So late last year, I got a yen to try aging some beer and see what it does to the flavor. I wrote here about how I got some St. Bernardus Abt 12, and stashed it in my closet at room temperature, with the notion of opening it up about five years from now. Then I gave up on it, because I really didn't think it would preserve well in the closet, it would just take too long, and I'm really not doing at the proper temperature (50-55 degrees F).Well, thanks to that little beauty in the picture, I'm going to try it again. That, my friends, is an Emerson 8-bottle Wine Cooler, which will keep my beer (and wine, natch) at a perfect 55 degrees. An early birthday present from M'Lady. I still have that bottle of Abt 12, although it's been in my regular beer fridge for several months in the low 40s. I'm not certain how that will affect the aging. We'll see. I also stuck a bottle of Unibroue Maudite in there – which has only been in my beer fridge for about a week – and M'Lady is about to bring home a previously unchilled bottle of Trois Pistoles which will go straight in there. Sometime about a year from now (maybe a little more – those full-bodied beers will probably taste better in the fall or winter) I'll try them out and report the results.
(Hey, if anyone out there has experience with this: Am I wasting my time putting the Abt 12 in there after it's been kept very cold for so long?)
Addendum: Here is a nice how-to on aging beers, although I'll have no choice but to violate their command that I store the beer upright, since the dimensions of the Emerson don't allow for that.
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