I got an email in my mailbox today from Mario who has his own beer blog, Brewed for Thought. In his email, he asks me a question that I get asked often, “Should I age my beer?”. The short answer, it depends. I’ve copied and pasted my reply below so you can read it and see what my thoughts are on the subject.
Speaking very generally, I’ve always believed that beers should be drunk as fresh as possible. In no other time will a beer be closest to what the brewer intended it to be than at it’s freshest. The flavors will be the brightest and the aroma most true.
That being said, whenever I am asked about cellaring, I say that some styles are more adept to cellaring than others but the main distinction would be the alcohol content. 8% seems to be a nice number on which to base whether or not to cellar a beer. From experience, personal and anecdotal, maltier beers seem to age much better than their hoppier bretheren. Hop flavors diminish quickly with time, even under the best of conditions.
Country or style of origin must be taken account when thinking about cellaring/aging beers. I would argue that lagers should age pretty well (under ideal conditions), it is in their name after all. Marzens, traditionally brewed in March, would need to be cellared for a minimum of 6 months before they were consumed in the fall and this particular style ranges in ABV from 4.8% up to 5.7%, which is well below the 8% threshold. Belgian beers, as you probably already know, arguably age the best of all beers. A huge reason for this is because most Belgian ales are bottle-conditioned and the yeasts have a preservative quality because they consume the oxygen in the headspace of the beer after bottling.
At the end of the day though, it’s entirely up to the person cellaring the beer. In the case of Christmas/holiday beers, it’s fun to buy and extra sixer and age it over the course of 6 years and see how the beer holds up during that period as well as contrasting it to beers from later vintages. It is nearly impossible to predict how a beer will mature over time as there are many variables to consider. Even if you did take the time, care and effort to maximize cellaring conditions, there’s no telling what kind of shape the beer was in when it first arrived at the bottle shop/grocery store/bar/gas station you first purchased it from.
Personally, I don’t cellar very many beers. I just don’t have the discipline to not drink a good beer. : )
Now that I’ve stated my two cents, I’m interested in hearing what any of you have to say on the subject. While not as polarizing as “less filling vs. tastes great”, I think the idea of cellaring something that really doesn’t age very well would make for a good discussion. Hopefully some of you will chime in.
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