Poll: Should i drink down my cellar?

My motto for money and most material possessions is thus: "You can't take it with you when you die." So you might as well splurge a little here and there and enjoy what you have. If anything becomes a hindrance to your day to day life, like in this case your space getting cramped or bottles exceeding their peak drinkability, this holds especially true. I say drink!

 

Without knowing what you have in the cellar, I can't really say.
My opinion, from someone who recently got shelves and organized his cellar, is to start drinking some of those that we know don't IMPROVE with age. Believe me I know what the saving for special occasion thing is, but like someone else mentioned, rethink an occasion. Have a favorite TV show that is having a first of the season or end of the season? Special occasion. Friday of a long weekend? Special occasion. It's Tuesday and you don't want the same old thing? You get the picture.

 

I got totally wrapped up in the cellaring craze when I first got into craft and found that I enjoyed maybe 1 or 2 out of the 30 or so bottles I was cellaring. My biggest disappointment was a Alesmith Horny Devil. I though a 10% Belgian golden would change in some mythical cool way. Nope. Fresh it is a beautiful funky golden ale. Aged it was flat and sad. I haven't cellared since.

 

I voted drink some, cellar some because I'm in the same boat - there never seem to be enough special occasions. I'm trying to really focus on a style or two, then a beer or two that are known to cellar well and easily accessible (OB 10.50, Bell's Expedition, etc.). Right now my "cellar" is a mess of styles and breweries, with too few "special" occasions to really see the size decrease much/at all.

 

drink em!
i recently started drinking down my collection after someone on BA referred to cellars as "rot boxes". it got me thinking....i definitely have some brews im saving or aging, but others are prime for drinking, and theres no time like the present!

 

^^^^This. All this!

 

I only keep stouts and sours in the cellar, but it can get out of control. I started going to a weekly share just to get rid of some beers. Even bringing 1-2 bombers a week it does not really make a big dent if you are trading/buying more.

I have found that some people like to collect beer and not actually drink it. I don't get that side of it, but I also don't consider myself a hoarder. I think some like saying that have X beer, and if they drink it they can't claim it anymore.

 

I would personally line up the bottles and see which ones you REALLY want. Those I would age and the rest I would drink whenever I am thirsty.

 

This thread has convinced me in many ways to 'start cracking' and make the special occasion be special by opening those beers. I too have waited for (too long) to open many of the beers I possess. Some I will keep for opening with certain friends that I know really want to try specific beers, but for others there is no longer a need to wait. I've been getting tired of just looking at them and started actually disliking the fact that I've been seeing myself more and more as a collector and not a connoisseur. I got into craft beer because I love tasty beers and not because I love staring at bottles. Enough is enough.

I started on Wednesday by opening up Pipeworks BA Jones Dog (Buffalo Trace barrel), Thursday was Wicked Weed BA Dark Age (Buffalo Trace and 4 Roses) and today some BCBS '15. Tomorrow, who knows. Sharing with my significant other is special enough, even though she says many of them taste like soy sauce.

 

I had spent much of 14/15 stockpiling stuff to age. Well fast forward to 2016 and all of the sudden I dont have any more practical room so I started to drink down some of my stash to clear room for what I thought would be replacements. When I started drinking down my stash I started with the common stuff that could be easily replaced. Double Bastard, Big Bad Baptist, Old Stock, Narwhal, False Summit, Old Foghorn, Bigfoot etc etc. Really with the exception of Old Stock, BBB Expedition and Narwhal I did not think any of it had improved to the point where I thought I had to go out and buy more to age.

Some of the harder to get stuff is continuing to get better Mirror Mirror, Eclipse, BCBS Avery Samael(08 is fantastic right now) My FW boxed beers, The Bruery Black Tuesday and anniversary beers. All in all it was fun to experiment and I will continue to do so with new to me beers, and stuff that I have had that I feel ages well. Sometimes a little thinning of the heard never hurts.

I still like the idea of special occasion beers especially around the holidays when it is a little cooler out and sipping on a high ABV barrel aged stout just hits the spot, and will continue to add to the special occasion stash that way I dont feel bad for grabbing one out of my stash from the year before.

 

I'll share an abbreviated version of my experience; TD;DR? Drink it.

I've been cellaring for about 9 years. For most of that time, I was adding beer to the cellar at a 10:1 rate of drinking it. It was fun to see how much I had and imagine how delicious it would all be.

The reality is that 1:10 of those beers benefited, even a little bit, from being cellared. SO MUCH BEER that was delicious fresh, was just bad after some age.

I wish I had cellared far fewer varieties, cellared WAY more of what had a good chance of being good (read all of the "what should I cellar" / "starting a cellar" posts) and drank nearly everything else fresh. There have been a few great surprises, but far far more disappointments. At first, even the bad experiments were fun to try. "Oh well, this one didn't work out, but I can't wait to try the next!" I thought. Then...another bad beer from the cellar. I'm at the point now that I open beers with such low expectations that it's not as much fun.

Cellaring and aging is fun; my advice is to keep the bottle count of new / untested beers low and the count of known goods (Bigfoot, Old Stock Ale, BCBS, check the threads...) high.

 

I've been cellaring for around 3 years (I know that isn't a terribly long time) and I haven't had many cellared beers, but I really have only had one beer that distinctly benefited from aging (out of an estimated 10-15 that had aged for multiple years). I'd say drink 'em while they are relatively fresh.

 

Yes, do it.

I got my cellar from about 220 down to the 150 range. I am still trying to take another big dent out of it.

 

Absolutely, you could die tomorrow. Savor and enjoy your investment. Cheers!

 

I'm now really excited to finish up work today and see what I can pull from my cellar- AKA three milk crates on my basement floor.

I foresee a special occasion when I get home

 

4+ cases is quite a lot of 4-5 year old beer. Obviously, it depends on exactly what you have down there, but there are not a lot of beers that will continue to improve at this point. The couple times I've done fresh, 4-year, and 8-year verticals of some beers that are famous for longevity, I still tended to like the 4-year versions the best. Start crackin' mate.

 

There are a lot of great points made in this thread. I haven't been cellaring long, but recently I have realized what everyone on here has been saying. So count me in on the "start cracking" train. New, exciting beers come around so often, so why not drink some of those gems in your cellar; there will always be more to come. Speaking of, time grab a few for the on deck circle....

 

From a selfish perspective, I say that you should crack your beers open at a bottleshare, ASAP.