Poll: Should i drink down my cellar?

I would agree here most of my cellaring is cheaper stuff because I don't want to risk nicer bottles. Now 75% of my cellar is stuff I have already aged and know I like it with at least a year, maybe 2 or more.

 

While I've only got a limited bit of experience I came down on the side of drink em, and soon.

Your cellaring conditions are less than ideal so the aging process may be further along with some of those beers than you anticipate. What others may think of as optimal aging may simply not apply in your case.

One thing that will help is to stop thinking of them as something to be saved for a special occasion but rather as something to be used to make a less than stellar day better. If you're like me you'll find you have more of those days than days for celebration with a special beer.

As at least one other person has suggested you can use your stock more quickly by arranging a social event. I'd suggest a focused on tasting 4-5-6 beers with time for evaluation and discussion of each beer, etc. Use only water and unsalted crackers as a palate cleanser between beer. This is a ideal way to hold a vertical focused on changes with age. (Any food or other social activity can be tacked on at the end.)

It also doesn't hurt that staging several of those focused tastings, where others bring the food to share after the tasting (and before driving) will still get you a reputation for generosity among your friends.

 

Yeah, I'm done aging I think..at least to the degree I was for a few years. I have a one bedroom condo so space is a premium for me. A problem I've always had is that I sometimes just don't feel like drinking 22 ounces of an 11% beer on my own, so I'm sitting on things for 'special occasions' that just never happen as others have said as well. I'm down to maybe 30-35 bottles I think..mainly just BCS and sours. I should invite a few people over one day and just burn through a few of them.

 

I think everyone goes thru a buy-it-and-age-it phase.... I have a converted chest freezer for all my cellar beers. After 2 years of cellaring I think I have a good take on what's worth buying to age. What CAN be cellared and what's WORTH cellaring seems to be a hard decision when you first start out. I'm currently trying to drink down a ton of bottles!