stouts with coffee. aged vs fresh

Sounds promising!

 

I think we need to start discussing this topic in the right terms. I just cracked a BCBCS bottled in November a couple of weeks ago, and the coffee was already very noticeably diminished from the fresher one I had at Christmastime, and the beer was just not as good.

The beer will age well. Its base is BCBS, of course it will be good with some age. It's a world-class beer that everyone recognizes will age well for 3, 4, even 5 years. But it will not have much, if any coffee flavor if you cellar it for 6-9 months. Mileage will of course vary depending on the beer, but the coffee will fade fairly quickly over time. The consideration is NOT whether the beer will be any good a year or two down the line, because any well made 10%+ stout will be, regardless of whether it was made with coffee. The consideration should be whether the beer benefits from the coffee presence that is there when the beer is fresh. IMO, the coffee is the reason to buy a beer made with coffee (duh). So, why on Earth would I want to age it and lose that distinctive characteristic that makes the beer distinctive?

 

My point is that the "diminishing coffee" claims are overblown. Instead of being a 10 on coffee it may be an 8 after two years. First world problems.

I did a count yesterday, I'm down to a paltry eleven left. Please send me your over the hill Coffees!

 

Srs.

 

Completely agree. The 2010 we had about two weeks ago was, in my opinion, the best of the bunch ('10,'11,'12). The coffee was still alive and seriously kicking.

 

I agree about the 2010. Had one recently and was very surprised how much coffee flavor it had. Didn't have that year fresh though, but it is definitely going strong.

 

This thread leads me to believe that there are a lot of people who can't distinguish between coffee flavor from roasted grains and coffee flavor from coffee.