Love Good Beer

Raiding the Beer Cellar

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 | Beer, The Cellar | No Comments

I’ve been raiding my beer cellar recently because I’m moving in the not too distant future.  Why move perfectly good beers when I could drink them, right?  I’ve had mixed results with the beer in my cellar, which may be a byproduct of poor cellaring on my part.  My beer cellar was originally just a dark, cool corner of my garage, but as the weather got warmer I had to invest in a beer fridge.  I kept the fridge as warm as I could (ideal cellar temperature is about 8 degrees Celsius), but it sill might have been too cold in there.  The temperature fluctuations from warm to cool might have produced the off flavors in my aged beers, but then who knows?  That being said, it wasn’t all bad; I got some pretty good results too.

The bad:

I had one of those ceramic bottles of Rogue Old Crustacean Barleywine from Christmas 2008.  It was atrociously bad.  It tasted extremely bitter and almost metallic.  It was a high alcohol beer, so my only guess as to what happened is that the beer may have interacted poorly with the bottle?  Anyway, this was a big waste of a beer; I wish I’d consumed this one fresh.

Another beer that didn’t age well was a Phillips The Hammer Imperial Stout from January 2009.  It had the tangy, almost sour flavor of a beer containing a bacterial infection.  I consumed both the 2009 and 2010 versions of this beer fresh and bother were tasty, so it’s a shame this one didn’t age well.

Fuller's Vintage Ale 2008 and 2009, delicious

The good:

I saved a 2008 Fuller’s Vintage Ale and drank it along side the 2009 version.  Fuller’s uses a new recipe every year, so the two aren’t really comparable, but it was fun to do anyway.  I found the aged 2008 bottle to be far superior to the 2009 bottle, where both were good.  Drinking the aged 2008 version was like taking a trip to flavortown.  It had great apply, fruity, caramel flavors and I wish I had ten more of them, half to drink and half to cuddle.

I had another Phillips brew aging away in my garage, this one a Burley Barleywine from Christmas 2008.  Unlike the imperial stout, this one aged wonderfully.  There was none of the harshness of a young barleywine present, no detectable alcohol or hops whatsoever.  What remained was a wonderful medley of caramel and molasses type flavors, with maybe a bit of fruit in there too.  I’m glad I saved this one.

Erik and I took a trip to Portland this past weekend and, now that we’ve overcome our Olympic hangovers, we’ll have a lot to write about in the coming weeks.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: beer cellar, fullers vintage ale, phillips burley barley wine, phillips the hammer imperial stout, rogue old crustacean barleywine

The Beer Cellar Updated

Sunday, January 11th, 2009 | Beer, The Cellar | 5 Comments

Further to Erik’s great post on cellaring beer and his creation of The Cellar page, I thought I should post about my philosophy on the beer cellar and what beers I am currently aging.  Until very recently, my philosophy on cellaring has been to not cellar anything.  I’ve realized recently that I was flawed in my thinking because aging can definitely enhance the flavors and take the edge off of a strong beer.  What really helped me realize the greatness of aging beer was the Thor’s Hammer Barley Wine we recently enjoyed at Central City Brewing, which was fantastic.  I had the opportunity to compare this barley wine, aged 18 months, to other younger barley wines, where the aged beer far surpassed the young beer in smoothness and in flavor.

I’ve learned the hard way that strong beer should be aged, having impatiently consumed a Fullers 2008 Vintage Ale, a Philips Burley Barley Wine, and a Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron far too early.  In fact, I’ve noticed the pattern that I always immediatly drink a strong beer worthy of aging, only to have Erik realize my folly and buy the same beer for his cellar.  This works out well for both of us, Erik gets to taste the young beer I hasten to enjoy, and then I get to taste Erik’s aged bottle a year or so later.  Look forward to some great reviews of aged beer in the coming year, complete with first hand insight on how the beer has matured with age.

As for my cellar, it is humbly located in a dark, tucked away corner of my garage where the temperature ranges from 10-20 degrees Celsius throughout the year.  I may have to make other arrangements in the summer during heat waves.  My cellar consists of very few beers at this point in time, but my stockpile will grow.  The meager number of bottles in my cellar has to do with my lack of patience and the knowledge that Erik will probably share his aged goods with me.

My cellar currently contains:

• Phillips Burley Barley Wine (November 2008)
• Fullers Vintage Ale (2008)

The stock in my cellar will surely grow this year.  That being said, old habits die hard.  I have a Driftwood Old Cellar Dweller Barley Wine in the fridge right now, ready to be warmed up and consumed at a moments notice.  When will I learn?

We’ll be updating our Cellar Page with new acquisitions as they arrive.  Please check back with us for reviews of aged brews as we consume them.  Also, we’d love to hear of other worthy candidates for our cellar if anybody has any recommendations.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: Aged, Beer, burley barley wine, cellar, Central City Brewing, dogfish head, driftwood, fullers vintage ale, old cellar dweller barley wine, palo santo marron, philips, thor's hammer barley wine