How long to let age?

Let get the "if you haven't had it fresh try it now before you age it" comment out of the way first. Now to your question. I prefer all the Firestone walker BoX beers between 6 months and 3 years old. As for the BCBS barley 1 year to 5 years is a good range. If I had to give someone starting out cellaring beer advice it would be buy 3 of everything. Drink one fresh, drink one in 6 months, and then 1 in a year. If you liked how the beer tastes the longer it aged over a year. The changes are by the time you drink the last bottle it will be back in season and you can buy more. The second time around instead of drink it every 6 months drink it every 12 months.

 

Solid response. Honestly, They are both good to go now. Laying them down will change them, but as long as conditions are right (light and temp), you have nothing to fear for a few years.

 

Drinking great right now, in my opinion. I had one a few weeks back. Based on your "special later dates" comment, next time you got a buddy in town/celebrating something big/holiday, open this one up. Split it with someone. It's fantastic.

 

Ok, dumb question, how do you know BCBW goes 1-5 years? The oldest batch would be ~2 years old now, unless you count King Henry. But it is a completely different beer.

 

I'm not stating 5 years as a fact. I'm basing that off of my personal taste, how similar beers to BCBW have aged and what Goose Island say on their website. The big thing with aging beer is that it's not guaranteed you personal will like a beer as it ages. That's why tasting it at different stages is so helpful with letting you guess how it will continue to change.