Aging Sours

I’m just starting to add a few sours to my modest cellar and have a few general questions:

1. I’m assuming all lambics age well, but do certain sub-styles (gueuze, unblended lambic, etc.) age better/longer than others?

2. I’ve heard conflicting opinion on upright vs. laid aging, I’m assuming laid down is better to keep the cork moistened?

3. Are there any general guidelines on how long to age lambics and other sours? I’ve seen/heard that some age up to 20-30 years, but didn’t know if there was any consistency or general rules of thumb on aging.

4. Any recommendations of specific sours that age particularly well? So far I’ve got a few from Cantillon, Drie Fonteinen, Girardin and a few others.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Question 1 : Ive had some A MA ZING Fruit lambics that stood time very veyr good ! nothing i can describe.

Gueuze is second in place for aging as it makes a slightly different taste , but remains around the same , just develops better i think .....

Lambics i’m not sure , my favourit are lambics, but except for fruit lambics i didn’t have any lambics aged .... lambics especially young ones are verry fruity and i personally think that the fruityness will mellow out over time and looses everything a real lambic has in taste ...

Question 2: very simple , when corked laid down , when it’s capped , upright.

Question 3: i would say age as long as you want .... if i had any good lambics - gueuzes i would at least age them for 30 years ... i’ve tasted some from 30 years old and they were all amazing !!
so i would rather age them to 40-50 year old rather than 20-30 ...

Question 4 : from all aged ones i’v tasted i’d say De Cam age best ... it’s amazing whe it’s young and even more amazing when at least 5 years old ... 2nd place would be : 3 fonteinen , Hanssens , Oud beersel .
Girardin , cantillon , lindemans , chapeau are better at younger years i think ...

and besides lambics and gueuzes , Old Brown ( oud bruin ) ages even better over time !
best sours i had to date were 90% Flemish Old Browns ....

Originally posted by BelgBeerGeek
Question 1 : Ive had some A MA ZING Fruit lambics that stood time very veyr good ! nothing i can describe.

Gueuze is second in place for aging as it makes a slightly different taste , but remains around the same , just develops better i think .....

Lambics i’m not sure , my favourit are lambics, but except for fruit lambics i didn’t have any lambics aged .... lambics especially young ones are verry fruity and i personally think that the fruityness will mellow out over time and looses everything a real lambic has in taste ...

Question 2: very simple , when corked laid down , when it’s capped , upright.

Question 3: i would say age as long as you want .... if i had any good lambics - gueuzes i would at least age them for 30 years ... i’ve tasted some from 30 years old and they were all amazing !!
so i would rather age them to 40-50 year old rather than 20-30 ...

Question 4 : from all aged ones i’v tasted i’d say De Cam age best ... it’s amazing whe it’s young and even more amazing when at least 5 years old ... 2nd place would be : 3 fonteinen , Hanssens , Oud beersel .
Girardin , cantillon , lindemans , chapeau are better at younger years i think ...

and besides lambics and gueuzes , Old Brown ( oud bruin ) ages even better over time !
best sours i had to date were 90% Flemish Old Browns ....

Originally posted by NobleSquirrel

Originally posted by BelgBeerGeek
Question 1 : Ive had some A MA ZING Fruit lambics that stood time very veyr good ! nothing i can describe.

Gueuze is second in place for aging as it makes a slightly different taste , but remains around the same , just develops better i think .....

Lambics i’m not sure , my favourit are lambics, but except for fruit lambics i didn’t have any lambics aged .... lambics especially young ones are verry fruity and i personally think that the fruityness will mellow out over time and looses everything a real lambic has in taste ...

Question 2: very simple , when corked laid down , when it’s capped , upright.

Question 3: i would say age as long as you want .... if i had any good lambics - gueuzes i would at least age them for 30 years ... i’ve tasted some from 30 years old and they were all amazing !!
so i would rather age them to 40-50 year old rather than 20-30 ...

Question 4 : from all aged ones i’v tasted i’d say De Cam age best ... it’s amazing whe it’s young and even more amazing when at least 5 years old ... 2nd place would be : 3 fonteinen , Hanssens , Oud beersel .
Girardin , cantillon , lindemans , chapeau are better at younger years i think ...

and besides lambics and gueuzes , Old Brown ( oud bruin ) ages even better over time !
best sours i had to date were 90% Flemish Old Browns ....

First, as long as you understand that in fruit lambics, the fruit will fade over time, the beer will continue to evolve. Second, I would keep all bottles upright. Just keep them in a room that isn’t overly dry and you should be fine. Drie Fonteinen uses plastic corks these days and with Cantillon, I would want to lay them down and risk rusting the cork. There’s really no reason to worry about the cork being kept "wet," as the corks these days are pretty resilient...

I’m pretty certain all the Drie Fonteinen I’ve purchased recently has regular cork, not plastic. The only plastic one I recall was the Hommage.

Also, I think the reason to lay them down with a cork is more for allowing the yeast to settle over a larger surface area to give more contact during long term conditioning.

Lastly, why would the Cantillon cork rust? I assume you mean, the cork leak and the cap rust. They are fine to lay down, I’ve never had any adverse effects or leaking. Besides, Cantillon lays all their bottles down for years.

read it
http://www.ratebeer.com/Beer-News/Article-466.htm

Originally posted by beastiefan2k
read it
http://www.ratebeer.com/Beer-News/Article-466.htm

Originally posted by NobleSquirrel
First, as long as you understand that in fruit lambics, the fruit will fade over time, the beer will continue to evolve.

Sorry if I’m beating a dead horse here: sours are one of the styles that I’m just starting to get into (on the cutting edge here) and I only found a few bits and pieces on previous threads.

Originally posted by puzzl

Originally posted by NobleSquirrel
First, as long as you understand that in fruit lambics, the fruit will fade over time, the beer will continue to evolve.

...which is BS. We’ve been over this so many times. The only fruit that I’ve found to fade is grape, which is almost gone by 5 years and completely absent by the time a beer is a decade old. Raspberry and cherry, however, stick around forever. Seriously. I’ve drank 25-30 year old kriek and framboise—multiple in each category—and they retain vibrant fruit flavors, on occasion even more so than fresh examples, which can be overly acetic.

Originally posted by DA
Also, I think the reason to lay them down with a cork is more for allowing the yeast to settle over a larger surface area to give more contact during long term conditioning.