Some Beers Really Do Get Better With Age

[berapnopod]

News article here

An extract:

CHIMAY, Belgium: This year's vintage was good. The bottle from 1997 was even better, with the flavors coalescing into something special. But it was the 1970 edition that really opened eyes to what aging a bottle can do.

Berp.

 

[mhan7073]

I'm going to try and cellar 6 750ml chimay grand reserves. Got 6 atm- and am about to pick up two magnums to join them (with the aim of cellaring them a little longer) I'm thinking of starting taste testing after 5 years.

If anyone has any advice that would be good.

Loved the article.

Mic

 

[Murcluf]

Totally agree on the extract, I'm working on leaving them for 70 days after bottling before opening and have noted vast improvement.

But now I am wondering when it comes to HB is there a use by date? So far nothing has lasted long enough to find out

 

[Nickb167]

I'm going to try and cellar 6 750ml chimay grand reserves. Got 6 atm- and am about to pick up two magnums to join them (with the aim of cellaring them a little longer) I'm thinking of starting taste testing after 5 years.

If anyone has any advice that would be good.

Loved the article.

Mic

was speaking to my old man about this, he knows all there is to know about wine. Im not sure how relevant it is, but smaller bottles of wine age faster. so im not sure if the magnum will age slower. would be great to get a comparision of a large vs small bottle to see if the same holds true for beer.

nick

 

[MHB]

I hope it comes as a surprise to no one on AHB that beer matures, not that some beers will improve for years to come, bit this may be going a bit too far.
MHB

Link

A brew aged to perfection
David Derbyshire, London
December 12, 2006
IT WAS brewed in the year that the Suez Canal opened and when Charles Dickens embarked on one of his literary tours.
But the recently discovered cache of 1869 ale should have been undrinkable, given the conventional brewing wisdom that even the best beers are supposed to last no more than a couple of decades. Beer experts, however, say the 137-year-old brew tastes "absolutely amazing".
The beer was part of a cache of 250 vintage bottles found in the vaults of Worthington's White Shield brewery in Burton-on-Trent. The bottles will not be sold and have yet to be valued.
According to Steve Wellington, White Shield's head brewer, "It was always rumoured that there were some vintage beers on site, but no one had bothered to taste them because it was assumed they wouldn't be drinkable.
"Uncovering such an interesting collection is fantastic, the most exciting discovery ever made in British brewing. I assumed they would taste awful. But they had the most astonishing, complex flavours."
The bottles were sealed with corks and wax and stored in even, cool temperatures, in the dark and placed on their side to stop the corks drying out.
One of a handful of people to have tasted the 137-year-old beer is Mark Dorber, a beer connoisseur and publican, who has the largest range of bottled beers in Britain.
"It's amazing that beers this antique can still taste so delicious," he said. "Established wisdom would say beers this old should taste of vinegar, damp rags and Marmite. Instead, many show flavours of raisins and sultanas, baked apple and honey. The oldest the 1869 Ratcliff Ale is bright and luminous and has a meaty character like smoked partridge with hints of molasses. It's amazing it tastes this good after 137 years."
The find includes ales brewed to commemorate royal events, including one to mark the birth of Prince William in 1982. Another was brewed in 1977 for the Queen's Silver Jubilee.
All the beers were bottle conditioned, which means they were allowed to develop and mature after they were corked, like a wine. Their high alcohol content about 10 per cent proof stopped them deteriorating.
George Philliskirk, of the Beer Academy, which runs beer tasting sessions, said: "This shows a potential for vintage beers to be taken seriously."
The beers will be recorked to preserve them and displayed at the Museum of Brewing in Burton.
TELEGRAPH

 

[mikem108]

To conduct a vertical tasting in 2014 I've been collecting CHimay blue longnecks and a stubbie of each year since I turned 40, so at my 50th I should have a bottle of each vintage, I just wish I'd started it earlier!

 

[Asher]

I took along a couple of 750ml bottles of Chimay Grand Reserve, a 2005 and a 2002 Vintage to Monday'sWestCoast Brewers meeting . We did a blind tasting of both and people were asked to pick the cellared version. Most people including me picked the one with little aroma and less flavour as the 2002 version. we were wrong. the 2002 Vintage had an amazing aroma of fruit esters, toffee and malt and a much more complex flavours compared to its younger brother... A good result! as I have a few older vintages I'll be holding on to for a few more years before opening.....

Brian, the Pres. dragged a 1987 triple bock out of his cellar... @ 18%ABV - It was like a vegemite port!!

Asher for now

 

[RobW]

I heard a guy on the radio this morning who was diving around Pt Lonsdale (Port Phillip Heads) and found a ceramic bottle of what he reckons was stout (maybe porter?), lodged in an underwater cave. Probably from a shipwreck in the 1800s. He said it tasted OK but "a bit salty".

 

[neonmeate]

i've aged a couple of magnums of chimay grande rserve - drank a 1999 one in 2003 and a 2000 one in 2006. neither seemed to gain much apart from just getting warming and sweet - not much complexity at all. these beers are IMO lacking in depth and don't take age nearly as well as some other strong dark Belgians i aged over the last couple of years like Malheur 12, Gouden Carolus, Rochefort 10, Abbaye des Rocs, St Bernardus 8 and Nostradamus.

If you haven't heard of the big Chimay ingredients scandal a few years back have a read of this:
http://www.whitebeertravels.co.uk/chimay.html

they may be monks but they ain't saints.

edit: don't mean to pour crap on others' opinions but i'm just giving my experiences with cellaring it.

 

[warrenlw63]

Yep.

From what I can taste it loses a little bit of it's soul every year.

Warren -

 

[mhan7073]

I dunno. I think 2006 has improved from 2005 (chimary grand reserve). It think it is difficult to make broad generalizations- as the quality tends to come and go with each year.

mic

 

[Malnourished]

Chimay GR is a weird one. I don't want to like it, but I've had quite good results aging it. The bottles I've had from 2000 over the last couple of years have been anywhere from decent to outstanding. I thought I didn't like it much fresh but a recent bottle made me think otherwise, so now I'm feeling a little confused.

Of course I'm still skeptical because of their production methods and the fact that Chimay's other products are pretty average. And I don't drink the stuff regularly enough to have a solid opinion either way.

I have a few bottles from 2002 onwards but haven't got stuck into them yet. Perhaps there's been a recipe/brewhouse change between now and 2000. Does anyone know when they went to the conical fermenters?

<brag>Oh yeah, at the start of this year I had a 1978 Courage Imperial Stout which was absolutely amazing.</brag>

Obscenely roasty and bitter imperial stouts are the best style to age, IMO.