A dozen-or-so bottles I have in my lame make-shift cellar.

Guybrush · Post by **Guybrush** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 12:08 am

LOOK AT THOSE OLD SCHOOL MILL ST. BARLEY WINES!! Whoa. Nice stuff. What's the 3 beers in a row, to the right of the mill st.s? It has a blue circle with a dude in it, and a gold square around it.

velovampire · Post by **velovampire** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 12:19 am

Guybrush wrote:What's the 3 beers in a row, to the right of the mill st.s? It has a blue circle with a dude in it, and a gold square around it.

DUDE?!?!? The Tsarina would be very insulted....

I think they are Scotch Irish Tsarina Katarina, 2005.

Guybrush · Post by **Guybrush** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 12:21 am

I remember seeing that at Volo now. Yes, I do recall having some. Sorry, my volo trips tend to be foggy at best!

mjohnston · Post by **mjohnston** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:24 am

Inertiaboy, that's pretty awesome. I like how you have enough room that you can give a shelf to major styles, with room to spare for changes in sock over time. Very nicely organized.

Bobsy · Post by **Bobsy** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:18 am

Truly awesome cellars, guys. My jealousy knows no bounds right now. I have a couple of questions, though. Firstly, how do you acquire the stuff not readily available - is it mostly by trading, or making beer runs? Secondly, I don't see much from the LCBO general list or the beer store that I would view as agers (Aventinus, Trois Pistoles, etc.) - is that because they're a readily available whereas if you want a Stone IRS it would have to be from the cellar?

inertiaboy · Post by **inertiaboy** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:32 am

Bobsy wrote:Firstly, how do you acquire the stuff not readily available - is it mostly by trading, or making beer runs?

I get a lot of stuff through Bieropholie and then hoard it. I also get some stuff when friends and family travel through the States.

Bobsy wrote:Secondly, I don't see much from the LCBO general list or the beer store that I would view as agers (Aventinus, Trois Pistoles, etc.)?

I do stock up on a few things from the LCBO but not all. A few reasons:
- procrastination: I know some things will be there later so I don't pick them up. for things like De Dolle, it was 3 years between orders through Bieropholie so I stock up.
- ease: I've got two little kids and work at a startup so time is limited and it's actually easier for me to get a variety of things through means other than the LCBO.
- personal taste: I enjoy Belgian beers and big beers and I can't get a lot of them through the LCBO.

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 12:05 pm

Yeah, Inertiaboy nice stock AND well-organized... my 'system' is a little more, well, 'organic...' but I take nice care of it all, LOL!!

Jon's tip of jotting the production or expiry date on poorly marked bottles is smart, so as not to mix up year vintages. Chimay printed a '2009 expiry' both on their 2004 Chimay Bleue AND the 2006 as well - making it harder to tell which beer was older!! Expiry doesn't matter much for this beer, and they were just using up old label stock, but lesson learned.

(With all wines I always write on the best year to drink.) It's also great to keep all LCBO receipts together in a pile right in the cellar. Beyond this I have a really basic Text document that simply lists all beers of note I stocked up in a given year - sort of an overview.

Speaking of vintages, I believe that's a pretty old St. Ambroise VA in the later shots, ie the one with the cut-away box. That could be 1999, 2000, 2001... you don't realize how valuable VA releases are until years after they are all gone!! I haven't even had one of the new Fullers yet.

mjohnston · Post by **mjohnston** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 2:23 pm

Bobsy wrote:Firstly, how do you acquire the stuff not readily available - is it mostly by trading, or making beer runs?

Most of my cellar is new - last 6 months. My sources are:
1. Private/consignment orders (through R+R & Esprit)
2. Buffalo (Premier, Consumers, etc)
3. Opportunities to pick stuff up while traveling.

Trading can be useful but it can be hard at the beginning since you're often trying to trade "up". Instead you've got to trade local stuff with people who are farther away, via beer-mail. I haven't tried that yet.

Bobsy wrote:Secondly, I don't see much from the LCBO general list or the beer store that I would view as agers (Aventinus, Trois Pistoles, etc.) - is that because they're a readily available whereas if you want a Stone IRS it would have to be from the cellar?

It's easy to neglect the LCBO since you see it as easily available and the stuff is less expensive - it's less exciting. Stuff on the general list in particular - you really take it for granted. LCBO prices are really good for these kinds of products. E.g. I saw a Koningshoeven Quad in Buffalo for about $10 USD - we get it for $7 CDN.

I tend to collect the seasonals a bit more. My cellar contains a fair bit of Aventinus Eisbock, Fullers Vintages, St Ambroise Vintages, Trois Pistole, Thomas Hardy's, Westmalle, Koningshoeven, etc. I usually try to buy stuff at the LCBO for the cellar, and then buy more when I want to drink it - the stuff in the cellar I want to age a bit.