Regret your beer collection?

Ahaha I did the same thing to the same result. Heck I even went to a bottle share on the weekend and got sent home with homebrew landing me flush on the bottle count again. I want / need to drop about 50 bottles before summer, but it's a lot harder than it seems when you are still selectively following the exciting beer releases and only have one or so a day.

 

Yup.

 

I have enough regrets with what I by for present consumption (purchase addiction=entire fridge packed to the gills) so I can only imagine how shitty some of you folk feel whose obsession takes to the notion of having a "collection", which probably involves strange feelings of moments not being worthy enough for certain stock.

 

This is a wonderful sentiment.

I have only about 30 bottles in my collection, but I have already found myself buying a beer not because I wanted it, but because I wanted it in my "cellar". This is the crux of any collectors' problem, in my opinion.

If you really want a beer (and can afford it), then buy it. If you think it will age well, then cellar it, but don't skip questions one just because the answer to question two is a yes..

 

I have about 200 or so bottles and can see it getting out of control however both my wife and I and then some friends do help drink beers, however even with that we set aside an amount of certain beers to age and those are what make up our cellar. It is amazing, especially after a couple of years of getting 6 or so of a beer and drink it once or twice a year only to stock up on the next years allotment.

I am really big into cigars and have a huge cabinet humidor that is self regulating for humidity and such. I haven't really bought any cigars for going on a year now and haven't smoked a lot in the last 6 months. I have cigars that have been aging for going on 6 years though I know I need to start rotating them out as I don't want them to get past the point of no return.

Beer for me is easier to manage since I can drink it inside or outside and my wife enjoys it as well. Cigars is more of a me thing and I don't have a lot of friends that like cigars. Maybe you could set up more parties to help lower your cellar count or go to more bottle shares?

 

Regret? No. I did decide to stop feeding it and to drink most everything I had collected. At peak I had 300 or so bottles and am down to around 30-50. The goal was to age most of the beers 6-12-18-24 months. I have a few things I am holding onto; some sours, a few verticals, and some beers for my son to give him when he turns 21. Other than that, I discovered what I wanted to learn and taste, and moved on. It is a great hobby if you can afford it - and could easily be budgeted. Cellaring is more addictive than drinking.
What I learned from it was what beers and styles I personally like with some age, and those are the ones I buy a few extra of and now stash away. While I miss buying beers for 'future me', I still enjoy living vicariously through beer cellar ****.
Out of all the beers cellared, I would say less than a dozen were past their prime. Which is not bad at all, and I was able to see how characteristics fade over time.

 

We are taking donations for Brews for New Avenues 2014, so if you want to get rid of some bottles and want a tax deductible write off, please contact me
http://www.brewsfornewavenues.org

cheers
Don

 

You know it. My wife hardly ever touches alcohol but when she complains about my stash I usually retort:

'Ya, well,you make all the decisions about decorating and you spend way more on make-up and shoes so you're actually getting a deal.'

Still can't figure out why that tends to ignite the situation.

 

I think the lesson to be learned from this thread is share more. Share the brew love, it will make you feel better too. I love sharing a brew with someone new to the craft scene or a buddy who enjoys a tasty brew. This is why I have a cellar of only about 60-70 bottles. I of course have my older bottles sitting for later, but I have no regrets, because I look at all those bottles as experiences to be had with friends. It makes cellaring totally worth it, at least for me.

 

The words "beer collection" are straight fingernails on the chalkboard. If you are buying beer to collect, you are doing it wrong. Collect glass, drink beer.

 

I'll be your friend

In all seriousness though, I built up about 50 bottles over two years and then had to move. I drank most of it before the move and have gone through even more since then (mostly for financial reasons). I am down to 3 bottles now and it feels great not sitting on so much beer.

 

so much this.

i chuckle when i read the posts from the guys with 70 - 80 bottles. we were all there once. and what happens is that your tastes change and what you were interested in when you first started "cellaring" isn't really what you are interested in anymore, or by the time you get around to remembering you have something, it is already too late. plus that 70 - 80 bottles is going to grow over time.

as for sharing your beer, that doesn't help since most of those that you share with also have beer to share. sure, there are chances when i see family or college friends who aren't as into it as i am and i can pop 5 or 6 bottles, but that doesn't really dent the stash and usually doesn't come out of the swag from my cellar. i've put a concerted effort into drinking down that silly stuff taking up space and not being affriad to drain pour something that didn't hold up great or that just isn't hitting the spot.

i don't regret my cellar, but i do wish i knew then what i know now.

 

I have only been into craft for a little more than a year and have approximately 300 bottles. I am lucky to have friends that have been into it much longer. I like high abv stouts and barleywines and like the size of my cellar. I would like to try not to have anything older than 2 years. There is nothing worse than opening a good bottle of beer and thinking man I should have drank this a while ago.

 

I've opened my share of aged bottles that just didn't do it. Made me mad at how good they were fresh, or with some age, but just flat out turned less than ideal, or dare I say drainpour material after I kept them around.

I've got a decent sized cellar. Some in a wine chiller, others in a 60* closet under the stairs that is insulated. I just have so much beer, along with homebrewing that I simply have stopped hoarding beer, to just hoard beer. It's so much more enjoyable to pull out the great bottles when I have family or friends over who appreciate the beer. Don't have much more than co workers and neighbors that kill kegs of my homebrew, but aren't appreciative of the $30 bottle of Bruery Sour's or something like that.

When my brother comes to town, he and I end up having epic evenings of sitting around in the kitchen or the patio with a fire and killing some amazing bottles of beer. That makes it worth to stock pile.

But I think going forward, I'm gonna limit what I save to beers I know work well from experience to age.

Stouts and Sours.

 

I'm planning on having a beer party where I supply all the beer and everybody else brings food. Easy way to crush through 20+ bottles while still trying everything and having a bunch of leftover grub. Might be an idea for you to slice through some of your less-rare or ready to drink bottles.

 

Yeah, you're right. No sense in taking up space, spending money, and finding out most beers decline with age. The cellaring debacle has gotten out of hand in sorts. The truth is most beers decline rapidly at the 3 to 5 year mark. And with so much new, exciting, and delicious beer coming out there is no way to catch up with your drinking. I was getting carried away myself but have decided to keep my cellar at a moderate and humble 100 bottle count. Maybe only 25 of these will I let go past 5 years, 25 will be consumed between 2 to 5 years and half will be traded or consumed before that.

Personally I've always hated feeling like a hoarder. Amassing too much beer makes me feel like one, not good. I've focused on consuming fresh good beer and experimenting only now and then with my cellar experiments. Which like you say, usually don't show any substantially great improvement to say it's really worth it.

Cheers to finding your way man

 

Man, for the longest time it felt like I was just buying beer and never drinking it. Had I kept it up I would have been some Kulminator type dude with a bunch of old faded bottles. As that one dude says, "collect glass drink beer" or something like that.

 

The key, if it's not painfully obvious already, is to have a plan when you buy beer. Know how long you plan to cellar each bottle before you bring them home and know whether or not you have space in your drinking schedule for them. I don't mean a literal drinking schedule (unless you like to plan to that extent, but I don't), but just knowing how many beers you have already that you intend to drink around that time.

Always stick to the rule of your cellar size = avg. bottle age x drinking frequency

 

Hell yes