New here out of Indy any advice on what to keep in cellar vs trade

I would start drinking. There is limited interest in most of those.

Originally posted by X
2000 Alesmith Barley Wine? Are you sure about that? Never heard of an Alesmith bottle that old.

Another thing you could do is look all of these up on this site (as time allows) and see what people who have had them recently are saying. That will be harder with some of the more regularly available ones, but with a little digging, you might be able to find rates with vintages listed. As an example, I just looked up the Stone Bitter Chocolate, and just skimming the top page, most people who have had it recently seem to think it’s held up well. Most of this stuff seems to scream bottle share to me, though as has been mentioned, there may be limited trade interest in specific items.

Plenty of that stuff ages well. If it has been properly cellared, there’s a good chance that, among others, the Chimay Blue, Samichlaus, Cuvee Rene, Orval, Harvey’s Imperial Stout and Gouden Carolus Christmas, will be good. Potentially amazing. But as has been pointed out, they already have a good bit of age on them and they might be starting to go over the hill. If that hasn’t happened yet, it will fairly soon, so I’d drink up. You’ve got enough bottles that the chances are that a few of them will be incredible. I’d drink the Harvey’s Imperial Stout *right now*. Aged, it can be utterly outstanding, but 15 years is a long time, even for a beer like that, and I doubt you’d get much for it in trade.

If you insist on keeping some of it in your cellar, I’d say the Chimay Blue has the best chance of holding up. I’ve had 20-year-old bottles of that which still tasted great. Bit of a gamble though.

I’m not much of a trader, but I’d guess that the Samichlaus magnum would get you some good things. Not sure about the others. They’re generally fairly easily available (apart from the Abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien, which I can’t get here and don’t know much about), and people typically don’t add much value for aged versions. If it was me, I’d just get all my friends round a couple of times and have big tastings with lots of cheese.

I’ll just add my two cents...

I really enjoy aging certain beers (including a lot of the kind of stuff you’ve got), but I don’t generally trade for it. The beers you have with the highest ’trade value’ might be the large format bottles. Some people seek out magnums simply because they’re magnums, and if there’s a cool/good/vintage beer inside, all the better.

If you don’t have a lot of experience drinking vintage beers, then I would put a dent in that lot yourself. By the end of it, you’ll pretty much be an expert on aged beer. Very few people would have the opportunity to drink a lot of the beers you have at the age you have, so you are in a unique position.

Originally posted by Leighton
If you don’t have a lot of experience drinking vintage beers, then I would put a dent in that lot yourself. By the end of it, you’ll pretty much be an expert on aged beer. Very few people would have the opportunity to drink a lot of the beers you have at the age you have, so you are in a unique position.