Cellaring Sour Beers

Check out the cellaring forum.http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/forums/cellaring-aging-beer.41/

 

If you'd like a hard-copy version of the info, feel free to check this book out, I found it packed with neat and useful info:

Vintage Beer

 

Most of the beers you mention will develop over time in proper cellaring conditions (dark, cool). One thing to keep in mind overall - pasteurized beers, such as La Folie, will stay the same regardless of how long you cellar them (unless it's an older corked and caged version).
With sours, it's best to examine what you like about these beers...the fruit? Pucker? If it's the fruit you're often better off just drinking fresh as it only becomes more muted as time passes...I like a year on Sour in the Rye, but it's great fresh too.

 

This is true to the extent that any yeast and bacteria which is present in the bottle will not have an effect as it otherwise would, but the beer will still undergo oxidation, which has a major impact on beer development over time.

 

Have you cellared La Folie (or beers like New Glarus' fruit series)? Virtually nothing happens...NG Serendipity, Raspberry Tart, etc., from my experience change very little or at all over the course of years...I just opened an Apple Ale from two years ago and it tastes the same. Same goes for La Folie - suspended in time.

 

Madame rose ages amazingly.

 

Just wondering, I completely have learned what cellaring does to Barleywines and high ABV stouts, but still haven't really learned the flavor changes that occur in sours, wilds etc. Can someone help explain what to expect with a year or 2 of cellaring on a wild ale or sour?

 

Mostly more funky or more tart, sometimes both. If something has a really fresh fruit flavor like raspberry or cherry most of the time those flavors fade.

 

La Folie (other than the glorious OG cork & cage bottles) doesn't change because it's pasteurized. NG's fruit beers definitely change and age wonderfully.

 

Actually, NG's fruit beers ARE pasteurized, and don't change due to this. The only ones that do change are their R&D series beers. Also, these beers are far from SOUR...they're 'Fruit Beers,' not sour beers.

Feel free to read more here: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/aging-new-glarus-fruit-beers.298570/

 

On a scale up to two years, virtually nothing. That's been my experience. I suppose it's probably different with fruit sours but I've never bothered trying to age those past a year when I buy them at all.

I have a few bottles of gueuze (Tilquin, Girardin) that will be approaching 4 years this summer. Perhaps those will change my mind, but at this point I'd rather not waste cellar space on sours when I find the practice far better suited to barleywines, imperial stouts, and non-sour bretted beers (like Sofie, Matilda, or Saison-Brett).

 

My best results with aging sour beers is with maltier styles like Flanders red and Oud Bruin's. I think the added malt character changes and becomes more complex over time.

 

I'd love to see something definitive. People have speculated that the beers are pasteurized, and I have seen @OldSock indicate on his site that there's not live brett/lacto/pedio in them, but others have said Dan Carey refuses to confirm or deny. This old article suggests that back in the late 90's, they may not have been:

http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/index.cfm/brewery/headline/NewsID/31

And while you may not deem them "sour" beers, they are wild beers in that wild yeasts in the air are allowed in to the beer.

http://isthmus.com/food-drink/beer/savor-the-sour-enjoying-the-wild-and-funky-beers-of-wisconsin/

 

They finish above 1.040, and I talked to someone who had found simple sugars (indicating fruit or sugar added post-fermentation). There is no way that Belgian Red, Raspberry Tart etc. have live microbes with sugar left in the bottle. They'll age slowly, but won't get funky or interesting. Their R&D beers are another story.

 

The fruit beers also aren't brewed utilizing a coolship...check out the R&D series if you're looking for something that develops over time in proper cellaring conditions.

Again, I have NG fruit beers that are MANY YEARS old, and they taste exactly the same - no change...which is totally fine, they're incredible beers and it's wonderful to come back to them again and again and have the same experience each time. Cheers.

 

All of those examples are pasteurized beers and they do not change over time because there is no living yeast in the bottles.

 

I suggest reading the rest of the thread - thank you for stating exactly the same thing I did.

 

Would BFM abbaye de saint Bon-chien grand cru mags age well? I'm not sure if this style is a sour or a wild. I feel they are funky but sour.

 

Yes definitely.