Recently I’ve been digging through the list of winners from last month’s Great American Beer Festival in an effort to identify the beers that would age well. I wanted my list to focus on the beers that are at least somewhat attainable to us average folk. A lot of the winners seem to be special releases that aren’t widely available to consumers (if they’re available at all). There are also a number of beers that don’t seem to have been bottled by the brewery; these are probably only on tap at a brewpub and therefore not available for us to cellar.

So here are 12 award-winning brews, available at least in some areas, that should age wonderfully. You can bet I’ll be trying to track them all down for my cellar collection. This first part of the list focuses on Belgian-styled brews, the second part of the list will come later in the week and will be all dark and strong beers.

Judgement Day and Cuvee de Tomme- Port Brewing/The Lost Abbey - Not only did the Lost Abbey win individual awards for their beer, they were also named Small Brewing Company of the year. Tomme Arthur was also named small brewer of the year. Judgement Day won gold in the Experimental Beer category, while Cuvee de Tomme took another gold for the best Wood and Barrel Aged Sour Beer.

Victor and Four- Allagash Brewing - Winners of two bronze medals in the categories of Experimental Beer and Belgian Style Abbey Ale. Although I haven’t seen these brews in particular in my area (upstate NY), I regularly see other Allagash brews on the shelves. Time to see if these two can be special ordered!

Cuvee de Castleton - Captain Lawrence Brewing - Available in the greater NYC area, this brewery is located just north of NYC. Gold medal winners as best American/German Style Sour Ale.

Southhampton Saison and Southhampton Double White Ale- Southhampton Publick House - A pair of medal winners (bronze and silver respectively) from another NY brewer, this one located on Long Island. Also available in the greater NYC area.

Domaine DuPage - A bronze winning Belgian/French Ale from Two Brothers Brewing, in Chicago.

Supplication - I’ve been wanting to try the beers from Russian River Brewing for a long time now, but they’re damn near impossible to get here in NY. Supplication is a Belgian-Style Sour Ale.

Tripel Dipsea by Marin Brewing and Green Flash Trippel by Green Flash Brewing were the Gold and Silver winners for Belgian Style Abbey Ales. Both are bottle-conditioned and high in abv%, and should last for a good long time.

Celis Grand Cru - Michigan Brewing - Gold medal winners in the hotly contested Belgian Style Strong Specialty Ale category.

Good luck finding them!

Jason

jason@brewbasement.com