Should I drink it or wait?

I would definitely suggest that you not age something until you can do a fresh/aged side-by-side. The "getting one and aging one" advice won't really help you because you'll have no idea what it tasted like fresh after so much time has passed. Once you know if you like aged beer, then you can better make the call to age something blind.

Do yourself a favor and pick up some Abyss (hitting distro now; it's an easy trade if you don't get it). That's a great beer to get into aging and seeing what you like. It's easy to get a fresh version for a side-by-side down the road. Better yet, you can get a 3 or 4 year vertical and see how much age you like on it.

 

Well, i'm the type of guy that can go a while sitting on a beer. I waited almost a year and a half to crack open my bourbon barrel aged Rasputin. My advice like most others here is to try one and cellar an extra if you have one.

 

Drink them sooner rather than later. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. You can always get another bottle

 

If you haven't had it before then you should try it the way the brewer intended (likely fresh). Ageing can be fun and interesting but I think it's something that should come after beer becomes more of a hobby. I've been into it for a decent amount of time and I just recently started ageing some beers. Started when I got a 4 pack of Samiclaus for half price and figured why the hell not hang onto 3 and my "cellar" grew from there.

Point being, don't over think it and just enjoy the initial experimental experience. It's a magical time that you only get it once, cheers!

 

When you think about what exactly are we aging? It's in a glass bottle or can, at best you might lose a bit of heat off a high Abv beer. If it's not bottle conditioned it won't develop and its done by the time it's bottled. As a parallel say a top end Bourbon the aging process stops when it's bottled, once it's out of the barrel it's done. I have beers in a cellar because I want and I can spread them out without them spoiling. But they're not any better IMO than they were fresh, but they're not any worse either. There's a period when oxidation starts to creep in I'd say 5-6 years might be my for stouts, probably a good deal longer with sours. Just a guess.

 

I guess I pose a similar question to Ba that Ridgewalker did. I'm not sure what to do with my very modest collection (I'm new at this):

Taxman - Deduction Barrel Aged
North Coast - Old Rasputin XIX Barrel Aged
Surly - Darkness 2016
Sweet Water - Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout
Great Divide - Oatmeal Yeti Imperial Stout
Central Waters - Nineteen (I'm leaning towards sitting on this one)
Arrogant Bastard Ale
New Holland - Dragon's Milk Bourbon Barrel Aged
Dogfish Head - World Wide Stout
Lake Effect - Barrel Aged Imperial Stout
Track 7 - Nukin' Futz

In your experience, which should I just consume right away and which can I sit on for a while? WWBaD? Most of these beers are new to me, and I'm ok with not trying them fresh as long as they age well.

Thanks!

 

The worst thing I've found is holding onto a beer having never experienced it, then opening it one day to find that I don't like it, usually concluding that it would have been better fresher.

Black Tuesday you will undoubtedly want to age more of, but the unwritten rule I just made up right now, is that you can't age a beer without drinking it fresh first. Besides that BT is relatively easy to get more of via trade with a Bruery mule, Alesmith (along with Bruery) are sold in the grocery stores in my neck of the woods.

These are really big beers too, I would recommend getting a friend or two to help you taste test what you got to see if you should get more for aging.

 

Many beers that aren't bottle conditioned do continue to develop over time. I'd suggest picking up Vintage Beer by Patrick Dawson, it's a good read.

 

Is it kindle compatible would you know?

 

I'd get a paper copy as I think you'll want to write some notes in it.
And Ridgewalker_1999 and WIBeerSnob I"d recommend you pick it up too. I'd agree with the drink one fresh and age one, but if you aren't going to get another one for sure, to the original question, drink the Speedway fresh as it has coffee added and that will fade, but the Black Tuesday I believe was really made to age and many people feel it is much better aged as at 20% or so it too hot fresh.

 

Thanks, appreciate that.

 

I'm from California and have drank all those beers. I would recommend Drinking the Alesmith fresh, aging the Black Tuesday at least a year if not 2 ( its pretty hot/boozy fresh ), and you can probably drink the white chocolate now or it will also age well the first year.

In other words spread the beer out through the year.
Alesmith- now
White Chocolate- 6 months
Black Tuesday- 1 year
Decide what you like, then hit me up and I can trade you them all again lol.
That Black Tuesday can age for a bit. I just had a 2010 Port Barrel Black Tuesday earlier in the year and that beer was still a monster. It will go awhile.