The Wonderful Phenomenon of Aged Beer

This cold weather inspired me to drink something hearty, so I went into my closet and dug out a bottle of 2007 Fuller's Vintage Ale. As you can see from looked back through my old blog posts, I was lukewarm on this beer when I first drank it. But the brewer recommended aging it, so I got a second bottle and gave it a try. Those four-plus years in the dark of my closet did some amazing things. Now, it has this powerful, rich flavor with notes of cherry that clearly weren't there before. It's magnificent.

If you've never tried aging beer, I recommend it. It only works with certain high-alcohol beers, so don't go stashing away a sixer of Fireman's 4. Search around the web, and you should be able to find some articles explaining how to do it and what beers will work. But it's really pretty simple. I just get a fairly high-ABV beers, the darker ones seem to work best (barleywines, stouts, other heavy ales, but not IPAs), and stick them in the back of my closet and forget they're there. Try to keep them in an environment where the temperature won't fluctuate too much, and where light can't damage them. I think you'll be very pleased.

Back to the aging thing again

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.

Giving up on the aging thing

So I was really excited to try aging some strong beer as I was considering a few weeks ago, but I decided I should give up on it. I stepped into my closet yesterday, where I was storing some Abt 12, and it (the closet) was warm. And humid. Not the atmosphere for aging. If I'm gonna do this, I should probably keep the closet no higher than 75 degrees, and I decided I'm just not willing to do it. Not with the kind of heat we have in Texas. Conservation-minded (and penny-pinching) guy that I am, I alway program my thermostat during our killer summers to go up into the 80s during the afternoon while we are at work/school, and even after we come home I never set them any lower than 76 (78 if I can stand it). And even then, my electricity bills are insanely high. And there is no way I'm keeping the AC down to 75 while we're on vacation. I'll set it just low enough to keep the cats from asphyxiating. (And if I find any more cat pee around my house, I may not evven be that charitable.) I'll leave it in the closet for while yet and see how cool the closet can stay. Perhaps it's well-insulated enough that it won't be too bad, but I suspect I'll throw in the towel and uncork this bottle by June.