Wicked Weed

Those guys are making such killer beers, I don't know that I would be able to hold on to them. I'm sure with a little time they'll be wonderful, but they're also really really good right now.

Lay a couple bottles down, give us a full report in a few years.

 

I asked Walt from Wicked Weed about cellaring their beer at the Succession release, he told me he finds that 9-18 months seems to be the sweet spot. I guess I will find out in about six months.

 

I've been holding on to Montmaretto since I got it. I'm thinking about giving it 8 months or so.

 

I talked to Walt at the Red Angel release about that too. He didn't give me a time frame but he did say they should age well. I have been sitting on some Oblivion bottles because I think they have enough residual sweetness to do something interesting in a year or so. We'll see. The Funkatorium started serving vintage bottles not too long ago, so I'll be curious to try some next time I'm down that way.

 

Had a b1 of Black Angel (2013) about a month or so ago, and it was absolutely phenomenal. Totally different beer. Red, Golden and White Angels are all really sweet/juicy and great fresh, but could probably stand to use some time to let them funk up a bit if you're into that.

 

How can they comment on "the sweet spot" being 9-18 months when the beer was released 2 months ago?

 

He was talking about their barrel aged beers in general. I was just stating it happen to be at the Succession release that I got a chance to talk to him.

 

I've been aging/cellaring WW bottles since they first started coming out a couple years ago. My experience is by no means comprehensive and it's all just one man's opinion, but here are some general observations I've had:

Most WW bottles, particularly many of the earlier batches, have come out a little young and needed to sit a little while to reach their full potential. Black Angel, Genesis, and Oblivion specifically have all gotten a lot funkier and more complex with about a year on them. I haven't opened a b1 Black Angel in a while, but I do have a few left so I'm glad to hear it's doing well.

Same with all of the saison/farmhouse stuff. Particularly Serenity, which is significantly better after about a year. One thing I will also say though is there has been a lot of batch variation early on. Certain batches of certain bottles were just better in general out of the gate than others, so they probably age better too. I've found this to be the case mainly with Genesis and Black Angel. Oblivion has been pretty consistent every batch.

A couple others I'll remark on - the best and most significant change I've seen between when it was fresh and with about a year of cellaring was with Malice. Man did that go from pretty pedestrian to a funk monster! Really wish I had another bottle of it still. Also, Dark Arts tasted the EXACT same after about 9 months as it did fresh (which is to say it was great). But I was surprised it hadn't really changed at all, for good or bad.

The fruited Angels are all great and I suspect will all get better with a little age, but it hasn't been long enough to say yet.

 

I know they're not the barrel aged beers OP asked about but I've had bretticent, and serenity with a year and thought each were better than fresh, if you want more funk.