What beers are you ageing?

The Drunken Destrier

Exactly what it says in the title. Only just started taking notice of the stuff I have in the cupboard and must say I'm pleased with the start of a nice collection.

Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout 2011
Chimay Grande Réserve
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 2012 x2
Orval
Rochefort 10 x2
Westvleteren 12 x2
St Bernardus Abt 12
Great Divide Belgian-Style Yeti
Goose Island Bourbon County Vanilla Stout
8 Degrees Winter Ale
8 Degrees Kindred Spirit

Can anyone recommend any others that would be good to age? It doesn't have to be fancy or necessarily meant for ageing, just something that would be interesting to see how it changes.

Also, what are you holding on to?

Staff Infection

Nice collection.

Not really aging them per se but I have a bottle of O'Hara's Leann Folláin and J.W. Lees Moonraker resting in my cabinet for months.
With all this nice weather recently I've been drinking beers more along the lines of pale ales so these two darker beers have lasted longer than they otherwise would have. Was going to crack into them this weekend but I'm curious about aging them now.


In your opinion would these two age well/change in a nice way over time or should I just enjoy them sooner rather than later?

BK92

Nice collection OP, especially the Bourbon County Vanilla Stout.

Currently I'm holding onto:

Bourbon County Stout 2011 x3

3 Fonteinen Armand'4 Oude Geuze Lente

Cantillon Lamvinus 2011

Cantillon Lou Pepe Framboise 2007 (bottled in 2010)

Cantillon Iris 2011

Samichlaus Classic 2011 x3

Westvleteren 12 x6

Thornbridge Bracia x3

Harviestoun Ola Dubh 18 x2

Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary - Grand Cru x3

Thinking of opening the Cantillons over the summer, I've been told that the Lamvinus and the Iris are usually best had the year after. Not sure about the others though.

Ronan cork

Belgian blondes are good for ageing as they change a bit faster then the darks. Orval changes a lot in a year, hommel too. Did a tasting of maredsous blonde with 5 years between then in the abbots a while back and the difference was amazing. The older one was lovely. Colour, smell and taste changed a lot. Turned very honeyish and got darker. Completely different beers. Heard the same of hommel that it gets honeyish with age. There's a pallet of it that's been left for 8 years that may make an appearance at some point. Some aventinus too...we've about 12 500ml bottles of the old porterhouse 10% stout that I've been meaning to do something with too. Forget how old that is now

I've a dogfish head ild school barley wine that's about 3 years old and a 120 min ipa, 2 marriage parfait 2006 a 1.5l rochefort 8 from 2009 a couple of goose island sofie from 2010 and 1 of each of the westvleterens along with a fair few I've only just put away.

Kriek is also a good one to age too. Big changes in relatively short time

tyler71

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think the presence of yeast (i.e. whether the beers are bottle conditioned or not) is one of the main factors in whether a beer improves with age or not. Otherwise the beer just oxidises, which can work out well in a high alcohol beer, but otherwise not so much. So pretty much all the Belgian beers age well, as they're mostly high alcohol and bottle conditioned. I'm not sure about the Leann Follain or the Moonraker but I don't remember yeast at the bottom of the Moonraker and I'm pretty sure O'Hara's filter their beers so don't know how well they'd do, you might be better off just drinking them (aww!). I can't resist drinking any Moonraker I get my hands on anyway, I think it's gorgeous.
I don't think any IPA though should be aged, the hop aromas will just disappear, I remember reading an article where they measured the degree of loss and the summary was basically to drink your IPA as soon as you get it.

munchkin_utd

any opinions on an Orval Blue label?
I have one bought 18months ago still sitting about the place.
It would have been drank long ago but the other 2 were absolutely awful.

Should it now be better or will it improve given even more time?

drumswan

tyler71 wrote: »

I don't think any IPA though should be aged, the hop aromas will just disappear, I remember reading an article where they measured the degree of loss and the summary was basically to drink your IPA as soon as you get it.

Absolutely, the difference in drinking the few IPAs we get here fresh at source compared to off a shelf here is phenomenal.

BeerNut

tyler71 wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think the presence of yeast (i.e. whether the beers are bottle conditioned or not) is one of the main factors in whether a beer improves with age or not. Otherwise the beer just oxidises

I can't speak to the science, but that wouldn't be my experience. Porterhouse Brainblásta isn't bottle conditioned and ages beautifully.

My inclination is usually to drink blonde Belgian beers young, though I've definitely seen vintage Duvel on sale in Brussels, so somebody must reckon it's worth ageing. I've seen advice to drink tripels young but had a bottle of Westmalle Tripel which was a year out of date recently and it was beautiful, though different to the fresh version.

Wine isn't bottle conditioned but there doesn't seem to be any doubt that some good wines will improve with age. I don't see how a different rule would apply to beer.

tyler71

Most good wines improve with age because they're high in tannins, so they go from a level where the tannins are sucking the moisture out of your mouth to a nice smooth level where you can taste the other flavours. Wines that don't have these high tannin levels will start to slowly oxidise their alcohol and develop a sherry/vinegar taste that isn't that nice. However, for high alcohol beers like the ones you've mentioned, the sherry/vinegar taste can blend in well with everything else, whereas for your standard alcohol level beers it doesn't really improve the flavour.

The Drunken Destrier

I need to procure more Lambic I reckon, they're supposed to react well to a bit of age. I think anything that has a bit of a boozy hit could use some age to calm it down. Or, in the case of Victory's Storm King, the harshness of the hops could be curbed to get a smoother beer.

tyler71

I'm finding it difficult to get a hold of any Lambic that doesn't have fruit in it, any recommendations on good places to look?

BeerNut

If there's none in Bradley's or the Abbot's, DrinkStore delivers.

Ronan cork

There's 2009 marriage parfait in the abbots. Also oud beersel, 3 fonteinen, cantillon, Mort subite timmermans and lindemans...

the beer revolu

I posted my ageing beers here before but since then I've radically changed my approach. I decided that if I was to keep storing that sort of range of beers over a long time, I'd need a bigger house. So, I've started working my way through much of what I pictured in that post and start concentrating solely on Lambics and Lambic-style beers.
The only exception to this is 3 bottles of Thomas Hardy Ale and a brick of Westie!

I used this thread as an excuse to finally sort out and catalogue the collection.

Here is what is now in my closet.

Oude Gueuze Boon Marriage Parfait 2000 37.5cl X 5
Oude Gueuze Boon Marriage Parfait 2004 37.5cl X 2
Oude Gueuze Boon Marriage Parfait 2007 37.5cl X 1
Oude Gueuze Boon Marriage Parfait 2008 37.5cl X 1
Oude Gueuze Boon Marriage Parfait 2009 37.5cl X 2
Oude Gueuze Boon a l’Anciene 07-08 37.5cl X 2
Oude Gueuze Boon a l’Anciene 08-09 25cl X 1
Oude Gueuze Boon a l’Anciene 09-10 37.5cl X 2
Cantillon Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio 2010 37.5cl X 3
Cantillon Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio 2010 75cl X 3
Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen Oude Gueuze 2011 37.5cl X 2
Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen Oude Gueuze 2010 75cl X 2
Oud Beersel Oude Gueuze Vieille 2011 37.5cl X 2
Mort Subite Oude Gueuze bb 2014 37.5cl X 3
Cuvée Saint Gilloise Gueuze Cantillion 2011 75cl X 2
Lindemans Cuvée René 2011 37.5cl X 4

Duchesse de Bourgogne bb 2010 75cl X 2
Rodenbach Grand Cru bb 2013 33cl X 6
Cuvée De Ranke bb 2015 75cl X 1
Leifmans Goudeband bb 2018 37.5cl X 7
Goose Island Juliet 2012 65cl X 1

Kriek Boon 2005 75cl X 1
Kriek Boon 2011 75cl X 6
Kriek Boon 2012 37.5cl X 2
Oude Kriek Boon a l’Anciene 2008 37.5 X 2
Oude Kriek Boon a l’Anciene 2011 37.5 X 2
Oud Beersel Oude Kriek Vieille 2011 75cl X 2
Timmermans Limited Edition Oude Kriek 2010 75cl X 1
Cantillon Kriek 100% Lambic Bio 2012 37.5cl X 2

Thomas Hardy Ale 2008 25cl X 3
Westvleteren 12 (brick) bb 2014 33cl X 6

PS I prefer young Orval to aged Orval (both good, though)

Ronan cork

Serious list of lambics! Would love to try one of those 2000 MPs...

the beer revolu

Ronan cork wrote: »

Serious list of lambics! Would love to try one of those 2000 MPs...

Well they're in date till 2024 so plenty of time!!

The Drunken Destrier

When I asked someone what they'd recommend as a good example of a Lambic, one of the beers they told me to try was Boon's Mariage Parfait. I think they still have it in the Abbot's, must get it...

Ruben Remus

Good idea for a thread OP.

There's a lot of stuff that I buy and don't purposely age but might not get around to drinking for 6 to 12 months.

The only bottles I'm officially ageing are a 2011 Brooklyn black chocolate stout, Porterhouse celebration stout aged in Kilbeggan whiskey barrels, and some Westvleteren 12s.

the beer revolu

I also have 3 litre bottles of Shandon Century Stout and 5 Bottles of Jameson Stout but that's more a case of hoarding rather than ageing.

The Drunken Destrier

the beer revolu wrote: »

I also have 3 litre bottles of Shandon Century Stout and 5 Bottles of Jameson Stout but that's more a case of hoarding rather than ageing.

On that note, maybe this thread should be merged with a new one; 'beer trades' :P

Mr Benevolent

The thing about ageing Westvletern is that they're virtually guaranteed to be lying around offies for a year or more, so aging comes inbuilt with the purchase. My brick had been in the shop for 18 months.

BTW, the price of Westvletern has increased by 20% in most stockists now.

the beer revolu

The Drunken Destrier wrote: »

On that note, maybe this thread should be merged with a new one; 'beer trades' :P

Should you have some such rare gems like Pliny The Elder, Dogfish head, Westvleteren blond etc. there might just be a call for said thread!

The Drunken Destrier

the beer revolu wrote: »

Should you have some such rare gems like Pliny The Elder, Dogfish head, Westvleteren blond etc. there might just be a call for said thread!

*cough*

matrim

I'm not really ageing in particular but I do have a Brooklyn Black Ops and a Brewdog Black Tokyo that I'm keeping for special occasions.

The Brewdog has been waiting for about 6 months and I plan to drink after I do my first scuba dive (hopefully in a week or 2). The Brooklyn I've had for about 2 months so far and I don't have a timeframe for when I'm going to have it.

The Drunken Destrier

Just added a St Bernardus Abt 12 750ml to that list. Not so much that I want to age, I just want to hoard as much of it as I can, definitely one of my favourite beers ever.

I'm not really ageing in particular but I do have a Brooklyn Black Ops

I'd love to try this, but the bottles are fairly pricey.

matrim

The Drunken Destrier wrote: »

I'd love to try this, but the bottles are fairly pricey.

Hence the keeping it for a special occasion.

the beer revolu

The Drunken Destrier wrote: »

I'd love to try this, but the bottles are fairly pricey.

To be honest, I thing the Black Chocolate Stout is almost as good and way cheaper.

The Drunken Destrier

That would be the main issue. It's so easy for me to get, and it's so delicious... I'll have to try Black Ops at some stage though, considering BCS is another of my favourite beers.

irish_goat

Ruben Remus wrote: »

The only bottles I'm officially ageing are a 2011 Brooklyn black chocolate stout, Porterhouse celebration stout aged in Kilbeggan whiskey barrels, and some Westvleteren 12s.

This is exactly what I have plus a bottle of Brewdog Abstract 13.

ciaran76

I wouldn't say I am ageing it but just haven't drank it yet.
Bad King John from Ridgeway Brewing.

Have it since 2011 I reckon.

The Drunken Destrier

Just picked up a Barrel-Aged Leann Folláin. LF is one of my favourite Irish beers so it should be tasty enough. Reckon I might get another so I can drink one and save the other.