¿Does aging affect mouthfeel?

It depends on the beer but it can, especially with beers that people typically age. Anything with Brett in it will dry out over time. Some of the yeasts, proteins and particulates in Barleywines, Old Ales and Imperial stouts will also settle out and from a layer of gunk on the bottom.

 

I don't think you can generalize it the way you did. First,it depends a lot on the style you age, even with beers you typically age- a Geuze ages differently than an Imperial Stout. And even within one category, there are huge differences. Orval ages very very differently than all other belgian trappists,for instance And lastly, I'd argue it's not a linear path every beer ages. Though not as prominent as with wine, in my experience some beers also have a phase in their aging progress in which they are best left alone for later.

 

How was it stored? Was it a barrel-aged beer? 1.5 years shouldn't make that much of a difference. Aging does thin the mouthfeel out a bit, but I wouldn't think it would be that noticeable after such a short period of time.

Cheers

 

The dextrines and proteins flocculate out of suspension. The mouthfeel will absolutely suffer from this.
While here I just want to say few beers improve in my cellar. Most are just different or noticeably worse for the wear.

 

Yes.

My philosophy with ageing beer is that I feel it is too loud/harsh with a flavor(s), and I age it to tone this down and hopefully let more subtitle flavors come forward before they fade. For some smaller beers like jubelale or Jolly Roger, I age them simply for fun and to see what happens to the flavors- again not expectinbrg improvement, just change from the fresh flavor profile. The mouthfeel always thins out and never feels like it got “thicker”, but then again I only seriously age beers with heavy mouthfeel, which means it has more sugars and starches to support that mouthfeel, which means there is a character that needs to be diminished that is overshadowing other possible flavors in a beer.