DFH 120- anyone had an aged one recently?

Yep; I keep a 4 year vertical going, this batch will make it 5 years. After +2 years its well outside of IPA territory and seems more like a sticky barleywine. I actually prefer it with age.

 

If you want a great tasting notes for a 6 year old bottle; check out page 47 of the below link
http://issuu.com/phillybeerscene/docs/pbs_junjul12_issuu

 

I'll let you know how the 2007 tastes after Barcade's 10th Anniversary party on Thursday (albeit this will be from a keg, not bottle).

 

I agree, here were my notes from my visit to the DFH brewpub in 2011, when I drank the fresh batch and a 3 year old batch side by side:

2011: golden orange in color. huge aroma of pine, citrus, with just slight alcohol. taste is obviously dominated by hops, but it's surprisingly not overpowering. there is some sweetness to balance it out.
2008 :is much darker, more of an amber color. the aroma is maltier and boozier. taste is sweeter, the hops have faded a bit but still provide a lingering aftertaste. some brown sugar notes have moved in

 

I have a lot of different vintages, but a quick check of my cellar revealed that I have many bottles from 10/10/07. I'd be happy pull one out and give you an update. I can never decide whether to have those at cellar temperature or slightly below. Unless you are really curious about it at a particular temperature, I'll probably review it at 55F.

 

Had a 2012 from the cellar little over a week ago was very pleased on how it was drinking.

 

Don't even waste our time if you are reviewing at 55.

 

Sorry, I went with it at 55F. Didn't want to change the temp in my cellar and taking the bottle down to fridge temp just seemed silly. Can't seem to set up an album from my iPad, so here is a link to my photostream in general and you can just look at the pictures from 10/22/2014: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cellared_beer/

Upon opening the bottle I got a very strong whiff of cotton candy. Although this bottle has been upright and not subject to any jostling, it is very cloudy as though it had sediment that had been disturbed. Once in the glass, the smell definitely gets more character, but it is still very candy-like. The barest hints of the hops floral notes it has fresh are still there, but so is a very slight medicinal smell or perhaps it is a little like rubbing alcohol. That's not prevalent, but it is lurking inthe background. Swirling in the glass does help improve it and make the scents more complex. I begin to get hints of madeira wine,

Colour is a deep coppery amber. The body is a little thinner than I expected, but still fairly meaty. Taste is very sweet. While I can detect slight amounts of hops bitterness and even floral taste, it is very subdued. This is predominantly a sugar bomb, especially brown sugar. Relatively straight forward, not incredibly complex. It's good, but somewhat one note.

I'll keep aging it. I think it may currently be at a point when the hops have faded enough to no longer provide a necessary counterbalance to the sweetness, but some of the more interesting flavors which occur in long term aging have yet to really be noticable. I could be wrong, but we shall see.

 

It was bottled 10/10/07, so it was almost exactly 7 years old.

Some of those pictures are old. I am down to 4 Ballantine Burton Ales, but I've also added a lot of stuff, too.

Thanks for your compliment on the bar. I have been doing major renovations to basically the entire house and they are almost done. Thank goodness.

 

I had a bottle of 2009 and 2011 side by side last summer and felt the 2011 was better, still had some hops, the 2009 was over the top sweet and like syrup. Unlike WWS, 120 does not keep getting better with age IMHO.