Sat May 26, 2007 6:56 am
I've just started my cellar this year (currently 5 bottles in there, woo hoo) so I've been doing a fair amount of research on this. Seems the general belief is that most beers over 7.5% ABV are good to age. But then there is the subject of length to time to age. Some beers will continue to improve over years, some even up to 10+ years. Others need a few months. I would say bottle conditioned Beligans in the higher gravity range would be a good idea. With those, buy several at a time. I know that can get a little pricey, but it's the best way to tell when the beer has stopped improving and will eventually start to decrease in quality. One place I read that you should at least buy a dozen of one beer that way you could taste them every year, compare notes to the previous year and see when the increase in quality had slowed and then hopefully you'd have a few bottles left after it had reached it's peak.
Currently in my cellar:
1.5L bottle of my Oak Aged Strong Ale ~9%
Unibroue 16
Rogue Old Crust. Barleywine Style Ale 2006
Trappistes Rochefort 10
Trappistes Rochefort 8
I'm planning on doing Jamil's Barleywine recipe here soon and will probably put most of those bottles away for a while. That's one good thing about aging homebrews. If you do a 5gal batch you've got ~50 bottles to put away and when they peak you'll have several to drink.
So, my suggestion as to what to give him to cellar would be some of your homebrew. Do a Barleywine, Strong Ale, Belgian Dark Strong, or other high gravity beer and half the batch w/ him. Or better yet, give him all of it w/ the understanding that you want half back after they've aged some. I'll be bottling up several 22oz bottles of my Oak Strong to put away and since I did that brew on 1-1-07 I plan on doing the same recipe on 1-1-08, 09, 10, etc and seeing how they compare over the years.
