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Yep. Love it. It's a marmite beer, in every sense of the word.

If you don't mind a little brett funkiness; a beer bottled with live Brett (and quite a bit of residual dextrin sweetness) should age well and change considerably over time as the brett will stay alive slowly eating the remaining sugars.

-I'd be taking that barley wine of yours, or really any dark strong beer and adding a bit of brett before bottling. (If you don't like the typical brett flavors, brett clausenni produces some very mild and pleasant tastes but still can have massive attenuation and continue working for years.)

Actually, the 30 year old Westmalle tripel I had was amazing, so it's not just the dark beers that age well; strong seems to be the only pre-req.

(In 4-6 weeks I'll be ready to blend my Industrial Rev Porter and I'll have some brett dregs I could mail to you, but it's a more funky lambic strain...)

Alaskan Smoked Porter is supposed to be an absolutely fantastic beer to lay down and age for a while; so I'm guessing any stronger smoked beer could be very interesting aged for a while.

I had a SUPER oaky beer that I laid down for 2 years -Great Divide Yeti Stout- Barrel Aged, and it mellowed some and turned out really fantastic, so I'd recommend any really oaky beer, too. Innis and Gunn have a couple barrel aged versions out that go beyond their normal oak aging and are then aged in a rum barrel for a while; could be interesting to age for a while (only if they up the ABV over a normal Innis and Gunn...).


Adam

The 1.5 liter magnums of rochefort 8 should be pretty nifty for laying down. Me and my friend have about 10 of them between us. They are corked and capped so it should last quite some time!

Lambics are possibly the best but it all depends if you actually like them or not. I have had fruit lambics and gueuze that have been 30+ years old and are still drinkable. I had a 1999 3F gueuze over christmas that tasted brand new!

&amp;quot;hayzer&amp;quot;:1vu0vtg2 wrote: To answer the original post, I'd get some Samichlaus and Chimay (blue), and Westvleteren if possible (this is where the trip to Belgium would come in <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D --> ).

I see that the vintage beers article linked above lists Sam Adam's Triple Bock as a recommended beer for ageing - I have a bottle of this at home but have never been tempted to open it as I hear it's complete muck - anyone tried it?[/quote:1vu0vtg2]

+1 on the Samichlaus and Westvlettern (Samichlaus could be interesting just because it's so strong; although I'm not a huge fan of the taste by itself so maybe not...)

The SA Triplebock was just too much for me, anyway. (WAY too much residual sweetness, alcohol burn, and maple syrup flavor for me.) -Devney's in Dundrum had it a while back.


Adam

Few words on "non-ideal" aging - despite the article below mostly applies to IPA (historical authenticity), there is some information about the chemistry of aging that makes me think if the super-steady cellar temperatures are absolutely necessary, or even if varying temperature is not better:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="zythophile.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/ipa-...turation-experiment/">zythophile.wordpress.com/2010/06 ... xperiment/

&amp;quot;Barry M&amp;quot;:2r7lmm0j wrote: Historical recipes are always a good idea, I think. Never made one though <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->[/quote:2r7lmm0j]

The old timers did'nt mess about when it came to alcohol or hops for that matter most of the durden park recipes would make most of the so called 'avant-garde' brews of today look positively pedesterian <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->