February Cellar Reviews

For week 2 of pulling a bottle from my cellar every Monday, I went with a Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron from November 2009. Full notes are at my blog, but the short version is that I prefer a fresh bottle of PSM>

 

I still have bottles of 2008 Bigfoot down in my cellar and I didn't get too much bitterness when I had one a couple months ago. The bar I work at has a half barrel of 2009 Bigfoot on tap. The 2009 was still very bitter given the one year age difference. My guess is the type of vessel (bottle vs. keg) had to do with the enormous difference in taste.

 

Opened a 2009 Unibroue Trois Pistoles tonight. Twist off cap, pretty well oxidized, unpleasant wet cardboard finish. My drain enjoyed most of it.

 

Founder's Curmudgeon's Better Half was stunning when I tried it on tap at the premiere event. Sitting on two bottles of that and waiting for the tapping of the 1/4 barrel at my local/ my new workplace... golden raisins, perfectly balanced and present heat. What other 'old ale's are your favorites?

 

Working through some beers that have been aging a couple years. Here's the first few:

Newport Storm Cyclone Gloria - Toned down the pumpkin and spice, brought all the flavors together, time helped this beer in my mind.
Pennichuck Bagpiper's Scottish - Peat and smoke still there, body seems to have given up the ship, but overall still a nice brew.
Ithaca Excelsior! - Also saw a melding of flavors here, carbonation still ample but more controlled than it was, tartness present but a bit more melded with the wheat character. All in all, this one was a success.

 

Dirty Old Man by Tyranena Brewing Company

Bottled on date of Feb 4, 2008.

A gorgeous looking beer when I poured it into my tulip glass. It looks black to me and has a 1" and slowly shrinking head of foam leaving behind lots of lacing.

The Whiskey is still strong in the aroma and is backed by caramel malt and a hint or 2 of dark fruits.

The taste is of semi sweet chocolate, caramel malt, Whiskey, and some Rye spicy notes in the finish.

A creamy mouthfeel with very light carbonation, this is so smooth despite the ample warming after the swallow. Very good Baltic Porter. I'm thinking that I'd give a higher rating than when I had it fresh.

 

Just threw a 2011 bottle in the cellar for kicks. It's C&C'd, so hopefully it holds up.

Which Excelsior?

 

Just the other day I had a friend come over and help me clean out and reorganize my cellar, and we drank/drainpoured a bunch of random stuff that I'd stuck down there - much of which should never have been cellared in the first place. What I learned:

Sam Adams Boston Lager is incredibly tasty after two years; I was expecting a straight drainpour, and we wound up drinking the entire bottle. The hops were pretty well gone, obviously, but the malt was delicate, complex, and had just the perfect hint of mustiness. Great surprise.

Similarly ancient Prima Pils was less enjoyable, but still thoroughly drinkable.

Tröegs Scratch 28 (Troggen Roggen) is unbelievably delicious right now; it got mediocre reviews when it was fresh, and maybe I just have a unknown soft spot for Roggenbiers (this was my first one), but I was blown away by how good it was.

Guinness FES tastes great with a year on it - tremendously distinctive and piquant.

Oatmeal Stouts don't age terribly well, but year-old Velvet Merlin was still solid. Two-year-old Sam Smith Oatmeal Stout, not so much.

I need to be less of a packrat.

 

Sorry, White Gold.

 

Some brief notes from the past couple weeks -

2009 Maudite (Bottle date was early Feb. 09)

Nice mix of dark+light fruit, spice and Belgian yeast, extremely smooth and still well-carbonated. A 12oz goes down like nothing. Hard to believe it's a 3 year old beer, drinks similarly when fresh in my opinion.

2009 Bigfoot

Hops are toned down from the 2-year old bottle I had last year, but still quite hoppy considering the age. Big dark fruit/caramel malt with some strong grapefruit and piny hop action going on. Well-carbonated and smooth, not much booze taste but still quite bitter.

2008 Double Bastard

Wow, this bastard has been tamed. The hops have been toned down big time from the 2-year old bottle, still some bitterness but the malt is really what takes charge now. Nice candy caramel malt, toffee, slight chocolate, with some earthy and fruity hop flavor hiding back there. Top-notch appearance, extremely smooth and drinkable, booze is toned down. Maybe a bit more well-rounded and complex when fresh, super hoppy and palate assaulting, but this is quite a treat at this point, smooth tasty malts all the way.

All of these are great beers to age and drink very well at 3 years old, good deals price-wise as well. Glad to have these regularly available!

 

09 bourbon county stout 22oz is holding up quite nice. Still a bit of heat on the back end but it's becoming extremely drinkable. Favors are fusing nicely.

 

Cracked open a 09 Vertical Epic last night, which is drinking very nicely 2.5 years later. Full notes in this week's blog post http://bit.ly/xLjpUq

 

Victory Brewing Helios (V Saison) 13 months old ambient basement temperature.

Edited copy/paste from my recently posted review.

Aroma : The first thing I notice is a tart green apple sour funk combined with a medium level of belgian yeast funk! Excellent! More probing and I can pull out aroma elements of white pepper, lemon peel, something sort of like galangal scent (a Thai relative of ginger) There are still some subdued floral and wet hay hopping elements present that time hasn't eliminated. I am very happy with the amplification of the funky tones in this one which has occurred over time. It's not too far gone into sourness nor is it too acidic...just right for my tastes.

Flavor : Funky sourdough yeasty bread with cracked peppercorns and a low dose of band-aid bite. Yes, the normally bright and crisp hopping is significantly reduced from how it was fresh but it has become equivalently more tart and sour in exchange for this loss. Light tones of funky gingersnap cookies prevail throughout the gentle mostly-dry white wine-like finish. Sweetness levels are actually lower than when sampled fresh as a result of the funk / sour conversion. Plays out like a cross between a Berliner Weiss and a Saison because of the residual lemon peel character and the "zombified" undead grassy hops fighting with the soured bread and peppercorns for your attention...

I call this one a cellaring success. If I were to spend the money to do it again I would sample at about 10 months to see if I could get slightly more brightness out of it while still preserving my beloved funk levels. But as it is, I still enjoyed it immensely at 13 months. So if you like to amplify saison funk levels in your basement like I do, I can tell you that it does work properly with this particular brew.

 

I had a 2 year old bottle of PSM a few years back and thought it was incredible. I held on to my last bottle of the February 2007 release and intended to drink it on its birthday but forgot. I may have to pull that one out and give it a try.

 

2010 Lost Abbey Gift of the Magi (750mL)

Infected. Found it interesting because it was my first infected beer. Strong sourness followed by an intense bitterness. Detected a bit of the original beer (which I quite enjoyed in previous tastings) but it was overpowered by the infection. DP.

Anyone else experience the same with Lost Abbey brews?