Cellaring Beer

What is the best way to cellar beer? I have beer in 12oz and 750oz bottles, some have caps and some have corks. are there different techniques for the different packaging styles? What make a beer good to cellar? I presently have World Wide Stout by Dogfish Head and 2 bottles of oak aged Gonzo Porter from Flying Dog and a Triple Bock from Sams. Let me know. Thanks

i've always heard of people cellaring wine, which is in a dark place no warmer than 68 degrees. i guess it would be the same for beer.

how long will that dogfish head keep?

I hope that the bottle that I have keeps a while. I havent tried it yet. I hope its worth the $9 i paid for a 12 oz bottle.

I believe that the best cellaring temp is 55degF, but I'm no expert.

Any temp roughly between 50 - 60 is fine, as long as it's a stable temp. Wide fluctuations are no good. Temps lower slow down the aging process, temps higher speed it up.

The World Wide Stout is around 18%, it will age for a long time. Wait at least a year, though a decade might be better.

Trodd said:

What is the best way to cellar beer? I have beer in 12oz and 750oz bottles, some have caps and some have corks. are there different techniques for the different packaging styles?

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It is generally recommended that you lay down bottles that are corked and store capped bottles upright.

Trodd said:

What make a beer good to cellar? I presently have World Wide Stout by Dogfish Head and 2 bottles of oak aged Gonzo Porter from Flying Dog and a Triple Bock from Sams. Let me know. Thanks

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Bigger beers, stuff with plenty of alcohol or residual sugar make good cellaring candidates. Often you will see recommendations to cellar multiple examples or vintages so you can sample as you go to note the effects of aging on the beer and differences in vintages (horizontal & vertical tastings). Obviously many pasteurized commercial beers are not really suited to aging since their flavors are more likely to degrade over time rather than improve since there won't be additional bottle conditioning. I have a couple bottles sitting round for the heck of it myself.

How does aging affect homebrew? I guess I should be more specific. I am currently making a porter for a yearly get together with old college buddies and was thinking of keeping a few bottles around for next year's gathering (will be making another porter) to see how it aged and to compare it to that year's batch.

So the question is, would the beer spoil after that long, or would it only make it better? I assume the latter, but just wanted to make sure.

Cheers,

IndyPABrewGuy said:

How does aging affect homebrew? I guess I should be more specific. I am currently making a porter for a yearly get together with old college buddies and was thinking of keeping a few bottles around for next year's gathering (will be making another porter) to see how it aged and to compare it to that year's batch.

So the question is, would the beer spoil after that long, or would it only make it better? I assume the latter, but just wanted to make sure.

Cheers,

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It should be okay, as long as you keep it at a steady temp and out of the light. If you want, you can make it a little higher in alcohol and have it finish with a little more residual sugar. Then it should develop nicely as the beer ages.

The porter that I brewed should end up at 6.8% ABV. That's not quite high enough to cellar for a year, is it? I'm guessing there might be some issues, but not sure.

I'd say 6.8% should be fine. If you're worried about drinking it all, make two batches and keep your hands off the second!

IndyPABrewGuy said:

The porter that I brewed should end up at 6.8% ABV. That's not quite high enough to cellar for a year, is it? I'm guessing there might be some issues, but not sure.

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one year? sure....worst case is that it starts to degrade at a point. Stash several and you can do your own horizontal tasting.