Brews Clues
Beer Snob Edition
Dennis Mongello
Issue date: 12/7/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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Lastly, vintages don't really matter for beer. Hops and malts are pretty sturdy crops and the weather doesn't affect them like it affects grapes. There aren't any "good years" for beers. If you pop open a fresh Duvel tomorrow, it will taste the same as it would have if it was 1999 and you opened an equally fresh Duvel. The only thing that matters when aging beer is the age of the beer itself and not the year it was produced.
So now that you picked a good beer to age and you have a place to age it, what else should you do? The hardest part about aging beer is mustering up the will power to not drink it early! One way to allay this urge is buy three of the same beers. Drink one fresh. Drink one in 5 years. Drink the last in 10 years. Take notes along the way to really see the difference between them and how well the beer matures. If the fresh beer tasted better than the five year old beer, then maybe you should drink that last one because odds are if the beer is sour now, it's going to be even worse if left to age any longer.
My favorite beer to age has got to be Schloss Eggenberg's Samichlaus. It is bottle conditioned and weighs in at an astounding 14% ABV. It is brewed only on one day a year: December 6, St. Nick's feast day. A four pack of this stuff can easily run you $15, but it is worth it. It's a good idea to buy a four pack and drink one this year, the second next year, the third three years from now. You get the idea. Anyway, I got my hands on a fresh one and I wanted to see how it compared to one from 2005.(See Chart Below)
It's interesting to see how age affects the beer. The appearance changes, the aromas evolve over time, the flavors mellow out and blend together. What can I say? Beer improves with age. The older I get, the better I like it.
So now that you picked a good beer to age and you have a place to age it, what else should you do? The hardest part about aging beer is mustering up the will power to not drink it early! One way to allay this urge is buy three of the same beers. Drink one fresh. Drink one in 5 years. Drink the last in 10 years. Take notes along the way to really see the difference between them and how well the beer matures. If the fresh beer tasted better than the five year old beer, then maybe you should drink that last one because odds are if the beer is sour now, it's going to be even worse if left to age any longer.
My favorite beer to age has got to be Schloss Eggenberg's Samichlaus. It is bottle conditioned and weighs in at an astounding 14% ABV. It is brewed only on one day a year: December 6, St. Nick's feast day. A four pack of this stuff can easily run you $15, but it is worth it. It's a good idea to buy a four pack and drink one this year, the second next year, the third three years from now. You get the idea. Anyway, I got my hands on a fresh one and I wanted to see how it compared to one from 2005.(See Chart Below)
It's interesting to see how age affects the beer. The appearance changes, the aromas evolve over time, the flavors mellow out and blend together. What can I say? Beer improves with age. The older I get, the better I like it.
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