Drink or Age?

I just cracked a '12 last night and am now liquidating those immediately. Either the 13 is more for me, or I don't prefer the aging. It was smoother, but I like over the top more I guess.

Aging under say, 2 years, is "waiting for the right time to drink it" if you ask me. I have a bunch of stuff in the basement but only because I know I wouldn't be able to snag them at the shop if I waited.

 

This reminds me of a video someone recently posted of a guy (craft beer temple?) sampling a 7 year vertical of Expo stout. He actually thought the 1 year old bottle was not as good as the fresh one, but the following 5 got better and better, with the 7 year old being runner up in his opinion to the 6 year old. Yeah, it's subjective, but this guy had like a 4 year degree in some kind of beer knowledge, and all these cicerone certifications.

 

TL;DR

drink.

 

It kind of makes sense to me. People expect, without realizing it, for the aging benefits to happen along the same timeline as the aging drawbacks. But in reality, things like hops fade much faster than those improvements in the malt body. So to get a period where the bad's happened but the good hasn't yet does make sense.