Why store beer for 3 years? i’m new to craft beers and already love the flavor… why store? any special reason?
There’s plenty of reasons, but here’s a few that come to mind.
- Reserve series beers like the Parabola in printchangedeverything’s picture are actually meant to be aged. Beers like this I generally buy in two’s: one to drink now, and one to sit on and see how the beer has matured.
- Special releases, usually huge barrel aged stouts like Dark Lord, Darkness, Hunahpu, Kate the Great, etc. are something you can’t get year round and they also age well, so there’s no harm in stocking up on a few and sipping on them through the years.
- Verticals are another big reason to cellar beer. Comparing this year’s version to the year before and the year before that’s version of a beer is a great way to see how the beer has changed as it has aged and what slight differences may have been made at the brewery.
- Some breweries even do vertical series of completely different styles of beer that are meant to be enjoyed all together with the final release of the series. The most notable vertical being Stone’s “Vertical Epic” starting in 02.02.02 to and ending with this year’s 12.12.12. The Bruery’s 12 Days/Years of Christmas Series also comes to mind, starting with Partridge in a Pear Tree four years ago through this year’s Four Calling Birds all the way to Twelve Drummers Drumming in 2020. It takes some will power to not drink the first year’s of a series like that, and now 02.02.02 and Partridge in a Pear Tree are some of the most expensive beers on the market.
- Most bottle conditioned beers are going to change slightly as the yeast continues to eat away at the available sugars.
- Sour beers, especially ones with Brettanomyces are only going to get funkier with age. This is one huge complaint you see on BeerAdvocate popup every once in a while: “why release a beer before it’s ready to be opened?” Personally, I’m no stranger to buying beers to sit on (I’m even know for sitting on beer I shouldn’t) so I really don’t have any complaints when I know a beer will taste better nine months down the road.
matthew 'fuj' scher 