The Beer Thread

[James Ford]

Picking up my second bottle of Founders CBS this weekend, to cellar next to the seven bottles of 2011 KBS we still have. Hope they get better with age(?) Also hoping to pick up a four pack of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout when I'm in Chicago next month. Much to my wife's dismay. We're going to have to actually start drinking this stuff at some point. 

[sweetcell]

care to share where you've getting the CBS from?  (either here, or a PM would be fine )

i've never tried it yet, and what with all the hype i'm quite curious.

anyone else have a lead on the stuff?  is it even available in MD?  i'm in VA for work quite often these days, so i'm hopefully this increased reach will help me score some.

[nkotb]

Beer tasting party at the Ford's???

We're going to have to actually start drinking this stuff at some point. 

[James Ford]

We have had a beer tasting party the last two Octobers where everyone (including us) brought their favorite craft beers and we provided food and sample size cups. Just too busy to do it this year, with marathons, work, kid issues, travel, etc. Maybe in the Spring.

One result was that we found that a number of people tended to opt for quantity over quality (even though we said don't bring any more than you yourself would drink), leaving us with a fridge full of mediocre beer. Not that that's a horrible thing. 

And for the record, I just read it's better to drink the CBS fresh, as otherwise it will lose its maple flavor, and end up tasting like aged KBS. Not that that's a horrible thing.

Beer tasting party at the Ford's???

We're going to have to actually start drinking this stuff at some point. 

[Jaguar]

Rhett, I think beers need to be consumed early on unlike most wines and liquors. I know I've had some nasty beers due to my habit of purchasing and then letting the stuff sit around too long. Of course, I've had some very pleasant surprises by doing this with some of my wines and liquors. Totally took the edge off a nice bottle of good rum I bought many years ago in Barbados. Finally opened it the other week and that stuff has mellowed to an incredible degree with no loss of any of the goodness. Very different than how it tasted in Barbados. Beer is more like good fresh produce. Consume it while it's fresh and before it turns on you.

[James Ford]

Actually, not true.

Wine is not the only drink that can be aged for maturation. Many beers benefit from extended aging. We're not talking about your average beer with a mere shelf life of 3-6 months, tops -- before quality begins to degrade. We're talking about beers that beg for maturation and strict storage like vintage beers, barleywines, imperial stouts, Belgian strong ales, lambics, old ales and so on. Ideally, any type of beer that can be laid-down for a year or two, or even more, in order to build a slew of complexities and thus further its character in a positive way.....



....Cool. Now that you have an idea as to what to cellar and how, what can you expect a year or more down the road when you've patiently waiting to crack open your aging beers? The answer = who knows? There are way too many variables that come to play, on top of the variations within the different styles. Some beers age very well, others don't. Some beers need only a year, while others can age for 25+ years. And, many breweries have no idea what their beer will taste like years down the road, while others can make pretty damn good predictions. It's all part of the fun. Full article at...
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/store

Rhett, I think beers need to be consumed early on unlike most wines and liquors. I know I've had some nasty beers due to my habit of purchasing and then letting the stuff sit around too long. Of course, I've had some very pleasant surprises by doing this with some of my wines and liquors. Totally took the edge off a nice bottle of good rum I bought many years ago in Barbados. Finally opened it the other week and that stuff has mellowed to an incredible degree with no loss of any of the goodness. Very different than how it tasted in Barbados. Beer is more like good fresh produce. Consume it while it's fresh and before it turns on you.

[Jaguar]

Interesting. Thanks for posting that. My 'aged' ones have never turned out well. In fact, a couple years ago I had some sort of Rogue Juniper beer that I let sit around for about a year that literally made me kind of sick. In this case, it wasn't the hops. Seemed to have something to do with some of the natural ingredients going bad over time more than anything.

[grateful]

Best bets for aging beers are those that are bottle conditioned, that is, a bit of yeast is added to the bottle to finish off the fermentation process.  I have a couple bottles of Allagash Curieux gathering dust in the basement....

[sweetcell]

i have 10 bottles (out of the original 12) of dominion's millenium barleywine gathering dust in the basement, i'm going to give them at least a year.  http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/402/18965

[James Ford]

Yeah, that one definitely would not work. Not with only 5.3abv.

Generally, I wouldn't cellar anything under 8.0abv, nor would I cellar any kind of ipa.

And my "cellar" is really just my finished basement. And it's only a few degrees colder than the upstairs, which means it's not nearly in the 45-55 degree cellaring range, especially in the summer. So maybe I shouldn't be "cellaring" at all in my house.

Interesting. Thanks for posting that. My 'aged' ones have never turned out well. In fact, a couple years ago I had some sort of Rogue Juniper beer that I let sit around for about a year that literally made me kind of sick. In this case, it wasn't the hops. Seemed to have something to do with some of the natural ingredients going bad over time more than anything.

[James Ford]

With Thanksgiving coming up, thought I'd share this one

http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2009/11/beer-pairings-with-thanksgiving-food-desserts-pies.html

Now I know what to do with my bottle of Abyss.

[i am gay and i like cats]

if you read my article i posted about the head of founders . . . he admited that next year, with the new brewery up and producing, all these beers hard to find this season will be everywhere next year.  i just hope that backwoods bastard isn't going to become a fiasco.

[sweetcell]

if anyone is headed down to ashville for Moogfest keep your eyes open for Asheville Brewing Company's Moog Filtered Ale, a small batch re-issued especially for the festival. http://www.moogfoundation.org/tag/moog-filtered-ale/

[dave24]

Am looking forward to this in a few weeks...

http://www.3floyds.com/2011/09/14/anniversary-party-announcement/

[James Ford]

Did you move to Indiana? I'll be hitting their brewpub around Thanksgiving. Perfect escape from the in-laws.

Am looking forward to this in a few weeks...

http://www.3floyds.com/2011/09/14/anniversary-party-announcement/