Cellarable beers?

this is perhaps not related to home-brew process directly but the folks here have so much experience, I thought I wanted to run this by you guys.

I have built a cellar/fermentation chamber (a freezer with temperature control) and in addition to cellaring my own home-brews - mostly porters/stouts, I figured I might as well get some commercial brews to cellar as well.

I lean towards relatively easily available stouts, porters, belgian strong ales and perhaps barley wines. Nothing too hoppy, 9% abv or close and above (with some exception).

I am very new to this cellaring business but here's what I (randomly) got so far. Any feedback as to which beers may not be good candidates for cellaring, or which might be very good. All of those are 2015, as far as I could tell.

AleSmith Old Numbskull
Samuel Smiths Imperial Stout
Unibroue Trois Pistoles
Young’s Double Chocolate Stout
North Coast Brother Thelonious
North Coast Old Rasputin
Stone Smoked Porter
Stone Imperial Russian Stout
Stone Chai Spiced Imperial Russian Stout
Stone W00t Stout
Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron
Ninkasi Imperiale Double-Stout
Ballast Point Sea Monster
Coronado Blue Bridge Coffee Stout
Anderson Valley Huge Arker Imperial Stout (Bourbon Barrel)

 

Those Russian Stouts should do well with age, I have a couple in the "cellar" as well but mainly sours. I wouldn't let that Young's Double Chocolate Stout sit for too long though. It's only ~5% and I believe chocolate flavors tend to drop off pretty quickly compared to say coffee and bourbon.

 

2 beers that have really grabbed my attention as candidates for cellaring are the North Coast Brother Thelonious and Rochefort 10.

Brother Thelonious would do extremely well with age. Some of the younger samples I've had are a little "boozy" and some of the fruitiness is very pronounced. I aged one for 2 months once and the difference was notable.

Rochefort 10 is usually real young when it hits the states and the "booziness" is a bit overpowering. I've let a few go 3-6 months and the result was outstanding. I've also purchased bottles that were shelf aged at a beer and discount, some for over a year, and it was glorious.

 

I'll second the idea of Rochtford by saying aged Chimay Blue is glorious. I'd say Belgian quads and darker beers would be pretty interesting.

Thomas Henry is good for 4.5 years under my circumstances, 6 yrs was too long.
Old Foghorn ages quite well.
A lot of people don't like aging ABWs but I do. I've got Bigfoot going back to 2008 and people are often very surprised at how much hop presence is found in 4-6 yr old examples.

General rules being higher alcohol and dark malt containing beers age best. I've aged Tripels, Westmalle, for over a year and have found it to add complexity, but wouldn't go a lot longer than that, 3 yrs might be an interesting experiment.

FInally age up some homebrew, you'll thank yourself. I've got 7 yr old imperial stout that's down to my final 7 bottles and it's glorious!

 

ANY high gravity Belgian is very interesting to cellar. Ive had several Unibroues in particular that were 5 years old. I bought new bottles of each to compare them and they were entirely different beers. Not necessarily definitely better or worse, but entirely different. Its pretty cool to compare them to fresh ones

 

From my experiences the smokiness in the Stone Smoked Porter drops off considerably after about eight months. It is still a tasty beer but the smoke flavor is somewhat muted. I just had a year old bottle about a week ago.

I've got a handful of sours (can't keep from drinking them) in my cellar along with a few bottles each of FW Parabola, FW Sucaba, FW Anniversary Ales, NC BA Old Rasputin, Pelican MOAS, Stone IRS, Stone Arrogant Bastard, Stone Double Bastard, DFH WWS, DFH 120 Minute, Gigantic Massive and SN Bigfoot. Go with higher alcohol stuff and you should be fine.

 

Hmm... I would not have considered Arrogant Bastard or Dogfish Head 120 minute as good candidates for aging/cellaring. Maybe I should try.

 

I have a small cellar collection of about 15 bottles. Usually go for any special release barrel aged beers, imperial stouts, barleywines, & "sours".

I have never had good luck cellaring home brews. I think it is because no matter what precautions I take, a tiny bit of oxygen always gets introduced, and from my experience, while that tiny bit of oxygen doesn't harm a beer over the first 6-8 months of its bottle life, it starts to deteriorate the beer exponentially around the 1 year + mark.

 

Why on earth woudl you try to age something as hop forward as DogfishHeads 120min IPA? If I pay +$10 for a 12oz bottle, Im sure as hell going to get the best out of it.

 

Because I've been told that it is a lot better with some age on it. Turns more into something resembling a barleywine. I've had some fresh and it really didn't impress me too much. Even Dogfish Head recommends aging it.

http://www.dogfish.com/community/bl...5-things-you-should-know-about-aging-beer.htm

"That said, Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA only gets better with age. A year or two on the holy grail for hopheads brings out deliciously sweet sherry and marmalade notes."

 

I'm not sure how the Arrogant Bastard will turn out since I haven't had an aged one yet. Double Bastard with a year on it had tons of caramel in the flavor and was delicious.

 

how many bottles do you guys cellar and how often do you taste it? Do you reference against a fresh (or younger vintage) beer?

Cellaring double bastard does make some sense. Also, on Dogfish Head 120minute discussion, it's 13-15% ABV which is huge! It's more like a super-strong barley wine that also happens to be very hoppy, than IPA. Dogfish video talks about letting it age and oxidize for ~2 years to drop back on happiness some and develop sherry-like, softer flavors.

I like hoppy bears but 120minute and even 90 minute is a bit too harsh for me. Both in terms of alcohol and hops. So I can see how (in theory) aging may mitigate it into a smoother beer.

 

Right now I have about 75 bottles in my cellar. If I find a beer that I'm interested in cellaring I will usually buy two or more of them, one of them I drink fresh so I can compare it to how it tastes with some age on it. There have been a few exceptions to this rule such as Stone's Enjoy After IPA.

 

I have 3 bottles over a year old. I drank one relatively fresh and it was very boozy.

 

I am not sure where you are and what the availability for you is, but I would add Troeg's Mad Elf to the mix when it comes out later in the year. If you can't get that I would grab some higher ABV holiday beers and stash them for the next season.

 

This is the same reason I age my Rochefort 10. Very boozy when it's young. Not undrinkable but worth the wait. The Rochefort 6 and 8 are great right out the gate but the 10 needs some time.

I've had DFH120 a few times young and aged. I prefer it aged.

 

I think Arrogant Bastard is a little harsh when it's fresh, and even with just a couple months beyond its "best by" date on it, it's a better beer.

IMHO, of course.