Suggestions for a Newbie

Gueuze, Lambic, Wheatwines, Barleywines, Imp Stouts. Start with those.

Try not to age beers that are coffee infused, or fruit infused, or whatever infused. Those flavors will fade overtime (90% of the time).

I can't really give too many recommendations... but I have had great experiences aging the following:

DFH WWS
DFH Palo Santo
SN Bigfoot
Boulevard Saison Brett
bcbs
MOAS
Cantillon
3F

 

Also try aging stuff that has brett yeast in it. If you like the flavor of brett, you'll love aged brett beers. A good one that I think got better with age is Jolly Pumpkin Oro De Calabaza.

 

I love Saison-Brett with a year on it.

 

Mission dark seas, this should be pretty available to you, I've had some sitting for a year now and they are staying very consistent, stone irs has a good record as well

 

I am not into Lambics and brets so all I ever bother with is big, harsh hot imperial stouts, and barleywines. I have a very small number of very long term aging bottles, but most things I plan to drink within about 3 years (barley wines perhaps a year more). I would suggest some of the following (might be a bit mid-western, but I am sure there are other Cali equivalents for the Michigan beers):

Bells expedition stout
Founders imperial stout
Dark horse plead the 5th
Sierra Nevada Narwhal
North Coast Old Rasputin
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot
North Coast Old Stock
Founders Old Curmudgeon

All of these are relatively easy to find in winter, and are really very good examples of Imperial Stouts and Barleywines (Bigfoot and Old Stock are super hard to beat).

Some of the barrel aged imperial stouts are pretty hot when young and can benefit from 6-12 months to soften and become more integrated but I don't think they improve after that - they often become a sticky sweet mess because they have already been aged in the barrel and sometimes pick up oxidized notes that I don't like if aged in the bottle for years.

I would also suggest only putting away 3 or 4 bottles of each beer to start with (this is why I tend to age 12oz beers mostly) and drink one fresh, another after the first 6-12 months (take notes!) and another after 18 months. I tried aging Boulevard Dark Truth and within 12 months it was way off, and had picked up some super funky flavors from the Belgian yeast used in it. I will never age another Belgian yeast imperial stout and I now have 4 of the damn things to drink (but that might just be my preference / tastes)

I quickly learned that Bells Expedition is fantastic at 1 year but doesn't get better after that (at least for my tastes), but Founders Imperial stout is still quite harsh and might need a bit longer (or might not improve at all - time will tell).

Best advice I can give is start a bit smaller, experiment, and drink a sample regularly to see how things are going.

 

Not to discount your experience, but it's worth pointing out that our Belgian yeast strain is only used for primary fermentation and is centrifuged out before bottling with a different yeast strain for bottle conditioning. Our house Belgian yeast strain is a clean yeast that doesn't include any brettanomyces.

 

Interesting - that is really cool to know! So I guess I am curious now. I really like fresh Dark Truth, so based on my aging experience I had figured that it was something in the yeast and left it at that and just planned to drink fresh and not age any, but from what you say it isn't necessarily a yeast thing. I don't typically like Belgian styles so now I am re-visiting - back in a sec need to grab one of the old ones that I didn't like from the cellar!

OK- I'm back Boulevard Dark Truth. 12oz date on bottle reads best by 12/2/15 (I guess about a year old, but not sure). Aged in my beer closet at ~60-65.

Poured into a pint - very effervescent with a tall 3 inch head - good head retention. Looks good - pitch black, heavy lacing all the right things.
Toasted nuts and caramel, hint of coffee on the nose with a just a slight hint of tartness/sourness.
Rich subdued coffee on the palate with good malt backbone and just a hint of tart/sour and an interesting very slight 'funk' (not bad funk - not quite James Brown funky, but getting close - Sly & the family stone perhaps?). So hard to describe - it is actually way nicer than I was remembering - I like this and someone will have to wrestle me to get the rest of it. Perhaps the last time I tried it I got a bad bottle - wasn't stored correctly? Anyway, this one is nice - I like it.

Hmmm - best I can describe is that there is a sort of acidic light roasted Highland Ethiopian coffee thing going on (yes, yes, I know - super douchy foodie statement - mock me at will). It isn't unpleasant at all - in fact I quite like it. Puts me a bit in mind of a really subdued version Founders Breakfast stout - a teaspoon of very lightly roasted coffee (even though I am pretty sure Dark Truth doesn't come anywhere near any coffee). Something about the lighter fruitier notes have transformed into a more tart flavor that accentuates the coffee notes from the roasted malt.

Thank you Jermis - I might have been quite wrong about this - I have to run out now (well walk - I have just had a pint of 10% stout) to find some fresh and compare...

Adeezy - sorry to hijack your thread! To bring it back to the point - keep trying your aging beers to find out what you like! If this proves nothing else to me it shows that preferences are very specific to individuals when it comes to aged beers and you might prefer something with a few years age, while I prefer the fresh version, so experiment a bit to find what you like.

 

I haven't had one I didn't like but the dark seas Russian imperial stout is my favorite from them