Beer Cellars

[beerstodiscover]

Unibroue's website says it should be fine within 3-5 years...

Definitely gotta take those recommendations with a grain of salt. I held on to a number of Unibroue 17 bottles, based on the brewer's suggestion, and they just got worse and worse with age (bitter woody astringency). It's a lovely beer fresh. At this point I'm done with hanging onto Unibroue for longer than 12-18 months. Trois Pistoles may be the exception, but it's hard to find in Ontario these days. I'm planning on popping the Unibroue 25 in a few hours.

[sofakingdrunk]

I agree with the 17, too much age and it declines quickly. From my experience 2-3 years is where I like it best. Fresh is great also, the 4 and 5 year old bottles I've had have been not so great

[Craig]

Iirc I tried the 17 at one year and it was amazing. I tried another at two years and it was really underwhelming. I'm not sure if that's the age or variation from bottle to bottle. Generally though, my advice with that one is just to age it until the heat mellows and no longer.

[seangm]

Cracked open a 2015 Nickel Brook Winey Bastard, was a bit mixed on it. Seemed thinner and more tart than I remember, the wine came through nicely though. It opened with a very pronounced pop and had quite a lot of carbonation too, which makes me believe it might have re-fermented in the bottle. It didn't come across as infected, I thought the flavours were still decent but something was certainly going on in that bottle.

I still have some Kentucky Bastards though, which in my experience have aged better.

[Tapsucker]

So, my wife and I played 'forgotten beer roulette' last night.

As a home brewer, when I experiment with something big or different, I like to put a bottle aside for 'future me'. Well I have a bunch, mostly 5-7 years old that were not only forgotten in a corner, but my crude labels fell off. What could they possibly be? About a year ago, I found them and moved them to the beer fridge thinking an occasion would arise to sort it out. That occasion was last night.

We grabbed six unlabeled samples and went to work. In the interest of personal safety and domestic behavior, I opened them over the sink. Good news, no bottle bombs. Actually, surprisingly no bombs, since I don't recall being all that good at packaging bio control when I set them aside.

I roughly knew what beers they were, just not what was in each bottle, so the sport was to figure it out.

The first sample was not too hard to identify. It was clearly a 2013 cranberry stout. Oddly the original tartness I noted back then was subdued and now the cranberry aroma came way forward. Not something I expected. The beer was still really dry as it was back then and still clean and balanced otherwise.

The next couple were hard to figure out. We knew there were some stouts, porters and a dopplebock in the basket, but it was hard to figure out what they were when comparing to my original notes. What did stand out was how good they were (again given my amateur original processing). They had basically gotten dryer and mellower. None had taken on any unwelcome flavors or aromas, but they had lost body a bit and were very hard to distinguish from each other. This is kind of confusing to me too from what I understand of aging.

Finally, we came to another recognizable one, which was a 2011 Eisbock. This was quite the revelation. I knew what it was because it poured like syrup. When I first made it and lagered it, it was problematic with a bit of unwanted piney and turpentine notes. Six plus years somehow cleaned those up. Again, none of this matches what I know of brewing science, but there it was, a beer I could finally be proud of if I hadn't just finished the last of it before presenting to to a BJCP adjudicator...

.

[S. St. Jeb]

So, my wife and I played 'forgotten beer roulette' last night.....

Great story.

[Belgian]

2005 Goudenband right now, the 33cl bottle uncorked silent, carbonation in pour pretty nonexistent.

It's in fine shape with mellow sweetness and tart fruit suggesting cherries, maybe a bit of a Jolly Rancher sweet-acidic thing. Definitely a bit of simplistic caramel backing the profile, which is what I was criticizing 'copycat' Flanders Red/Brown style beers for, perhaps unjustifiably. Little or no oxidation detected which is good bottle-conditioning of this complex Belgian ale.

It's still a bit vinious, but has lost a lot of 'oomph' and acidity and I would say it's past peak for how I would like this beer, personally - I like it with more sparkle and verve. I liked the carbonation and the 'stone cellar' overtones I recall from new bottles of this vintage 10-12 years ago. Still, this is a fun throwback to the first few years I was getting into beer thanks to the help of BarTowel and the beer scene just starting to happen here. THIS beer was still fairly radical in the year I bought it.

2012 Goudenband now, definitely a little better overall condition and hitting a very attractive arc in the beer's development. Has a pleasant cutting acidity (a more vinous quality) and some carbonation, both of which 'lift' the caramel sweetness and fruit very nicely. I wish I had more of these 750mls, I will buy them again if they return and make an effort to drink them at 5-7 years of maturity!

*** Note: These beers are deceptively more acidic than you realize, and I generally would not drink more than one at a time. Though it is tempting, what a special beer! ***

My next pour is a 50/50 of the 2005 and 2012. This does 'rescue' the older beer a bit! There's plenty of matured depth plus some vibrancy of the newer beer. This is treat, and I now know what I will do with my remaining stock of 2005 & 2012.

(I don't have a problem blending vintages of Goudenband since regardless the usual bottled version you buy is already a blend of 1-to-4 year old aged beer plus fresh beer to bottle-condition it for storage.)

[atomeyes]

Unibroue's website says it should be fine within 3-5 years...

Definitely gotta take those recommendations with a grain of salt. I held on to a number of Unibroue 17 bottles, based on the brewer's suggestion, and they just got worse and worse with age (bitter woody astringency). It's a lovely beer fresh. At this point I'm done with hanging onto Unibroue for longer than 12-18 months. Trois Pistoles may be the exception, but it's hard to find in Ontario these days. I'm planning on popping the Unibroue 25 in a few hours.

i respectfully disagree with you.
Unibrou 17 is relatively thin in flavour fresh and ages magnificently. i'd definitely agree with the 3-5 year mark, with it going downhill after year 5 (oxidation really kicks in). but hey, if you like it fresh, drink it fresh

[Belgian]

2010 De Molen / Struise Black Damnation - not bad, perhaps in maturity becoming a bit sweet and rounded with less definition. Still has good stout fullness and the coffee has mellowed which I'm OK with. Some sweet-tart fruit comes forward, coffee often has some complex vinous / citrus acidity. My last bottle of 6 - I mostly really love regular Black Albert, so if you see a bottle splurge for it. Thanks again to Sammy for splitting the case.

2017 GLB 25th Anniv BBA RIS - this is great, nice bourbon barrel character.

[Belgian]

Having a 2009 St-Ambroise Stout Impériale Russe, also in remarkably fine shape at 7.5 years of age. Also has bold and rich flavors of winey dark fruit, chocolate ganache torte and a dry hint of coffee liqueur. Solid creamy palate is supported by a remainder of bittering hop, ALL the rough edges are gone leaving a beautiful mellowing beast of a RIS - this is so much smoother than it was 7 years ago and so perfectly knit. If you still have a few you will see what I mean.

Interesting. I opened up a bottle about a year ago and it was a sweet mess. I will dig up one of my remaining bottles and see how it's tasting...

Having my last 2009 Amby Stout Impériale Russe now at 11 years age - it's so smooth and chocolately, with no harshness and a nice dark bready cereal dryness. Dark dried fruit. Medium palate, not too much demerara.

The carbonation is still just there. Fully mature but not fading yet. A RIS should last this long.

I still have a few later vintages, nice brew.

[Provost Drunk]

Having a 2009 St-Ambroise Stout Impériale Russe, also in remarkably fine shape at 7.5 years of age. Also has bold and rich flavors of winey dark fruit, chocolate ganache torte and a dry hint of coffee liqueur. Solid creamy palate is supported by a remainder of bittering hop, ALL the rough edges are gone leaving a beautiful mellowing beast of a RIS - this is so much smoother than it was 7 years ago and so perfectly knit. If you still have a few you will see what I mean.

Interesting. I opened up a bottle about a year ago and it was a sweet mess. I will dig up one of my remaining bottles and see how it's tasting...

Having my last 2009 Amby Stout Impériale Russe now at 11 years age - it's so smooth and chocolately, with no harshness and a nice dark bready cereal dryness. Dark dried fruit. Medium palate, not too much demerara.

The carbonation is still just there. Fully mature but not fading yet. A RIS should last this long.

I still have a few later vintages, nice brew.

Patience is a virtue. Makes me want to sit a while longer on the remaining 2017 bottles that I have.