Beer Cellar Experiment Update and Announcement
By jason on Oct 29, 2007 in Cellar Experiments, Featured
28 bottles of Ommegang’s Three Philosophers, just waiting to be drank by yours truly
As you can see by the picture above, my first cellaring experiment is well under way. For those of you who are new here, I’m trying to shed some light on the highly debated issue of whether you should store your beer on it’s side or standing up. Be sure to check out my previous posts here: Part 1 Part 2
The beers pictured will stay in this configuration until next April. At that time, I’ll be doing two tastings, one of a bottle that’s been laying down, and one that’s been standing up. I’ll also be standing up four of the bottles that were laying down, and laying down one of the bottles that was standing up. I’ll be doing tasting from these bottles at later dates. I sure hope I don’t get sick of this brew, I really loved it in my initial Three Philosophers tasting.
I’m also happy to announce that I’ll be (hopefully) starting my second beer cellaring experiment in a month or two. This experiment will be on the effects of cellaring temperature on aging. I’ll be aging bottles of the same beers at three different temperatures (I’m thinking 40F, 55F, and 70F) and then do tastings over several years worth of time to see what differences emerge between the different samples. I’m going to try to have a wide range of styles be represented in the experiment so we can see if certain styles do better or worse at the various temperatures. It should be fun!
Now I just have to figure out how to keep a bunch of beer at exactly 70F over the span of four or five years. Any ideas anyone?
Jason
I love the experiments. Really looking forward to seeing how they turn out for you, and, a minor enthusiast for cellaring, looking to apply your results to my own collection.
Also, if I may suggest, for your temperature experiment. Your average person’s cellar isn’t really a cellar at all, or, at the least, it doesn’t have perfectly consistent temperature. I think it’d be interesting and valuable to add a 4th group. In addition to the bottles at 40, 55, and 70 degrees, have bottles that switch between the temperatures. Figure that, at three month intervals, moving the bottles from 40 to 55 to 70 to 55, and then repeating, you should approximate the effects of an average amateur cellar.
Good luck!
TC | Oct 29, 2007 | Reply