What beers to age?

Prepare yourself...

 

Shocktop Wheat IPA turns into Boogoop with 7 years on it.

In all seriousness, you're way better off aging hoppy barley wines like Bigfoot than trying to get DIPA's to become barley wines. I would guess that certain batches of Yulesmith would have a chance, though.

 

First of all, there have been entire wars fought by our country - Happy 4th of July, everybody - with less fervor and passion than the war that has been waged between the different factions either supporting or against aging DIPA's. If you're curious, some DIPA's that usually get suggested for aging are Dogfish Head's 120 minute, 90 minute, and Burton Baton.

Mostly, I'd say to stick to aging Barleywines, Imperial Stouts, Wilds/Sours, and Belgian Strong/Quads. Try to stick to over 8% ABV. You'll find multiple lists in various threads of suggested specific beers, and if you frequent this subtopic, you'll pick up on some easily attained candidates fairly quickly.

The big question you need to ask yourself is, "Do I want to see changes in a beer or do I just want to see a beer stay the same over time?" If you're looking for a beer to change (and hopefully improve to your particular personal liking), try to stick to only aging a beer that meets the above criteria BUT also has something slightly off to your tastes. For example, it might have too strong of a hot alcohol finish or too prominent of a certain flavor that you'd like to mellow.

Aging beer is kind of like betting when gambling. Play to your best odds and don't age anything you're not willing to lose. The fun is in the experiment.

 

This post should be a sticky on top of this subforum.

 

My theory, before you age anything, answer two questions. Why are you aging this beer? What do you hope to accomplish by aging this beer. If you cannot answer both of these questions I would stay away from aging beer.

A no doubt DIPA does not become a Barleywine. When a DIPA straddles the lines between the two styles when fresh, it will straddle the line with age. Feel free to sit on these for a little bit. If you are talking about a straight forward DIPA, hop driven and minimal malt contribution, there is nothing to carry the beer once the hops start to drop off. I would advise against aging these.

 

First, apostrophes indicate possession, not pluralization. So it's "beers", not "beer's".

Second, to first order you don't age beer. The only style that I think unarguably is worth aging is lambic, with everything else it's opinion.

 

Experimentation is the only way to find out what your palate likes. You can't know if you like an older version of the beer if you've never had a fresh version to compare it to.

I think for anyone new to the world of craft beer, you probably shouldn't be aging anything until you've figured out what you like, and have had numerous examples in said style of beer you are even thinking about aging. I think I had over a thousand different beers before I started aging anything other than Bigfoot (of course part of that equation is that I was in school and not making the type of $$$/space where I could afford beers or the space to age them).

One thing I think you have to avoid, is when people say 'beer x is going downhill,' that it equates to being worthless to continue aging or holding onto. Assuming the person is giving a 100% honest and objective opinion, it doesn't mean that the beer won't hit its stride down the road. Sometimes beers just go through phases for whatever reason.

If you're in this game long enough, we all make purchases we wish we didn't in hindsight, and we all drink a beer or two in conditions that are not ideal, often down the road. Just live and learn.

 

But you're not even going to comment on "hoopy" beers?

 

I assumed he meant that the beers were like Ford Prefect, you know, "one hoopy frood".

(Also I didn't read the OP.)

 

I only age things I want the alcohol to mellow out in and sours. I didn't know what it could do until I tried an aged barleywine at 11+% that I thought was hot fresh, and it had almost no trace of alcohol. Aging DIPAs is silly. Aging 120 minute could work though, considering that thing is the ultimate barleywine that's being described as a DIPA. It's not hoppy fresh, and it's also jet fuel, so I'd like to try a 5 year old bottle.

 

There are no rules for aging. Age what you want and watch it change. If you find a beer you like buy a few bottles and try one in a year and see how it changes. I like to age anything with a high ABV and document the change. You will hear so many conflicting "expert opinions" you will never know what the "truth" is. In brewing and most things in beer, there are no rules just past experiences to go on. Store some away for a year and give them a try and see which beers you think got better/worse and go with that. I good place to start would be one of each style of big beers (8.5 ABV and up) and set them back and drink one now. Make sure you take notes so you can remember what it tasted like fresh. Cheers!

 

2009 Bigfoot was amazing yesterday and we tried it right after Utopias there are some that are amazing.

 

Some overly hoppy beers can age well but they have to have a decently high ABV. Some DIPAs might not be high enough, and most are just meant to be drank fresh. I had one DIPA (Weyerbacher Eleven) that was over 10% and I'm sure was hoppy at first, but six years later it had lots of barleywine qualities to it. Tasted fine, didn't blow me away but it wasn't disgusting.

Sometimes with stuff like this it's a shot in the dark.

 

I had a 5 year old bottle a couple weeks ago with some friends and it was extremely sweet. I liked it but 4 ounces was enough.

 

That's weird cause boogoop turns to shock top with 7 years on it. #thecycleoflife

 

That's crazy man, my seven year old goose island ipa tastes like king Henry when i pour a few drops of pappy in it!

In all seriousness, Generally speaking even DIPA barley wine straddlers gain little unless you don't like the hops. Behemoth is best fresh and gets awkward after year 2/3 iMO. And time made the2011 devil dancer even worse!

always drink fresh if possible. Never aged if below 8% or if there's lots of hops or coffee or other oil-based components.

Oh also don't age growlered beer unless counter pressured

 

Cellaring beer is 5% intent...60% overbuying and not having enough time...35% ISO blaeber/rare/vanilla/henry

 

Great point. So true.Sometimes I buy a beer or two with the intent to cellar but mostly it's stuff I haven't gotten around to drinking and now it's 1-3 years old.

Dope