Stone Double Bastard better fresh or aged?

My tasting group and I had 3 years (09-11) worth of DB, and we all agreed that older vintages were best. IIRC the hops fade of and leave it tasting super caramely.

 

if you haven't had it then you must drink fresh. Peaks around 6-7 years is what i've found.

 

I love it with a few years on it, but I'm a malt head.

 

Put the one bottle you bought in the cellar. Then next year, buy a fresh one and drink them side by side to compare. I think it's better aged, I've had up to two years old.

 

Age as far as you can. I've had 4-5 years on it and it gets great.

 

as tasty as it is with some age on it, i tend to prefer double bastard fresh. pretty widely available though, why not pick up a 2nd bottle to tuck away and enjoy one now? (or as suggested above age the one you have and next year buy one fresh)

 

Makes me regret drinking mine. haha but I'll probably just go and pick up two more tomorrow. I'm hoping there's more but I can't imagine they're all gone.

 

Drink it now if you have never tried it.

 

Do yourself a favor and pop the cap and dump it out ..... gawd I hate this beer!! It's not even the beers fault .. it's bc some of my bastid buddies kept "topping my glass off" with a 3L last year .... must have consumed 1.5L of it myself. Never again ......

 

It's great fresh and even better old. Just don't drink it between 1 1/2 and 3 years old. That seems to be an awkward time for it. I had a 6-year-old bottle that was incredible. Huge caramel notes but beautifully balanced. Totally different animal than fresh.

 

One of my favorite beers. This year's batch seemed extremely hot to me (thus needs some time), I have 5 more that I'm going to sit on and open about every 6 months to a yr or so and see what happens. I'm usually so excited for this beer that I've never been able to hold off guzzling them down before.

 

I think this years is more balanced than previous years. Less of a hop burst. I love it fresh and aged and with the vertical epic coming to and end, i''ve started one with double bastard and old guardian.

So...awesome fresh and aged. Buy a few, do both