The defense of aging

Some notes on aging beer:

Hop notes diminish. If you like hop flavours, you may not like aged beer so much as fresh.

Malt notes increase and deepen. If you like malt flavour, you may prefer vintage beers over fresh.

Stong beers of all types tend to produce more attractive flavours when aged than low abv beers. Though I have had some quite drinkable and pleasant vintage low abv beers, they have never been the ones to blow my socks off.

There is no difference between lager and ale when it comes to aging. The same rules apply regarding strength and hop levels. So, a strong lager will produce attractive malt flavours that will far exceed the flavours of a fresh strong lager. Also, any plastic notes from the high alcohol will diminish.

There is much nonsense talked about storage. Keep the bottles from getting damp is all. Dampness will tend to rot labels and rust metal caps. Heat will tend to increase the effects of aging, and cold will reduce the effects of aging. Storing your vintage bottles in a fridge or cold celler makes no sense at all. Better to keep them in your attic.

The effects of aging will be felt on bottle conditioned, cold filtered and pasteurised beer. The amount of condition left in the bottle will largely depend on the seal. Yeast will stop having an impact on the beer after a relatively short time - this will vary depending on circumstances, but after ten years all changes to all beers will be entirely down to oxidization and not the yeast.

The older the bottle the more care you’ll need when pouring. Let really old bottles stand for at least a week. Pour carefully and steadily in one long pour, leaving the bottom bit in the bottle. If you can, watch the neck of the bottle carefully, and when you see the bits coming, stop pouring.

If you want to experiment with aging without wasting good beer, buy a six pack of malt liquor / strong lager, chuck it up in your attic/loft and forget about it for twenty years. Then open and drink. You will be a vintage beer fan for the rest of your life.

I am the thread killer.

Originally posted by Gary
yes waiting for beers to age is tough ,especially if you’re an alcoholic

Originally posted by pepsican
I’m pretty bitter about being an idiot and cellaring beer.

Originally posted by SilkTork
buy a six pack of malt liquor / strong lager, chuck it up in your attic/loft and forget about it for twenty years. Then open and drink. You will be a vintage beer fan for the rest of your life.

Originally posted by CanIHave4Beers

Originally posted by pepsican
I’m pretty bitter about being an idiot and cellaring beer.

Dat old ass ceramic La Trappe doe!

Gonna drink a 2008 Westy 8 right now. Will report later. Good post, Silk Tork! I agree almost completely.

Ok, well I got a bit irritated by people raging against aging the kind of beers that I think obviously taste better with some age on them. So after reading this and being encouraged by Silk Tork’s post, I (stupidly?) cracked my last remaining Westy 8 from 2008. Let me give the story. I bought this at the brewery cafe in March 08, for about 1.8 Euros. The two I had in the cafe were lovely, better, I thought, than the 12 which was still too hot and sweet, but not as good as the Blonde, which is about the best beer I ever had. Hand-carried it back to Japan, and then put it in my closet, which ranges in temperature throughout the year between 7-27 degrees C. No, this is not a cellar, no temperature control, just a closet. But I did not move it, and it did not pass the equator in a ship’s belly. And the temperature changes were always gradual.

How does it drink? Well, I’d say 4.7 to 4.8. Amazing. One of the top 5 beers I have ever had possibly. Huge dried fruits, spicy notes from the yeast, very mild oxidation, sweetness very mellow, lovely appearance and body. Definitely better than fresh, though surely very different.

So, if you only love hoppy IPAs, well, don’t age them, please, drink up! But please stop peaching about the evils of aging. Some beers are truly meant to be aged and then savored.

I will add that I have twice had Westy 12s that were aged for 5 years, by someone else, and who knows the route they traveled, but they were off. This 8 has been always in my hands, and although I did nothing special in aging it except letting it be, it is perfect. Importation by ship can sometimes ruin excellent beers, but aging it yourself is a different story. This is basically my experience all the time. Even with temperatures that reach over 90 degrees F in the summer, the beers I have aged myself have been solid up to 6 years. (And of course these are not IPAs or Pilsners. I know better). Well aged beers are the Holy Grail of the beer lover.

Originally posted by Countbeer

Originally posted by fly
+ if you drink aged beers, you will die.

If you don’t drink beer, you’ll die too!

Originally posted by BMMillsy
(at proper temperature of course)

And that is?

The list of beers that actually improve with age is so small, that we could make a spreadsheet and even put a "peak" estimate of when it hits the jackpot. I’d be willing to take a stab at putting something like this together if there is interest and if something similar doesn’t already exist.