December Cellar Reviews

opened a stone vertical epic 06.06.06 a few days ago and i was amazed at how good that beer was drinking. stored in a fridge for six+ years - not even the slightest signs of degrading and the heavier yeast and malt aspects of the beer were smoothed out and harmonious. honestly wish i had another bottle.

 

A friend sent me a bottle of Expedition from 2009. It aged beautifully. I had a 12, 11, and 09 in the past month as well. the 09 and 11 werent all that different. the 09 was a bit drier, but still had a decent amount of dark fruits to it.

 

Opened a 2009/2010 Troegs Flying Mouflan. Cellared for nearly its entire life at 50-53 degrees F. Poured with plentiful carbonation, but was cloudy even after years of standing upright and a careful pour. Smelled and tasted excellent, with lots of red delicious apple, brandy, and burnt toffee notes. The hops still managed to provide noticeable bitterness, and the body was still thick and full. I believe this could have gone years longer and not lost any tastiness (for those who like long aged beers). I imagine I would still have enjoyed it as much or more in the 5-7 year range. But I usually like beers older than most on this site (if they were aged properly).

 

Ive got an Old Ruffian that hit its 1 year today but im debating whether to keep it going or drink it now

 

Opened an 005 (two years old) and an 006 Santification (one year old) in the last couple days. 006 wins hands down, better Brett aromas, mild sourness, light and easy to drink.

 

Opening a bottle of HaandBryggeriet Dark Force from Aug '07 (Batch 90)...
Pours black with a thin brown head that dissipated quickly to light lacing.
Yup, smells like an imperial stout. Big cocoa in the nose, as well as roasted malt.
Big roasted malt taste with some coffee, and not surprisingly, wheat. Finishes with a nice/small amount of alcohol burn.
Mouthfeel is actually pretty great. Light carbonation, and light-bodied for an imperial stout but without losing the deep richness.
All in all I was pretty impressed. I've never had it fresh, so this may be fairly useless, but it seems to have held up pretty well in the last 5 years. I had a similarly old Nogne Imperial Stout a couple months ago, and it really seemed to have fallen apart.

 

2010 Gratitude

Pours a muddy copper, slight head that thinks it can, it thinks it can... Aroma is caramel apple- pink lady type; toffee, coffee in the back, almond roca, vanilla boubon, fresh fallen leaves, rum. Taste is dates and pink lady apples, stale caramel, bourbon, chai tea, cinnamon, honey. Mouthfeel is a tad thin, but it is alkaline so it doesn't kill the experience. Something about acidic big beers that kill mouthfeel. Carbonation wasn't a deal breaker, in fact it was quite nice that it was minimal. Very smooth, the astringency was borderline, almost too much like a year old green Bigfoot, but it is showing to be great in another year or two.

 

Stone Double Bastard 2006, thanks to Chico 1985.

Dark red-brown body with an impressive creamy, light tan head. Good retention and a creamy texture, very nice for six years. Oxidation in the nose along with big sweet caramel and toffee sugars. Dark fruits in both the aroma and flavor at a high level. The flavor is starting to remind me of Old Stock, massive caramel, toffee and quite a bit of oxidation. Not enough oxidization to ruin the flavor at all though. I'm happy with how the sweet toffee flavor seems to have developed. Mouthfeel has carbonation just like a 2012 version and the same creamy feel, maybe just a bit slicker.

I knew Double Bastard was good at 3-4 years but 6 years is still very nice.

 

2008 Bell's Expedition Stout - Batch number 8864. Stored at 60-65F.
Wow -- I am going to have to hold onto the 2010s I have a little better than I have been. A very fudgy aroma with coffee and some fruity notes. The flavor is masterful with a great mix of chocolate, roast, coffee, toffee, fig, raisin, plum, some cola sweetness and a roundness of flavor that is superb. The harshness of the fresh version is gone and the alcohol is there but not at all obtrusive and is accenting. I am going to hold onto the other two of these I have for research purposes to know what to do with the last 3/4 of the 2010 case and all of the 2012 case I have. A wonderful beer with 4 years and I would definitely give this a try at this point. It seems to keep getting better and better.

 

Trappistes Rochefort 10, aged 2.5 years to the day. Bottled June 9, 2010, stored at 52-60 for most of the time since then.
Delicious as always. Much heavier on the port, more alcohol-forward, less sugary and less fruity than when I had it fresh. I find it a bit oversweet when it's fresh, so I'm liking what the time has done to it, making it more balanced and (if it's possible) even more impressive. Quite happy that I have another one of these in the cellar, and thinking I might have to sock a few more bottles away.

 

'09 Ommegang Abbey Ale

This was the final bottle of a 4-pack of 12 oz bottles. I was not impressed with the first 3 bottles. However, this aged bottle is a completely different story. Man was this delicious. The maturation of the malts was great. Aroma still held qualities from the yeast, and had an especially nice vanilla quality. The malts in the flavor had a nice fruitiness and a solid caramel flavor that wasn't too sweet.
Well worth aging this long.

 

Had a 2010 Oak Aged Yeti last night. Bottled in January of '10, so it's nearly 3 years old. Fantastic! Creamy mouthfeel was perfect to me. Super chocolatey, very little bitterness, very little coffee. Absolutely no trace of alcohol. There was still a lot of oak too. I didn't get bourbon or any spirit notes, just oak. I wonder...is this a bourbon barrel aged beer? Almost tasted oak that hadn't aged anything else first. I'll go google it.

Bottom line, it was awesome. This beer could probably go another 1-2 years with no trouble at all.

 

2006 midnight sun fallen angel

this has aged so well, straight up apples and fruit. pale light malt.

 

It is not a bourbon barrel aged beer. In fact, it isn't barrel aged at all, but aged on chips or cubes. There is a barrel aged version, but it is upwards of $25 a bottle.

 

2009 Southern Tier Creme Brûlée

Tan head falls to a chunky sheet, smell is french vanilla, butterscotch, cappuchino, rum butter, all sorts of dessert deliciousness. Taste is butterscotch, French vanilla coffee, soy milk, did I mention butterscotch? Mouthfeel is medium and carbonation is the same. Damn fine at this age, I remember getting more astringency last year when I sampled this vintage, so this must be the sweet spot, as it seems as though the sweetness is more melded and the astringency has faded. I need to grab a few more...

 

I just did a 5 year Darkness vertical ('08 through '12) with 4 other BAs and it was really interesting to note the differences.

The '08 had next to no hop presence and was extremely sweet, with almost a soy-sauce like flavour and lots of sweet caramel and brown sugar. This one generally ranked either last or second-to-last.

The '12 had a fresh, resiny pine-y hop nose and flavour, which became further accentuated when compared to the older versions.

The '11 still had a big hop bitterness without the big pine presence. We all agreed that this was the most well rounded of the 5. This had the most first place votes of the lot.

The '09 and '10 were somewhat similar with the '09 being more sweet, as you'd expect. One person chose the '10 as his favourite. I found an odd astringency in the '09 and ranked it dead last.

Overall, this was a very interesting experiment. I'd say Darkness is best with a year on it, but if you haven't had the chance to try it fresh, I highly recommend it.

 

The past 2-3 weeks ive been dippin into the elderly part of my cellar. (No Claark, still not those Fantomes.)

Schultheiss Berliner Weisse circa 90's is still a champ. Ive consumed 4 of these now in the past year or so and this most recent one was a bit of a wild card with notes of cider-like acidity and lots of apple flesh character instead of straight lacto.

2004 HOTD Adam is good enough right now that I want to start stockpiling cases of every batch for future consumption. The way the residual sweetness blends with the alcohol, smoke and earth creates a very unique profile that might sound strange but overall really works.

1989 JW Lees Harvest Ale is decent but oxidation is the main focus and maybe getting to be a bit too much. The way this brew tastes is exactly like the sensory overload you get on that first autumn day where you walk outside and the smell of the changing/falling leaves fills your nose. (Sorry I know that sounds like im on drugs but if you're an outdoorsy sort of person you'll know exactly what i mean.) The alcohol impact is completely hidden.

1999 Thomas Hardy - the last year released by the Pope administration. Ive had several bottles from the 03-08 years but this 1999 is a fucking revelation. A mild touch of carbonation and strong focus on caramelized sugars almost reminescent of belgian candy sugar. Minimal alcohol impact. It took every ounce of restraint for me to savor the brew. I couldnt put my glass down.

 

2009 (09-10 Winter) Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout. Stored at 60-65F.
This is one of the best beers to age in my opinion because each year brings very substantial change, from the more-than-slightly hot but chocolatey fresh version to a bigger chocolate and roast component coming through year-by-year. This now 3-year old bottle is showing a lot of chocolate and very little heat, but the roast has taken on an almost smoky flavor with a lot of density. It is much more substantial in the mouthfeel now and the dark maltiness is still a treat. This bottle has just about convinced me to buy a case and enjoy it slowly but steadily over the next 4-5 years - the depth of flavor had really been enhanced. A definite cellaring success story for a widely available and reasonably priced brew.

 

2009 Dominion Millenium Ale, 12 oz. Stored at 60-65F.
This English barleywine is still rewarding but has probably passed its best time as the caramel flavors, while strong, have a hollowness to them -- it's very sugary sweet without much depth. There are some leathery qualities and still quite a bit of herbal hops character, but I'm going to break out most of the rest of these that I have this winter, maybe hold on to 1-2 for next year to see if I misjudged.