inksb wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 2:27 pm
Bezulsqy wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 2:07 pm
Interesting beer talk good people.
At the start of this year I had around 100 different beers in my storage. now I believe I have around 90. Most of those are Belgian sours or heavy beers. Those age mighty fine. I opened a bottle from 2001 past fall and that tasted amazing. Another bottle from 2010 also tasted brilliant.
The problem I have is that I also love IPAs and those I drink as soon as possible which means the shelf life of my beers in storage keeps on climbing. And my girlfriend doesn't like sour beers so opening a 75cl bottle to drink by myself is not something I do often.
I need to stop buying this stuff. It is getting out of hand.
Belgian beers tend to age pretty well as far as I know due to the yeast used. It will continue to change aspects of the beer as time goes on. Belgian sours I'm not as well versed in, we only get a handful around where I live and I drink them immediately. The sours I was referencing are fruit heavy sours that have been a huge boom lately in the states. Guava strawberry peach fruit, etc. loses it fresh flavors quickly
Here are some Belgian beers I have that are perfect to drink now but that also undergo a taste evolution while bottled.
On the left you have a classic Belgian sour, namely an Oude Geuze. Those are like wine. Can easily be kept for 25 years. The older they are the 'softer' they get, as in less sour. Next to it is a Oude Kriek with raspberries added. It is a fruit variant of the Oude Geuze. Absolutely love those beers.
Third beer is Stille Nacht (Silent Night) from 2017 I believe. It is amber in colour and 12% ABV. They release one every year for Christmas. I have a bottle from the last 4 years and it should be a beer that lends itself for tasting different years next to each other. I'll keep these for another 5-10 years probably before I open a couple to taste the difference between years.
The last one is a standard Belgian dark ale. A quadruple at 10% ABV. Best before date on this new bottle is 2024. But I believe they set that date at a standard of 3 years. It can be kept much longer. However my experience is that those don't taste a lot better if kept for over 5 years. It is a beautiful beer though. Similar to the more difficult to get Westvleteren.
At the moment I have around 30 large bottles (75cl) of Oude Geuze and fruit variants. Because I have so many it won't be too difficult to let a lot of them age :-)