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Best Brews to Age
I'm familiar with aging Barleywines, but what else is will only get better with age? It seems hops seems to mellow with age so does that mean those shouldn't be aged? Imperial Stouts? Wee Heavys? Are only higher ABV brews worth aging?
It is my understanding that the higher alcohol beers age better, so those tend to be the beers aged. Barleywines, being pretty high in alcohol, are the obvious choice. But I think that several styles can age well. Some double IPAs would probably age pretty well, even though they are hopped pretty high. In fact, the aging could help to balance out the hoppiness that may be bit too prevalent when young.
Anything with a high ABV or high IBU will take to aging. The Imperial Stout craze is starting to churn out some good specialty brews, that would be nice to age.
I think the best beers to age are Barley wines, old ales, Imp. Stouts, Oud Bruins, Belg. Sour reds/browns. Higher alcohol beers seem to be good to age but I have noticed that Strong Dark Beers can stay on the shelf a lot longer that a lot of strong Golden or Pale beers. I think there must be something about the amount of tannins that are in the beer. An example would be that I brewed a Westvleteren abt 12 clone and a Delerium Tremens clone out of the "Beer Captured" book and it says that you can age the Westy for like 5 years but the Delerium you can age for like a year or two.
I think IPAs are better when drank fresh. You don't want to lose any of that hop presence. An exception to this might be a beer like Dogfish head 120 minute IPA because it is such a huge beer there sweetness hides so much of the bitterness anyway.
I think IPAs are better when drank fresh. You don't want to lose any of that hop presence.
Good point on the hop "presence", but remember the whole style is born out of being able to age well. In most cases an IPA has a higher ABV to compensate for the hop bitterness.
I've actually made an IPA and kept several bottles for over a year. All the bottles came out fine, in fact, while maybe not quite at their peak anymore, I would say they were better than a month or two after bottling. The high hops and high alcohol were imparted on the style to make the beer age so it could survive the trip from England to India (hence the name India Pale Ale), just as cmanley says.
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