Started getting into shelf-aging, any tips?

Yes, don't age beers if you don't know what your looking to gain from doing so. That's not snarky

 

This forum is really good about tackling about 10-12 beers you should have in your cellar. Just paw through 5 or 6 pages and you'll get a good idea of what beers are in our cellars.

Lambics win. Period. They're not my favorite, but they're predictable to change, (for the better?), over time. I hope you like tart beers. The beers listed above are good. Look for BIG oaked styled beers too. They tend to do well.

One rule I try to follow when I'm cellaring is I buy 3 of anything I'm going to cellar. One to drink, one to share, and one to tuck away for later to see how it comes out. So my rule of thumb is that you should buy 3+ of a single style and brand of beer.

 

Not to be a jerk, but there's already a million threads on this very same thing. But to answer it quickly, there is absolutely no definitive timeframe/schedule/system to aging anything. None. Zero. Period. No one has yet to prove anything solid because every beer that has ever been aged has been in a different climate, different space, different area of the World even. Every single person gets different results and their tastes are different as well, so there really is nothing anyone can tell you that will help you. We don't know your beers' history, nor your tastes, nor are we aware of the complete climate you have them aging in, so no one is going to be able to tell you with a definite answer what you're looking for. Beer aging may seem like a science to those new to it, but it's far from it. People have been experimenting for years and nothing solid has come from it other than a slew of opinions. That said, I age beers myself, but I base the time on previous experiences with the beers as well as what I think/hope they'll do. That doesn't always pan out either and I've been cellaring for four years now.

 

Drink that Rogue Chocolate Stout soon

 

Will a beer develop/age if you cellar it after it has already been cooled in a fridge around 45 degrees?

 

Yes it will

 

The biggest question you have to ask yourself is "What do I want to achieve with aging this beer?" Yes, there are certain styles and brews that age better than others, but you need to know why you're aging it. For example, I'm aging a 2013 Abyss. I've had it at 1 year and thought it was fantastic, but I disliked the amount of tannin that I got from the wood, so I'm hoping that at least another year on it will help dissipate that flavor and feel. I'm also aging a couple of 2013 BCBS. Fresh, there was way too much bourbon for me. I'll try it again at one year and two years in hopes that the bourbon will mellow out a bit so that the base stout can shine through. I've seen a lot of people on here try to age things like Breakfast Stout or Backwoods Bastard. Maybe they want to see if they can achieve something different with those beers, but I've always felt like they've been perfect fresh, as they are well balanced, and I personally never saw a reason to age them.

It always helps of course to have multiples so that you can try it fresh and then have one or two to age if you think that aging it will provide a better experience for you. If it's something rare and you're unable to acquire multiple bottles, just look it up on here and see what people have to say about it. Luckily I got to have that 2012 Abyss on tap so I could gain a better understanding of what I as looking to achieve from it, but even then I had researched it a bit to see what others had experienced from it.

You're off to a good start though, sir!