Hi All, now that I’ve gravitated to kegging, I’ve got quite a pile of 12’s and 22’s to bottle with. From RIS to Dubbel’s, Tripel’s, other Stouts, Barleywine’s etc, what are some of your favorite ales to bottle, that can handle prolonged aging, potentially enhancing flavor and growing some dust?
Big beers that you might only have one of from time to time.
Thanks, Mike
All of those you mentioned are big enough that they can take extended aging. I am currently aging a RIS that I made in January 2012 and will have it available in December 2012. I plan on putting it in 22oz bottles as it is 10+ % alcohol and will only have one at a time.
NB Lord Fatbottom. Brewed in February 2009. Still have about a 1/6 of a keg. I only serve it in 3 ounce glasses. It tasted like rocket fuel at 6 months. At a year it was decent. I now have friend that want to pay for me to enter it in competitions. I don’t want to waste the 12 ounces for the chance of winning a ribbon.
I went all grain a year ago. They don’t have this kit in all-grain and I am very tempted to buy it in another extract kit, although it is spendy.
RIS and BW for me. I always have a large collection of them well aged and add to it quite often.
Thanks All. I was thinking Denny’s Old Stoner. But I will have to research Fat Bottom. I suppose it would be possible to convert to all grain. Got to admit Roddy’s input has peaked my interest
Got a Wee Heavy That I brewed Oct '10. Not the biggest but is turning out nice about now. Still got a case left!!!
[quote=“Baratone Brewer”]RIS and BW for me. I always have a large collection of them well aged and add to it quite often.[/quote]+1
[quote=“Steppedonapoptop”]Thanks All. I was thinking Denny’s Old Stoner. But I will have to research Fat Bottom. I suppose it would be possible to convert to all grain. Got to admit Roddy’s input has peaked my interest[/quote]I have Denny’s Old Stoner that I put away over two years ago and just took 1st place in the World Expo of Beer with it. It is a great BW to age.
I had been thinking about this and just brewed a RIS as my first attempt at aging something for an extended amount of time. But I’m not sure how I am going to store the bottles. I don’t have a basement and the temperatures in the garage vary too much (30F-90F depending on the season). I have a chest freezer that I use for fermentation but it tends to be full. So the only option is in a closet. But my wife likes the house to be a little warm (72F-78F depending on the season). Is that ok? Any other suggestions?
I have some bottles of a bourbon barrel porter I made summer of 2009. Tastes wonderful!
tough call bistro37 as to where to lay them down. Maybe dig a deep hole and put them in a sealed bucket underground.
+1 to Bourbon Barrel Porter. I currently have some that is 6 weeks old, 1 year old, 2 years old, and a couple bottles that are 3 years old.
Early on I started bottling a bomber of each batch to squirrel away in the basement; every few batches I’d drag stuff out of the way and add the new bombers to the collection. A couple months before we moved cross country last summer, I pulled them out, sampled quite a few of them with my wife, and gave some as gifts to my beer-loving friends. No, the session beers didn’t stand up well (though a few weren’t terrible), but it was really interesting to see how some of them had developed. A select few I packed up and brought with us. We enjoyed the last bottle of a blueberry stout from late 2009 back in December, and it was sublime. My first RIS, now 2 1/2 years old, has also fared well.
My wife and I both started our doctoral degrees in the fall, and I’ve planned to brew a few batches to age until we finish our dissertations. On the docket is a big (1.130) barleywine, a BDSA, and Flanders red. It’s already a little later than I’d anticipated brewing them, but I think there’ll still be ample time for them to age.
So when the style/recipe/choice is made, what is your choice for the bottle; 12 or 22 or other? I ask because if it’s a heavy alcohol beer, it would seem 12’s make the most sense.
So many beers, so little time :?
The big Belgians like Triples and Strong Ales really improve with age. Also when I bottle a beer to age I like to use the o2 caps. After I fill the bottle I will set the cap on and let it sit for about 30 seconds. The co2 gassing out should burp out any o2 then crimp the cap.
[quote=“Steppedonapoptop”]So when the style/recipe/choice is made, what is your choice for the bottle; 12 or 22 or other? I ask because if it’s a heavy alcohol beer, it would seem 12’s make the most sense.
So many beers, so little time :? [/quote]
I prefer 750ml champagne bottles.
[quote=“Baratone Brewer”][quote=“Steppedonapoptop”]So when the style/recipe/choice is made, what is your choice for the bottle; 12 or 22 or other? I ask because if it’s a heavy alcohol beer, it would seem 12’s make the most sense.
So many beers, so little time :? [/quote]
I prefer 750ml champagne bottles.[/quote]
+1 I aged a barleywine in the strong belgian corked bottles. Worked great. Bottling was eay, and Im less likely to open the bigger bottles too soon because Ive got plenty of session beers in the smaller bottles.
