't regret it.

 

I had a year old bottle a few months back. Beautifully complex, dark fruits, roasted coffee, molasses, caramel, a lesser roast character as previously mentioned. One of the best beers I've aged.

 

Personally, I like this beer fresh. Since I don't find fresh bottles particularly hoppy or hot, I think you lose more than you gain with time.

 

I really enjoyed the 2011 I opened a few months back. This is one that is good at all stages to me (although 3 years is as long as I've taken it).

 

I've posted this before, but here you go:

Here's a snapshot of a sorta-vertical we did (May 2013?).

Plead the Fifth: 2010, 2011, 2012, Barrel-Aged Version

Plead the Fifth is my favorite easily available stout, so I've been looking forward to this for a while, wondering if it'll hold up to time or if I'll be sipping it fresh forever. My lovely wife accidentally drank my only other bottle of '10, so we'll have to bump it up if this is worthwhile next year. Four bottles, eight small tasters, seatbelt on, here we go.

2010: Well, there it is. Still pretty good, but drifting into acrid territory, & the body is definitely thinning. Chocolate is the strongest component here. Not bad, but next to the others, now I'm not sad I have no more of the 2010 bottles. * B-/B *

2011: Kick-ass. This one's defined by the roasty notes, while the chocolate is subdued. Strong current of sweet malts. Aftertaste is marvelous, the various components stick to the palate like Elmer's. Much thicker than it's year-old kissing-cousin. * A/A+ *

2012: Almost as kick-ass. This one wins on mouthiness, big & thick & crawling all over the palate with a malty paintbrush. Roast is a lovely, coffee-smell-in-the-morning afterthought. More of what I'd think of as a classic RIS. * A-/A *

BA 5th: Tougher to compare to the rest of the crowd than I thought it would be. The bourbon is heavy enough to eradicate many of the best subtleties of Plead the 5th, which is too bad. Still good in it's own right, but a bourbon bomb that might make the lowliest RIS taste good. Very good, but I'll take my Plead straight-up, thank you. Scratch that. After about 20 minutes sitting out, this bumps up towards world-class, & the base beer really starts to shine. *A-/A *

Conclusion: I'll be saving some of my current stockpile, but not for more than a year or so. The 2010 is certainly still worthy, but it's a serious step down from the other two years; no sense in letting a great beer like this go to seed.

 

I guess I'm more partial to aging this that others. It's great fresh, but I much prefer it with some time on it, even multiple years. As noted above, dark fruit and molasses flavors are more present, and I'm in favor of that. I haven't gone beyond three years yet, but I also haven't yet experienced a noticeable regression.

 

Funny that I came across this thread as I just did a mini-vertical with a 2013 and 2014. The 2013 wins hands down. Much more smooth and complex that its 2014 sibling. The 2014 aroma and taste was dominated by roast malt. The 2013 was much more enjoyable with the roast nicely balanced with chocolate, molasses, dark fruit and some toffee. I was wondering if it could be attributed to differences in the batches (and that's a possibility) but I'm thinking that the aging process definitely played a roll here after reading this. Looks like I'll be aging the rest of the 2014's since I was only able to grab a four pack!

 

I keep clicking this thinking it's a thread about not talking about cellaring

 

Just a quick follow-up: did a blind tasting over the weekend and it was agreed that
2 yr > 4 yr > 1 yr > fresh
I really wish we would have had a 3 yr, too. Shame on 2011 me.

 

I opened a 2010 about a week ago and it was wonderful. I don't think it fell off at all.