While nobody knows the exact percentage, nearly all of the beer brewed worldwide should be enjoyed when it’s as fresh as possible. With most beer, the sooner you drink it, the better; usually within ninety days of being kegged, bottled or canned if it’s unpasteurized, and a little longer if it has. Many beers even tell you right on the label, six-pack carrier or carton the date by which you should drink your beer. Believe them.
Whenever you buy a beer that you’re planning on aging, buy at least two bottles: one to put in your beer cellar and another to drink right now.
Beer is surprisingly delicate and never stops changing and evolving from the beginning of the brewing process right through to your first sip. Even so, for all but a very few beers, time is the enemy. Like a new car driving off the dealer’s lot, most beer will never be better than when it has that new beer smell… and taste!
How does your collection compare? Pictured here, only a fraction of the bottles in Matt VandenBerghe's beer cellar. (courtesy of Matt VandenBerghe)
So Why Bother?
The reason some beers should be set aside and aged is that like a fine wine or whisky, the experience of drinking an aged beer is enhanced because of the changes that occur during the aging process. For these few beers, the aging actually improves their flavors and adds complexity and other intangible qualities that can be achieved only over time. Many of these beers soften with time, rough edges are smoothed out and the beer becomes mellower with aging.
Some styles of beer fairly cry out to be aged. Many experts believe, for example, that a barley wine isn’t ready to drink until it’s at least one year old. The same could be said for other stronger styles, too, such as imperial stouts or Belgian strong dark ales, both of which improve greatly with time.
And despite its delicate nature, some beers can withstand the rigors of time and improve for as long as decades and even centuries. A few years ago, Coors Brewing, after taking over the former Bass Brewery in Burton-on-Trent, England, discovered some very old beer in the vaults of the Worthington’s White Shield brewery. The forgotten stash contained beer that was 130 years old, some of it from 1896. Most of the bottles still had their corks intact and, perhaps more surprisingly, when tasted, were found to “taste so fresh, and with [very] attractive ripe plum and honeyed flavours.” One of the people lucky enough to try the 1896 beer, Dr George Philliskirk, Chief Executive of the Beer Academy, noted. “This demonstrates the potential for vintage beers to be taken seriously—maybe even being worthy of a special section in wine lists at Britain’s top restaurants.”
