Collectible beer...

[OpenSights]

I’ve never been much of a beer snob, maybe a tiny bit of a snob now since I started brewing. A year or two ago I was talking with one of my friends in my club and I mentioned about how I saw a bottle from Founders that was $30. He proceeded to tell me about his collection and a few other tales. Once he drove out of state to buy a limited beer for some crazy price, I don’t remember exactly, but something ridiculous like $100! Purchase was limited to one at a time. He was able to buy like 4. That day it was completely sold out. Within a very short time he tripled his money!

I like having a beer collection, only beers that age well. Nothing special really, just for when you want something different than what’s on tap... I really don’t think I could ever have a beer collection where it’s partly a monetary investment. I know wine collections can fetch a high dollar, but then again I wouldn’t look at it as an investment.

IMHO, be it beer or wine, it’s meant to be enjoyed, not collect dust. I’m not poor and most certainly not rich, same as my buddy, but I could never spend more than $20 on one beer and that would have to be for a special occasion!

I’m sure there are some here who have collections, what’s your take one it? Do you collect for that special occasion or just something different? Or do you collect for a monetary investment?

 

[TwistedGray]

I’m sure there are some here who have collections, what’s your take one it? Do you collect for that special occasion or just something different? Or do you collect for a monetary investment?

There's about $2,500 worth of sours and stouts in my cellar. I'm hoping that'll get me through the next few years without having to buy any commercial beer. While I have sold beer from my cellar, it's not my go-to practice. In a pinch, sure, but I didn't buy the beer to resell it at a later date.

 

[davidabcd]

I can't let beer sit long enough to become valuable. $20 for a 750ml import is just about my limit.

 

[OpenSights]

My general practice is to buy a 4 or 6 pack, special or not. I don’t have a big collection by any means, but limited to one cider and two beers on tap so a change of flavor is nice sometimes.

I have a $20 bottle of wine my dad bought for my son when he was born for his 21st birthday. I don’t remember the age but it’s been in my basement for 11 years now, so has another 10 to go.

Other than that, I think my oldest beer is about 2 years old?

 

[TwistedGray]

You also have to keep in mind that not all beers are cellerable - IPAs, PAs, or anything with a hop profile will degrade as it sits. So you wouldn't take a bottle of Pliny and stick it in the corner to drink it 1-3 years later. It wouldn't be the same.

My limit is about $20-25/bottle; however, I still have not had a Founders or KBS or whatever the big stouts are that go for $25ish.

With wine, we usually spend upwards of $50-65 a bottle. We have about 50ish bottles of wine in our cellar, and we have also closed all memberships. We'll drink on those for the next few years, too.

...hopefully our booze expenses will continue to decline while the wifey is in school as we have quite the stock pile

 

[pshankstar]

I have recently started a collection in my basement. I try not to go crazy or seek out the most expensive beers either. I'll try to limit my beers to around $25/bottle for a big stout, sour or some other beer that can be aged. I was at a recent brewery that had 16oz bottles for $25-$100/each. I couldn't justify buying any of them b/c the ones that could be aged were a minimum of $50-$100. I don't wait in lines or travel far distances, unless I am already on the road. My time at home is too valuable to wait in line for beer. Sorry for the tangent.
KBS, CBS and other yearly releases are available in my area (there are still bottles of both). I'll buy two, one to enjoy fresh and one to age but I just started this recently. At least with CBS the bottles are bomber bottles at $25 which is easier to swallow. Others I have in my basement are from trades here with fellow members since I can't get them locally.
Anyhow, this is just my take on the subject. Cheers bud!

 

[bracconiere]

i once had about 8-9 cans of milwaukee's best in the refrigerator drawer under my kegs for about 4-5 years.....i think when i bought them a twelve pack cost 4.99, and when i actually got around to drinking them a twelve pack cost 9 bucks.....

 

[kh54s10]

Beer can be collected??? Mine usually last less than 2 weeks for a case...... For a perishable, I wouldn't risk much money in hopes that it was still good at a later date. Not that I am into collectibles at all!

 

[OpenSights]

A different friend from my club just bought a house down the street from me. Great guy, probably taught me half of what I know about brewing... matter of fact the first thing he said to me after my second batch was “I don’t think you’re sanitized at all!” I was using alcohol to sanitize.

Anyway, I’ve been doing some small plumbing jobs here and there at his house and only charge him for material. He’s helped me so much in this hobby... every job he always gives me something from his collection. Nothing different than I would buy, but he did give me 3 different years of KBS. The first I’ve ever tried. Interesting the difference between the years.

 

[Pyg]

I only cellar big stouts and barley wines. Thought about sours, but haven’t pulled trigger yet.
Every year I buy 2-3 Goose islands Bourbon Barrel Stouts. Drink 1 cellar rest. This has left me with a stock pile going back to 2015.
So every year when I open 1, I drink an aged one.
I do the same with Big foot & KBS.

For the price, Thomas Hardy ($10) is worth grabbing. Drink 1, age another.

Always fun to be able to pull something vintage out to impress your Non-craft BMC drinking pals!

 

[Qhrumphf]

I've got a large cellar. Bordering 200 bottles going back 10+ years.

I have never traded or sold cellared beer. I have then to eventually drink them, not as an investment. My stake is the quality of liquid, not the value of it.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Nothing (that's not sour/wild) ages as well as Thomas Hardy.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

With wine, we usually spend upwards of $50-65 a bottle. We have about 50ish bottles of wine in our cellar, and we have also closed all memberships. We'll drink on those for the next few years, too.

For wine, my wife and I are a little bit similar. The problem is that we essentially have three classes of wine in the house:

1. Daily drink type wines. I'm more of a beer drinker, so this is essentially making sure we have my wife's favorite Chardonnay and Cabs on hand. Generally we're talking under $10 a bottle, but up to $15 falls into this category easily.
2. Medium-priced wines, i.e. anything from $20-40. These are sometimes from our visits to wineries, or sometimes when we just get a particularly good bottle from our wine bar or BevMo. But it's hard to find a lot of bottles in the <$40 range at wineries, so this can sometimes be a small category.
3. High-priced wines, anything from $40-70 (I don't think we regularly buy anything above that range). These are almost exclusively from visits to wineries, although we're a members of two clubs that total about 22 bottles/year. (Some of the wines from one club fall into category 2, some into category 3.)

The issue is that for us to open a bottle of #3, not only is it a night that we both feel like drinking wine, but it's gotta almost be a special occasion. Even if that special occasion is just grilling expensive steaks, it's not a common occurrence that we pull out category #3.

Whereas category #2 is a lot easier to justify opening on a more "random" night that we're both going to have wine. So we tend to go through those a little more quickly...

So you can see where this is going... Because category #2 is almost the most rare category in our cellar as it is more than we usually spend at the store but less than we usually spend at wineries, AND it requires less of a special occasion to get consumed, it gets depleted most quickly.

So we find the house is full of wines that are daily drinkers or "special occasion" drinkers.

We're headed to Paso Robles right after the first of the year, and the wife says that we have to start drinking some of this wine if I want to buy more. Of course, she always says that and I buy it anyway lol...

 

[TwistedGray]

So you can see where this is going...

Buy the wife a Coravin (wait for Black Friday). This will allow her to pull a glass of wine from any corked bottle without pulling the cork. The Coravin device replaces headspace with argon gas as it extracts the wine from the bottle, so you're good there, too.

This allows you to drink a glass here and there from #2 or #3 without feeling committed to drinking the whole bottle at a time (well, not at a time...you know what I mean).

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Buy the wife a Coravin (wait for Black Friday). This will allow her to pull a glass of wine from any corked bottle without pulling the cork. The Coravin device replaces headspace with argon gas as it extracts the wine from the bottle, so you're good there, too.

Good idea. I hadn't thought to watch for the Black Friday deals, and I think it goes from being an outlandish expense to just a ridiculous expense when you get it on Black Friday lol...

That said, I already have her Christmas planned, and it's pretty outlandish [especially if some things I'm trying to orchestrate come through], so it might have to wait until next year...

 

[TwistedGray]

Good idea. I hadn't thought to watch for the Black Friday deals, and I think it goes from being an outlandish expense to just a ridiculous expense when you get it on Black Friday lol...

Yeah, pretty much! But we have bottles that are 10+ years old and quite rare (from the sense that I bought them in other countries, and they're not distributed here), so it's nice to pull samples through time rather than commit to an entire bottle especially on older stuff that we have.

 

[OpenSights]

Well I guess I’m getting into collecting beer. I got a very nice gift from one of the maintenance guys today. Unfortunately you can’t read the year on the 120, but he said it was given to him before he got married 9 years ago. The Hopslams are 12/20/13.

Last week I picked up some new Hopslam, have some kbs from ‘16 and ‘15 along with a few mead and wine.

I guess I started when I did a small plumbing job for one of my friends in my club. Told him he didn’t owe me anything, so he paid me in beer. Lol

 

[grampamark]

I don’t collect beer but I do rent a fair amount...