Question #1: How can I cellar (age) bottles at home?
This is a great question! I've been cellaring for over 5 years, and the rewards are endless - if you have the patience!
Location
Find a dark area of your residence, with no exposure to light (a basement corner, a closet, etc) that maintains a -constant temperature-. Preferably a little cooler. Both points here are very important, don't compromise! Your beer will thank you years from now.
You don't need anything special, just a place to keep them. Some people build a beer rack, but I just use Boxes on the ground. Keep your bottles upright, not on their sides, as they need to sit on that yeast cake.
What can I age?
You can age bottle conditioned and non-bottle conditioned ales, but I suggest sticking to BC. The yeast cake helps the beer stay healthy and age maturely, as it is still interacting with the yeast on which it was made. Force carbed brews also age well, but you are limited to the lifespan of the carbonation, and you have to choose carefully at what point you want to open the bottle before the carbonation expires. (Some cellar gurus turn to waxing the tops of their force-carbed bottles to combat this during aging)
I suggest taking a permanent marker and marking the caps of your bottles with the month and year (9/13). Or you can make a small tag with some twine and hang it around the bottle's neck. This is especially helpful a few years down the line, when you find a tasty, dusty bottle and can't remember for the life of you how old it is! Start the practice now, you'll thank yourself later.
Put those bottles away and forget about them!
The Beer Pull
Put your cellar in a place that is -difficult- to get to, or a place you don't think about often. This helps the fight the 'beer pull' - that desire to crack open that bottle. There's nothing worse than, after having a few too many, cracking open that beautiful aged beer in the basement - only to wake up the next morning to discover the second half of the bottle never got drank. (shudders) ..Guilty.
Temperature
Only chill your bottles when you're ready to consume them. Purchase your bottles to be aged warm (not out of the cooler) and put them in your cellar. When you're finally ready to dip into your cellar, put your bottle in the fridge to chill it, and then serve. Large and drastic temeperature changes are -not- your friend. Do everything you can to help those bottles maintain a constant temperature. If you buy a bottle for aging out of a cooler, find a way to allow that temperature to slowly lower. Wrap it in a towel or blankets, or something similair (you'll find a way), and allow the bottle to come to room temperature gradually, then place in your cellar.
Vertical Tasting
This is one of my favorite aspects of beer, and one of the best tasting experiences I think you can have.
A Vertical Tasting is when you sit down with multiple years of a given brand. I've fortunately been able to take part in three or four, and they've all been mind-opening experiences. A four year vertical tasting of Founders KBS next year would look like this: 11', 12', 13', 14' (fresh batch). Start your group with the fresh batch (current year) and work your way backwards.
The alternative option would be to start with the oldest first and work your way forwards. This method is usually enacted in an effort to allow your palate to be freshest for the oldest bottle. There's no 'wrong' way, but there's two great options for setting up your own tasting. Verticals provide a truly unique opportunity to taste multiple years of aging side-by-side, allowing you and your group to explore the subtle differences between the years.
You can easily start collecting for your own vertical tastings, years from now, but simply grabbing a 4 pack of a given brand that interests you, once a year. I usually drink one fresh, and then age the other three. I'm currently doing this with Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, North Coast Old Rasputin, and some others. When you have a chance, at some point in the year, grab a four pack and stash it away.
For special releases, like KBS, I try to obtain two four packs per year. Drink one, age the other 7. With this practice, you can easily have yourself in the range of a 3 or 4 year vertical without even thinking about it.
How long can you age?
This is a big question that has many, many different answers. You ask a different person, you'll get a different answer. There's alot of different factors that influence the aging life of a bottle, but that's a huge discussion that I'm not going to get into here.My aging rule is right around 5 years. I think the longest I would, personally, push my bottles is to 7 years. With all the different factors, I start thinking it's about time to open that bottle by around 5 years. Whenever you choose to open it, it's great, I'm just talking about the extreme end. There are people that say 10 years, some 12, and that's just fine - but for me, I start worrying around 5 years. I don't want that beer to go too far and miss out on the delisciousness within!
I've had a great amount of success with 3 years. Especially in the vertical tastings, for my own palate, three years is right around perfect. KBS aged at 3 years is the best I've ever had it, and possibly one of the best beers I've ever had. Same went for Stone Russian Imperial. Mmm.. three years..
So what does aging do?
Aging allows the beer to mellow and the flavors to coalesce. Some beers, especially big beers, present themselves as "layered", as I call it. All of these intense flavors that stand out from eachother, layered. Aging allows all of those extreme layers to meld with eachother, tighten, and mellow into a spectacular presentation of flavor and complexity. It's absolutely worth it - if you have the patience.
Generally, the kinds of beer you want to age are the bigger and bolder styles. Barleywine, Wheatwine, Imperial Stout, Old Ale, Stock Ale - beers along those lines. Even the standard styles do well with a little time, especially the heavier ones.
Some styles simply don't lend themselves to aging. Some beers are simply meant to be drank. These styles include pislner, most other styles of lager, oktoberfest, pale ale, cream ale, etc.
Hoppy Beers are not meant to be aged. Aging does not treat hops well - you start to see the hop flavor diminish first, the tones starting to dull and weaken, to (on the extreme end, after years) practically no hop flavor at all. The bitterness is retained, but eventually, it, too will start to decline. I wouldn't suggest aging an overly hoppy beer (like an IPA or DIPA) for more than a year.
Personally, my cellar is tied to some of the best beer experiences I've ever had - I encourage you all to invest the time in it - your beer-loving brain will love you for it.
Cheers!
BD
Location
Find a dark area of your residence, with no exposure to light (a basement corner, a closet, etc) that maintains a -constant temperature-. Preferably a little cooler. Both points here are very important, don't compromise! Your beer will thank you years from now.
You don't need anything special, just a place to keep them. Some people build a beer rack, but I just use Boxes on the ground. Keep your bottles upright, not on their sides, as they need to sit on that yeast cake.
What can I age?
You can age bottle conditioned and non-bottle conditioned ales, but I suggest sticking to BC. The yeast cake helps the beer stay healthy and age maturely, as it is still interacting with the yeast on which it was made. Force carbed brews also age well, but you are limited to the lifespan of the carbonation, and you have to choose carefully at what point you want to open the bottle before the carbonation expires. (Some cellar gurus turn to waxing the tops of their force-carbed bottles to combat this during aging)
I suggest taking a permanent marker and marking the caps of your bottles with the month and year (9/13). Or you can make a small tag with some twine and hang it around the bottle's neck. This is especially helpful a few years down the line, when you find a tasty, dusty bottle and can't remember for the life of you how old it is! Start the practice now, you'll thank yourself later.
Put those bottles away and forget about them!
The Beer Pull
Put your cellar in a place that is -difficult- to get to, or a place you don't think about often. This helps the fight the 'beer pull' - that desire to crack open that bottle. There's nothing worse than, after having a few too many, cracking open that beautiful aged beer in the basement - only to wake up the next morning to discover the second half of the bottle never got drank. (shudders) ..Guilty.
Temperature
Only chill your bottles when you're ready to consume them. Purchase your bottles to be aged warm (not out of the cooler) and put them in your cellar. When you're finally ready to dip into your cellar, put your bottle in the fridge to chill it, and then serve. Large and drastic temeperature changes are -not- your friend. Do everything you can to help those bottles maintain a constant temperature. If you buy a bottle for aging out of a cooler, find a way to allow that temperature to slowly lower. Wrap it in a towel or blankets, or something similair (you'll find a way), and allow the bottle to come to room temperature gradually, then place in your cellar.
Vertical Tasting
This is one of my favorite aspects of beer, and one of the best tasting experiences I think you can have.
A Vertical Tasting is when you sit down with multiple years of a given brand. I've fortunately been able to take part in three or four, and they've all been mind-opening experiences. A four year vertical tasting of Founders KBS next year would look like this: 11', 12', 13', 14' (fresh batch). Start your group with the fresh batch (current year) and work your way backwards.
The alternative option would be to start with the oldest first and work your way forwards. This method is usually enacted in an effort to allow your palate to be freshest for the oldest bottle. There's no 'wrong' way, but there's two great options for setting up your own tasting. Verticals provide a truly unique opportunity to taste multiple years of aging side-by-side, allowing you and your group to explore the subtle differences between the years.
You can easily start collecting for your own vertical tastings, years from now, but simply grabbing a 4 pack of a given brand that interests you, once a year. I usually drink one fresh, and then age the other three. I'm currently doing this with Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, North Coast Old Rasputin, and some others. When you have a chance, at some point in the year, grab a four pack and stash it away.
For special releases, like KBS, I try to obtain two four packs per year. Drink one, age the other 7. With this practice, you can easily have yourself in the range of a 3 or 4 year vertical without even thinking about it.
How long can you age?
This is a big question that has many, many different answers. You ask a different person, you'll get a different answer. There's alot of different factors that influence the aging life of a bottle, but that's a huge discussion that I'm not going to get into here.My aging rule is right around 5 years. I think the longest I would, personally, push my bottles is to 7 years. With all the different factors, I start thinking it's about time to open that bottle by around 5 years. Whenever you choose to open it, it's great, I'm just talking about the extreme end. There are people that say 10 years, some 12, and that's just fine - but for me, I start worrying around 5 years. I don't want that beer to go too far and miss out on the delisciousness within!
I've had a great amount of success with 3 years. Especially in the vertical tastings, for my own palate, three years is right around perfect. KBS aged at 3 years is the best I've ever had it, and possibly one of the best beers I've ever had. Same went for Stone Russian Imperial. Mmm.. three years..
So what does aging do?
Aging allows the beer to mellow and the flavors to coalesce. Some beers, especially big beers, present themselves as "layered", as I call it. All of these intense flavors that stand out from eachother, layered. Aging allows all of those extreme layers to meld with eachother, tighten, and mellow into a spectacular presentation of flavor and complexity. It's absolutely worth it - if you have the patience.
Generally, the kinds of beer you want to age are the bigger and bolder styles. Barleywine, Wheatwine, Imperial Stout, Old Ale, Stock Ale - beers along those lines. Even the standard styles do well with a little time, especially the heavier ones.
Some styles simply don't lend themselves to aging. Some beers are simply meant to be drank. These styles include pislner, most other styles of lager, oktoberfest, pale ale, cream ale, etc.
Hoppy Beers are not meant to be aged. Aging does not treat hops well - you start to see the hop flavor diminish first, the tones starting to dull and weaken, to (on the extreme end, after years) practically no hop flavor at all. The bitterness is retained, but eventually, it, too will start to decline. I wouldn't suggest aging an overly hoppy beer (like an IPA or DIPA) for more than a year.
Personally, my cellar is tied to some of the best beer experiences I've ever had - I encourage you all to invest the time in it - your beer-loving brain will love you for it.
Cheers!
BD
