Just started cellaring/any thoughts or suggestions?

Advice: don't not drink something because you're waiting for ... I don't know, something. Just drink, don't worry about peak flavors or aging perfectly. That knowledge will come. I might say drink the WWS now; Someone else might say wait two years; Someone else might say wait five years.

Make drinking the beer the occasion. Otherwise the perfect occasion may never come.

But I would drink that 2010 WWS today.

 

Oh, and utilize the search feature on here. I'm not being snarky. I use it in this particular forum all the time for certain beers, questions I have, etc. Wealth of knowledge here and people much smarter than I.

 

As I always suggest, if you havent had any of them fresh do that first. If you age a beer you havent had fresh you will never know what aging has done for it.

 

Solid list of beers to age. Only one I would not age is Allagash Tripel.

Make sure to try these beers fresh so you know how to compare them. Thats part of the fun, to see how these beers get better or worse with age. It's a learning process and a fun one if you have patience. Another thing to keep in mind that it's not an exact science and there no correct answer. It's all opinion on when a beer is peaking and at it's best or worst. With that said.

 

Ok cool, seems like you have a pretty good list to start, I personally wouldnt age the flying dogo gonzo. Im not sure how well that will age or if itll improve any at all really.

 

But here's my best reply to the one I have experienced:

3 GI Bourbon county stout ... Best after a year
2010 WWS ... Drink now, 2910's drinking great
Great divide oak aged imperial stout .. A year is good
Arrogant double bastard ... Same
4 DFH ole school ... One this year, one the year after, and so on
2013/2014 SN Bigfoot ... 2013 now, 2014 maybe side by side with 2015?
Narwhal ... Thought it's better fresh
Great divide hibernation ale ... Love it fresh
Anchor Christmas ... Don't know how well this'll age
DFH Midas touch ... Now
Allagash tripel .. Probably within a year
DFH raison d'extra ... 2007? Now. 2014? Idk. 2021?
DFH 120 ... 18 months from now
Evil twin Christmas Eve at a nyc hotel room: Drinking great right now. I'd drink it.
Founders breakfast stout ... Now, it's awesome and available. You can get this, do whatever you want.

 

Never lose the keys to the cellar.

 

I've been reading a number of threads on beer cellaring here and there is a long article on it in the current issue of All About Beer (the magazine). But one thing I rarely see is a discussion of aging a pasteurized vs. filtered-but-unpasteurized vs. unfiltered beer.

I don't see the point of cellaring a pasteurized beer. While most craft beers are not pasteurized, some are, e.g. I understand all Anchor beers are which would include the Christmas. There can be no further yeast activity in such a beer. Perhaps some consider that they round out over time, but at least from a traditional beer processing point of view, these "can't" age.

A beer well-filtered of its yeast but not pasteurized, would be the same, in my view, unless perhaps there was enough residual yeast (non-visible, sometimes it settles out over time) to promote some ongoing alteration of the beer's character.

A bottle-conditioned beer, or unfiltered beer (same thing at bottom), is a good candidate for cellaring. In my experience, as long as these are above 5% ABV and reasonably hopped, they should last a good while if stored at a cellar temperature, and possibly improve. But I've had numerous such beers go off, damp paper-oxidized or sour, probably this occurs due to imperfect bottling sanitation.

I'm open to any views on whether filtered or pasteurized beers can really change (i.e., for the better, otherwise it is counter-productive).

I must say too in general I think beer is best when new, any beer, but there are different views on that.

 

Hodgson - I think there is so value in aging non-bottle conditioned, high ABV beers, e.g. Imperial Stouts. The alcohol taste seems to die down, and some of the flavors seem to become more rounded and blended together. At least that has been my experience. A beer like Yeti, for instance, becomes much better after about a year, in my experience, because the hop bitterness dies down a bit, along with the boozy flavor.

TurkeyFeathers - that's looks like a great list so far. I'm sure you thought of this, but a lot of those beers arefairly affordable and accessible, so you will be able to put together verticals. It's really fun to do a vertical with a few friends--it kind of turns a night of drinking into an event. Plus, it's a great way to see how time treats the beer, for future reference.

I don't have many beers in my cellar that aren't on your list, to be honest. But of the ones I have aged that I don't see listed, I have had great results with TenFidy and Founder's Imperial Stout. JW Lee's is also pretty interesting to cellar, although I haven't had one nearly as old as I see in some of the posts in this forum. It's interesting, to me, to put some away now so I can try them at five or even ten years old.
I have also seen a lot of folks advising against aging coffee beers, but I actually appreciate aging Breakfast Stout and Victory at Sea, as they are pretty interesting when they are not so coffee-forward. I did find that I don't enjoy cellared Pumpking that much, so I'm not sure how the spice flavors in the rum barrell version will hold up (although I still have a bottle in the basement).
On a semi-sentimental note, I have 6 Resurgence Imperial Sponge Candy Stout bottles set aside right now. I think they will age well, based on how they taste fresh, plus they will be great to bring to holidays and parties for the next few years. I think they are still in some of the stores are Buffalo, if you are interested in them (or shoot me a message if you want some and can't find any).

 

Oh yeah, another beer I have found to be interesting to cellar is Ommegang Adoration. The boozy flavor died down after a year, and it was a pretty big hit among friends this Xmas (both beer nerds and "civilians"). I'm not sure if they are still around, but they are pretty accessible and affordable off of the Wegman's make your own six pack shelf.

 

Resurgence did limited release of the Imperial Sponge Candy Stout, and I think that is the only thing they have bottled. I went to the release party, but I've seen them now at a few stores around town. They have some aging in bourbon barrels, too, but they don't know how long it is going to take yet.