Cellaring Beers

[tsimonitis]

Now that I have jumped into the craft beer world with both feet I thought about cellaring some beers. I started by putting away some Old Rasputin RIS. I have been reading that imperial stouts and barleywines (gonna pick up a bottle of Schfly Barleywine this weekend) tend to cellar best. So I have two questions:

1. Any suggestions on beers to cellar?

2. What do you have in the cellar?

 

[jimmypa]

Now that I have jumped into the craft beer world with both feet I thought about cellaring some beers. I started by putting away some Old Rasputin RIS. I have been reading that imperial stouts and barleywines (gonna pick up a bottle of Schfly Barleywine this weekend) tend to cellar best. So I have two questions:

1. Any suggestions on beers to cellar?

2. What do you have in the cellar?

I'm also in the same boat and interested in this. Thanks for posting! I was also wondering if there are any types of guidelines or special procedures while storing. For ex. temp/right side up or on their sides/how long they will keep?

 

[KPP]

Good article here on the topic...

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/store

I pretty much only store Stouts. At least on purpose....some beer gets age by accident, cause I keep buying other stuff before I finish off what i'd previously purchased (kinda like cigars in that way).

Most the other beers that are good for storing, i.e. Barleywines, I just haven't gotten into all that much yet....and haven't cared enough for the ones I have to buy in any quantity to age.

 

[mthhurley]

Yea...stouts, strong ales and anything wood aged will likely age well.

Do not age IPA's (exception is DFH120 minute, technically not an IPA anyway). Hop oils and flavor degrade pretty quickly, so most IPA's are meant to be consumed within months of bottling.

I "cellar" in my basement crawl space...anywhere from 55-65 degrees in there. Heat and light are the enemy.

 

[tsimonitis]

Mike,

Watcha got in that crawlspace?

 

[bmony]

You can also store any beer that has been bottle conditioned meaning that a small amount of yeast was added to the bottle before the beer was put in the bottle. Bottle conditioned beers tend to have a noticeable difference in taste as the yeast is will be consuming sugars in the beer as the beer is resting.

I have been aging some bourbon barell and boubon barell coffe stouts from a local brewery for a few years now and I notice the flavors tend meld together and the flavors are much smoother. I also have six 22 oz bottles of Exodus which is bottle conditioned and want to compare how the flavors change at 1 year intervals.

 

[SkinsFanLarry]

Yea...stouts, strong ales and anything wood aged will likely age well.

Do not age IPA's (exception is DFH120 minute, technically not an IPA anyway). Hop oils and flavor degrade pretty quickly, so most IPA's are meant to be consumed within months of bottling.

I "cellar" in my basement crawl space...anywhere from 55-65 degrees in there. Heat and light are the enemy.

Temperture, heat and light are important my brothers and Mike is correct!

Aging right now for me:

Stone - Belgo-Anise Imperial Stout (7/11) - 2 bottles
Olde Hickory - The Event Horizon Stout (11/11) - 1 Bottle
Olde Hickory - Lindley Park (10/11) - 1 Bottle
Stone - 11/11/11 (plan on opening it on 12/12/12) 1 Bottle....for now!
Brooklyn - Black Ops 2011 (12/11)- 1 Bottle
Mother Earth Brewing - Silent Night Imperial Stout (12/11) - 1 Bottle
Foothills Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout (1/12) - 3 Bottles

And if it has a cork in it I do sit it on it's side, but that's just me!

 

[mthhurley]

Mike,

Watcha got in that crawlspace?

beer

 

[Tnt Cigarguy]

beer

Did someone say BEER!

 

[AussieMitch]

I've got a bunch of brewdog abstrackts cellaring, some Mikkeller, Nogne Ø, and Sierra Nevada Barleywine in there too.

 

[BeerAdvocate]

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine is coming out soon. I always grab a case or two to cellar.
I have approx 50 bottles of various Imperial Stouts and Barleywines in my basement aging away!

 

[joepais]

My only suggestion is to make sure you drink at least one of the brews you are cellaring fresh. So you have something to compare the cellared beer to in you mind.

Also one brew that is awesome with age and is often overlooked is Samichlaus Bier

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/285/776

 

[cvm4]

Just keep in mind if you can't get it to a perfect 55-60 degrees and it's a warm-ish place 70-75 degrees, then it'll age faster. This is my problem right now. I'm looking into getting a beer fridge. The best one I can find is basically a freezer-less refrigerator. Wine coolers are too small and bar fridges cost too much.

 

[FireDoc83]

I put all my craft brews in my cellar. but only a few make it for aging.


Sent from the voices in my head using Tapatalk

 

[BeerAdvocate]

Belgian Quads such as Rochefort 10 & St Bernardus Abt 12(my #1 favorite beer)are also great for aging

 

[SkinsFanLarry]

Just keep in mind if you can't get it to a perfect 55-60 degrees and it's a warm-ish place 70-75 degrees, then it'll age faster. This is my problem right now. I'm looking into getting a beer fridge. The best one I can find is basically a freezer-less refrigerator. Wine coolers are too small and bar fridges cost too much.

Cliff, it can also take a turn for the worse quicker too.

 

[smokinghole]

I've experimented with aging some beer. I have some DFH Palo Santo bottled in 06 or 09...I forget really. I also have some Troegs Flying Mouflan from 09. I have abused that goddman beer. It got shitty after a year. I held on to it. It got okay. Now after three full years it's good again. The massive amount of American C hops makes for non-graceful aging if you ask me. Oxidized centennial, or cascade hops is asking for a gym sock flavor with in six months. The only thing that saves barley wines is that the have intense malt backgrounds once the hop flavor fades to just hop bitterness.

I personally think that Belgians age well to a certain point unless they have a brettanomyces in them. The brettanomyces adds a certain bitterness and acidity that normal brewing yeasts don't. The other beers I think age well are stouts due to the highly roasted malts. The bitterness associated with the black malts used to make the beer are not necessarily going to fade in time like hop bitterness. So they stand up well to aging. Sweet beers from the start will only get sweeter, unless they have a wild yeast living in the beer. So with a wild yeast like various strains of brettanomyces, these beers will continue to develop with age. One of the reasons Orval is my favorite Trappist beer.

 

[NickThePyro]

I could never get myself to cellar beers. I know my local bottle shop ages some of theirs and releases them special times of the year such as Christmas so I can just pay a little more and not go through the hassle. Just having beers sitting there are way too tempting to just crack open, I never have been last longer than 2 weeks tops. Respect for you guys who can, one day I will probably get into it.

 

[davewittwer]

digging up an old thread here but i have a question for you guys that cellar beer. I used to store my beer in a cool dark corner in my basement and never had any issues. My new place has a crawl space but it's very warm as there is in floor radiant heat and that where the feeds from my boiler run. Do any of you guys use a cooler to cellar your beer? Any other thoughts. The garage isn't a good option in our climate i don't think.

 

[danmdevries]

digging up an old thread here but i have a question for you guys that cellar beer. I used to store my beer in a cool dark corner in my basement and never had any issues. My new place has a crawl space but it's very warm as there is in floor radiant heat and that where the feeds from my boiler run. Do any of you guys use a cooler to cellar your beer? Any other thoughts. The garage isn't a good option in our climate i don't think.

Don't let it get warm, and keep it outta the light.
A wine cooler maybe? Regular cooler would eventually warm up.
Dirt floor in the crawl? Maybe you could dig out a space. I put a sump pit in my crawl, about 2.5ft deep, plastic liner and a lid. Never did anything with it, but I suspect it would work as a cellaring area.