Your home beer cellar 2020.

Mine is definitely shrinking. I actually maintain a spreadsheet because at some point a few years ago it was just spiraling out of control and I needed to track what I had, vintage, ABV etc. so that I could rotate beer into the beer fridge in a somewhat deliberate manner. My cellar was at one point above 350 bottles (peak). Pre-COVID it was probably around 250 and it’s now at 217.

I’d love to get the rest of the beers currently in the “cellar” (some boxes in a dark corner of my garage) into the beer fridge, and then never have beers stored at room temp after that. I think the fridge holds about 150 bottles (depending on format) so I have a ways to go. Most of these are bombers and 750s.

 

At our previous home I always had about two hundred bottles on hand. Since we moved into our new home I've tried to keep it at a hundred bottles or less, half of that being lambic. When we moved I realized that a good amount of those bottles never should've been cellared in the first place so now I rarely ever keep anything other than lambic for more than a year. I also now have two different beers fridges, one in the basement and one in the garage. Both are full right now but it's easier to keep things in front of you when they're in a fridge as opposed to being in boxes.

 

I've just about killed mine. There's some Westy 12 and a few Cantillon and a couple BA 3rd Coast but that's it. Three years ago I had hundreds of bottles but I got tired of popping bottles that were past prime so I killed off most of what I had.

 

I am purposely shrinking mine because we are moving this fall. Down from way, way too many to just way too many.

 

At this point I'd say for most people it isn't about aging the beers but about having a stash or stockpile so you have great options.

 

I agree with this. I have a small stash of about 20 bottles left that have been aged for 3-4 years. But anymore I don't see any gains from sitting on them. I also read that aging does little for the beer in most cases so I am stopping the practice.
Cheers

 

I've never had a beer cellar either but I have got to try some aged examples. Personally I think certain beers like Bigfoot and Narwhal gain something extra with age but it is going to boil down to the individual whether the changes over time are a good thing or a bad thing.

 

The only time I see some benefit is if a beer is very hot and letting it sit for a few months could mellow out the ABV. I had a few like this and time did help some. Regarding any flavor improvement I honestly have not noticed that very much if at all.

 

Agree, I have a lot more in my fridge than normal due to the current times. I always used to snag extra items (high ABV) to age but I just don't see the payback of sitting on them. I figure if I want a nice heavy stout just enjoy now rather than stash away.

 

I didn’t have a “cellar” until I found a nice local guy that travels to Side Project twice a month. Now my cellar has started because I have access to things I didn’t before. I’m buying more because I assume eventually the proxy option will go away. Some bottles I’m saving to share which are being aged, but only once I’ve purposefully aged a bottle just to see what happens (Surly - Darkness ‘17). It is still aging.

 

Mine is about the same as it was three years ago. There's stuff in there that should never have been cellared in the first place. I'd say I'll get round to it eventually, but I never will.

Besides, "CELLAR TURD GIVEAWAY" has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

 

Mine has grown a bit actually as I used to keep it in balance with monthly Stout Appreciation Nights with select friends, but that had to stop and I didn't stop buying new and interesting stouts to take. So while I had around 300 in February, I'm closer to 400 now. I really need to start binge drinking or something!

 

Quarantine (and homeschooling) definitely helped me pare down my cellar/hoard. I probably had a couple hundred bottles or so, and could never find the special occasion to drink them. And like others have said, I had way too many older "trophy" beers just sitting there and when I ended up drinking them, I was very underwhelmed. They tasted old and faded and were basically ticks.

Moving forward I'm making a concerted effort to avoid chasing and hoarding older beers and drink fresher. We'll see how it goes.

 

Out of the ones I tracked, I went from about 150 down to 60. There is a little lambic left but it's going quickly and a lot of BA stouts I just don't like drinking in this weather.

I don't like cellaring beer. I just buy more than I drink and have been trying to reduce it but didn't make much progress until now. I look forward to completely running out.

 

Mine maxed out at 175 about 5 years ago, and has been declining ever since then. I was drinking all the oldest stuff and realizing that most were past prime, so I quit adding new stuff. Unfortunately a lot of the youngest stuff got old by the time I got to it. I'm down to around 25 now, and I've added maybe 10 new bottles in the last 6 months, but it's stuff that I know will be good in three years and I'll drink it well before then. And I'm still drinking the cellar down during this COVID period.

 

When I was first getting big into craft beer and I had access to a lot of singles I made the mistake of buying almost everything I wanted to try regardless of what I already had. I thought stocking up would be good at first to have a nice variety but after a while I had too many beers that were going to be past their prime. I thought I might share more with some beer buddies but then people end up getting different jobs and working different hours, and before I knew it I acquired too much beer to drink, and I didn't have enough time to drink them. It was probably a few hundred at it's peak. Because I've been home lately I've been trying to tackle a lot of those old beers from 2016-17. I even see an occasional beer from 2015 when picking them out. I wish I had made a spreadsheet because a lot of times I forget what I even have. I purposely left a lot of sours to age knowing they could last a while, but some of the stouts and Belgians aren't as great after a few years. Some of the beers surprise me at how good they still taste though, like when I have a 3yr old stout that is still dark rich and chocolatey. I probably still have a good hundred or so beers to go. I haven't really been buying beers lately so hopefully I can get the cellar down to a more manageable size soon.