Cellaring Perennial 17 Mint Chocolate?

About a year ago I did a side by side of the first bottled batch of non-BA and the first bottled BA version. The non-BA version did not hold up well in my opinion. It was still a little minty and not as sweet but oxidized with flat flavors. I held on to it for the same reasons as you but was not happy with the results. The BA held up nicely though.

 

I had this after 1 year, thought it was good, but I don't have a frame of reference for what it is like fresh. I shared the bottle with 4-5 others so I didn't have a large portion, still sweet but not overkill.

 

I just picked this up and my beer guy at the store recommended 6-9 months. He said it came together well in that timeframe and mellowed the mint a bit.

 

I've had this beer fresh and at about 20 months. I liked both, the age certainly mellowed out the mint. My preference was for the aged.

 

Aged last year's version about 6-7 months, and the chocolate came through with the mint. Very good. Had this year's batch pretty fresh and nowhere near what I had previously.

 

I had it with about 6 months. Somebody said it was similar to mint girl scout cookies, it was spot on...

 

Anytime that you put adjuncts in a stout the general rule of thumb is to drink it fresh and discourage aging it. By aging an adjuncted stout whether barrel aged or non barrel aged you are just going to loose the character of the adjuncts, hence you loose what the brewer intended the beer to taste like!

So drink up that 17, KBS, Abraxas, Huna, Last Snow, Maple bacon coffee porter, gingerbread stout, prairie bomb, madagascar, etc when it is still fresh beer! That way you can enjoy the glory of those adjuncts in the beer!!!