If you haven’t already, please check out Part 1 of my post on this experiment in beer cellaring.

In implementing this experiment, I had one very important thing to decide on - what beer was I going to use? There were a whole host of factors to consider here:

• In order to test the conditions I mentioned in the previous half of this article, I wanted to beer to be both bottle-conditioned and corked.
• I had to be reasonably confident that the brew would improve with age under normal cellaring conditions.
• It couldn’t be wildly expensive. I’m buying a decent amount of this stuff, and I’m not made of money, dammit.
• It needs to be fresh. I wanted something I could be pretty sure hadn’t been sitting around for awhile. I was thinking something from the NE American region or Eastern Canada.
• Last, but not least, I wanted something that I like. Preferably something I REALLY liked. After all, I’m going to be drinking a lot of this brew over the next few years.

After considering all of those things, choosing the brewery became a no-brainer. It had to be Ommegang, just a scant hour or so away from me. Choosing the specific beer was a bit harder, but not too much. It was probably a bit more money then I wanted to spend, but I have two cases of Three Philosophers Quadruple (or 3P as I’ll call it from now on) coming in tonight. Quads in general age very well, and the 3P Quad in particular has been known to cellar very well.

So my experiment will start in full tomorrow. Counting the four bottles of 3P I already have, I’ll have 28 bottles to fool around with over the next four years. I’ve broken these bottles down into seven different groups, with each group being treated in a slightly different way:

• Group #1 - 5 bottles, all standing up. Tastings at 6 months, 1 year, 2 year, 3 year, and four years.
• Group #2 - 5 bottles, all laying down. Tastings same as above.
• Group #3 - 4 bottles, all laying down to start. After six months, they will be stood up and will stay like that for the rest of the experiment. Tastings at 1, 2, 3 and 4 years.
• Group #4 - 3 bottles, all laying down to start. Will be stood up after 1 year, tastings at 2, 3, and 4 years.
• Group #5 - 2 bottles, laying down to start. Will be stood up after 2 years, tastings at 3, and 4 years.
• Group #6 - 1 bottle, laying down. Will be stood up after 3 years, tasting at year 4.
• Group #7 - 7 bottles, all standing up to start. At the six month period, one bottle will be laid down to be tasted after six more months aging. At the one year period, as well as every year after that, 2 bottles will be laid down. Tastings of those bottles will occur after six more months and one more year have gone by.
• The one bottle left over is for my own enjoyment! I’ll be storing it the normal way, standing up. I can gaurantee it’ll be shared with some friends.

Hopefully within a year or two I’ll be shedding some light on this debate. In the meantime, I’ll be starting a new section of the site dedicated to this experiment. You’ll be able to read all of my tasting notes, as well as see the exact timeline of what is being tasted when. Be sure to check back every now and then!

Thanks for reading, and I’d love to hear any comments or suggestions on my plans! 

Jason

jason@brewbasement.com