Questioning cellaring beer

Some people are "collectors." I happen to be one of them and the older I get the more I realize that, FOR ME, beer is not like baseball cards, comic books, a stock portfolio, stamps, coins, art, toys, dolls, watches, pins, records, pens, etc., etc., etc. (You get the picture?)

I say the foregoing for a few reasons. Beer is made to be consumed fresh. Period. However, we collectors love "having the collection!" The finding, the trading, the fighting for, the standing in line, the bragging rights and all else involved in "collecting" something. We end up getting caught in what I've determined, FOR ME, has become somewhat nonsensical, very time consuming and less gratifying with the passage of time.

I've determined that FOR ME I like beer fresh - all beer. Period.
I love lambic and geuzes and wild ales. I love them fresh, especially the fruit based beers.
I love the barrel aged beers fresh - barrel aging is aging! The brewery does the work for you.
I've found out FOR MYSELF that generally speaking (and by that I mean always) a brewer releases a beer when he/she/it believes its ready to drink. Well, I want to see what the brewer intended. Thus, I always drink fresh - always. I've never cellared a beer I've not tried. Why would you??

Cellaring changes the beer and that's its purpose. And, it's fun FOR ME to watch a beer change. It's also fun having the collection but that "fun" changes when after several years and after obsessively getting the rare and extreme one realizes (as I have FOR ME) that you've ruined a lot of beer!

FOR ME I have rarely tasted a beer that was better aged than on release. People will say that it gets "more this" or "more that" or is "smoother" or "more integrated" (that's one of mine!) or "less alcoholic" or yada yada yada. And, they are all correct since this is all a matter of taste. There is no right or wrong with taste.

I've written before that cellaring beer is great fun as long as you keep it in perspective. Unfortunately, the beer world has joined the rest of the "collectible world" without regard to the fact that beer is a perishable. One could argue that wine, too, is a perishable. However, a wine that can be aged is generally one that is released before it's ready due to economics of the wine business - completely different from the beer business in a whole lot of ways.

A bottle of Cantillon Loerik was recently auctioned for $4,000. Interestingly, it was the same weekend that one of our Los Angeles locals opened a bottle for a tasting. I've tasted it several times. It was wonderful. It was great. It was a beer that if tasted blind could have been one of a hundred (maybe even a thousand) different beers. However, beer has become collectible and perhaps some of these bottles may never get opened. That's the shame of it all. Beer is really good and really fun to try fresh and cellared.

I'm not going to completely empty my cellar. I drink it. It was intended all along that I drink it. I have fun watching the bottles change. However, I try to keep it in perspective with the knowledge that sooner or later (and likely sooner) I'll open every "rare" whale I have because that's why I bought them and that's what they're for.

Just my opinion.

 

I'm a collector...

But also some beers really do improve over time, at least based on my preferences. So, in that respect, I cellar a good number of beers because I know they are better aged - and I cellar others because I've had them fresh and want to see if they will be better aged.

 

In my opinion I have found very few beers that have actually improved over time, meaning more than just a season or so in the cellar (which actually works great for some beers like Bigfoot, Brooklyn Monster, Anchor Our Very Special Ale, etc.). The ones that have improved over years have mainly been strong, malty beers. With that said, it can be very interesting, and a learning experience, as well as fun if you're going to do a tasting with your friends. Overall, however, I would say that for most beers it's really a waste to age them as they should be enjoyed fresh (especially hoppy beers). For expensive beers that goes double. But to each his own.

 

Don't do it! I started just putting things aside so I could get to them later...not really with the intent to age, for the most part. Next thing you know, I have 100+ beers in my cellar, and probably an equal amount in my beer fridge. When in the world am I going to drink all this?!!? And that's nothing compared to what most people have around here!

So I decided that for December and January I would buy as little beer as possible and just drink through my fridge/cellar. Well, that hasn't quite gone as well as I was hoping, but I am making SOME progress. I have beers that are a couple years old just because I haven't had a chance to get to them. Will they still be good? Maybe, probably, at least I hope. Most are beers that everyone says will cellar find (big stouts, barleywines, old ales, etc) but I don't want them falling off.

So from now on, after I finally get it down to a reasonable number, I'm only going to put aside a few select verticals that I'm interested in trying (Big Foot, some of the Avery big releases) and beers that I know can go year after year (gueuze, lambic) and then just stop buying stuff to just throw in the cellar for drinking "later," because I will never get to them in a reasonable amount of time.

 

I think I am in the rather small minority of people who actually knows for sure that for me, a few beers simply become more enjoyable when aged. Take Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout for example. Damn, I love that beer "fresh" (which is actually already aged). But as the label states, I let it age for 5 years and tasted it and loved it as well. Better than fresh? No, more equal, but I love that the wonderful "aged" qualities of a 5 year old bottle of properly cellared BCBS can only be enjoyed by paying the price of patience.

I don't cellar "rare" beers (unless Thomas Hardy's ale is rare), and firmly believe that 98% of all beer produced will taste best in the first 2-4 months after release. And of the 2% that may improve, only maybe 0.5% gets so much better than aging produces a huge change for the better. However, I find great pleasure in the historical intrigue of aged beer, and have derived a ton of pleasure from aging my beer (including homebrewed beer, cider, and mead) and holding tastings with my friends and family who don't care nearly as much about any of it as I do. Because it is just so much fun to crack open an aged beer that really turns out wonderful, I won't be stopping any time soon. But my overall $$ investment is far below what the average BA spends because I rarely follow the hype, and prefer the good "normal" beers to the rare ones if I can't taste a major difference in a blind test.

 

I age beers that I know to taste better with age, that I suspect will taste better with age, or that don't taste better or worse but different in a way you can't find in a fresh beer. I'm neither a collector nor a hoarder.

Pretty simple really.

 

I pretty much echo @GRG1313 's sentiment.

The only difference for me from a lot of others in this forum is that sometimes I'll only get a single bottle of a beer and will use reviews about it to help me decide when I should pop it open. If reviews seem to indicate that the beer isn't great fresh but over time the reviews improve as people open cellared bottles, I don't really want to taste it fresh, I'd rather wait until it seems like it's going to be more enjoyable.

 

Not worth it. Don't start.

 

I do it to see how a beer changes over time, and also because Ive read that some stouts get better with age, and stouts are my favorite style. I also cellar limited release stuff, so that I can have it more than once a year. Still mostly stouts.

 

I cellar because I bought far more than I can drink.
I recently moved, and had to move roughly 45 cases of beer (including a couple cases of wine)
So, estimating 40 cases of beer (conservatively,) that's almost 500 bottles.
I have a few walez, maybe 3 cases worth, plus a bunch of homebrew, but most of it is not necessarily intentional, in the meaning of wanting to watch the beer change over time.
I also have made sure that I don't put things down there that should be drunk fresh (most of the time...)

 

I started to see which beers get better. After about 4 years of experimenting, mainly by keeping a spreadsheet of notes on beers at fresh, 1 year, 2 year, 3 year.

I am no longer putting aside any Imperial Stouts to age. All that I've had have shown no improvement or only mild improvement that's not worth it. The beers I have found to improve are generally Belgian Strong Dark Ales and Barleywines.

 

The main reason I cellar is because of the limited release beers. If I could just buy Parabola, etc. on the shelf all year round I wouldn't buy a bunch and have it in my cellar. I don't cellar any shelf beers.

 

I think I enjoy the beer more. It builds up my want to try something after looking at it for a while.

But do beware! Your collection will build up very fast. Don't start it while you still can!

 

I have three bottle so far just really started in think it hard because all I Wana do is drink the damn beer lol but a friend gave me a bottle of 2013 and 2014 bcbs and I figure iv had it fresh I can't get it were I'm st so I might as well wait for something special to open it I'm in ohio o can't get shit here...of a one body would like to thin out thier collection i.will pay for shipping and everything I'll send some good i.p.a's to

 

This damn auto correct. Sorry I'm waiting for a special day to open them. In ohio it's hard to get anything rare or cool theirs no market for it were I'm at. If anybody would like to help me or thin out their collection please let me know I will.pay for shipping and send ohio i.p.a's

 

My main reason for putting beer in my cellar (not a closet or fridge, a real root cellar) is to enable myself to grab whatever I'm thirsty for (generally). An added bonus is the ability to stash away a few beers over the year to see what age does to them. But, basically, having my own little private beer aisle is cool...especially late at night when I want to grab "one last beer".

 

I decided to start cellaring beers about a year and a half ago, primarily out of curiosity. Like most others have said, I wanted to observe how a beer can evolve over time, and whether or not I can detect any "improvement". Most of my comparisons of fresh vs. aged have so far shown that there is indeed a change, but not always necessarily better or worse. Obviously there are some exceptions. Just last week I compared a 2 month-old Burton Baton with a 15 month-old bottle. The cellared one was hands down a better beer--at least according to my taste buds. That's a beer I will definitely be stocking the cellar with going forward. Remember, all preferences are subjective, so everyone will have a different perception.

 

I put beers in my cellar so that I can enjoy them with friends at a later time. I drink all of them fresh and then if I like it and it seems like it might be interesting to observe changes and share with a friend, I do it.

 

I have just started cellaring, and for me it was primarily out of curiosity and to see how a beer either evolves or degrades over time, (depending on your perspective). I personally want to try and build a few verticals and share them with friends for the experience. As a college student I decided it was best to start off with affordable beers like SN Bigfoot, Bell's Expedition, GI Sofie and Matilda. These beers are relatively cheap per bottle so if a few fall off it isn't the end of the world. On the other hand I have a few (5-8) Nicer beers I am keeping to consume within the next 18 months. I have these solely for the limited bottle release and I wanted to guarantee myself the opportunity to enjoy it again. Cellaring beers can be a fun experiment, but I wouldn't go overboard with it. But that's just my 2 cents.