Best Beer from the Bargain Bin: List your finds!
 

Every now and then, local retailers are stuck with stock of beerapproaching their 'use by' date.

My understanding is that such dates are a relatively new labelling requirement domestically and as a result, sometimes beer close to use-by is offered for a fraction of the normal price.

Normally it is imports, often German and Czech.

Todays' special: a pilsner from a respected Aussie boutique brewer
Matilda Bay Brewing Co.
Brewhouse: Stirling Highway, North Fremantle, WA, Australia
Matilda Bay Bohemia
Background story on this brewer

I'll report on the fun part of this thread, soon. :)
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Do you have any reports on any beer you've tried, due to some kind of tasting, free offer or special promotion? List it here. :)

Trader Joe's

Fat Weasel Ale.
Oranjaboom

I love TJ's

Plan Ahead
 

It's the wrong end of the calendar but the Trader Joe's grocery chain offers an annual Vintage Ale at the end of the year; roughly between min-November and New Year's. The precise recipe differs from year to year but it's a very nice strong Belgian-style ale brewed for them by Quebec's Unibroue. I'd compare it to Rocheforte 8.

It's typically been priced at $5 for a 750ml bottle and after the holidays the price of the Vintage Ale drops quite a bit. In late January of this year I stocked up on 2007 Vintage Ale for $1.99 per bottle from my nearest Trader Joe's store. I haven't opened one in about three months but if past vintages and Unibroue's other beers are a guide this should age really nicely.

Question regarding storage on something like this? Wine rack? Cool, dark place? Temperature?

Thanks!

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

I may be wrong but I've never thought beer was brewed to last very long so normal atmospheric conditions shouldn't have any effect.
On a purely practical level I store all my different styles of beer in a very large fridge in my shed so that
a. It's as cold as I like it when I want it.
b. My wife doesn't have a clue how much I'm drinking !

Which is why this is my favourite beer ad !

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uiaYwJkW4Q

Nice. :) And, I suppose you are right when it comes to regular beer, but when we are talking about Belgian-style ales, there may be a bit of a difference, so I was just curious what greggwiggins suggests as far as storage for them was concerned.

But, your post brings to mind another question regarding the storage of Belgian ale...how long will it keep under ideal conditions?

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

Showbizguru is right. Most beers should be drunk fresh; some, however, do develop more complexity with aging. These are big, intense beers such as Belgian strong ales or English barleywines (or beers made to those styles in other countries, of course).

Cool and dark are two key things to consider when looking for a place to age a bottle of beer. There's a good how-to guide to cellaring beer on the Beer Advocate website.

How long a beer will keep depends on the beer as well as the cellaring. I've had a twenty year old Thomas Hardy Ale that was magnificent, and recently shared a ten year old bottle of Belgian Oude Geuze which was superb. But cellaring is a bad idea for beers like pale ales or IPAs because one of the things that happens as a beer ages is that the flavor of the hops mellow and become less prominent. For example, after a couple of years, no matter how carefully stored, Stone's Arrogant B... Ale will be a pretty mellow dude.

In general, the higher the alcohol content of the beer the longer it can be stored. As a previous poster mentioned, Barley Wines, some Belgians, strong ales, and Imperial Stouts can be stored for years. Store in a cool, dark place. Brewguy stores his bottles upright so that the yeast will settle to the bottom of the bottle.

Upright, next to your wine rack. I've kept some of the Sam Adams Chocolate and Unibroue for a couple of years. It mellowed the flavor a bit. In my opinion, it doesn't have the same effect as aging a wine, but can even out flavors.

With that being said, I just had a stout that had been stored as above for about 3 years and it was nasty.

Back to the topic at hand (or some approximation of it):

I bought a six of PBR last night at a chinese bodega a block away for $4.50

That's four dollars and fifty cents for a six pack of beer in New York City.

[QUOTE=greggwiggins;9794528But cellaring is a bad idea for beers like pale ales or IPAs because one of the things that happens as a beer ages is that the flavor of the hops mellow and become less prominent.[/QUOTE]

It's interesting that the IPA style was developed specifically to prolong the life of the beer on long ocean voyages (e.g., from England to India, hence India Pale Ale). Since we now have refrigeration and faster modes of transportation than sailing vessels, the IPA style is now appreciated for its own flavor, rather than its ability to resist spoilage. Perhaps the sailors of old thought the IPA tasted best at the end of the voyage, when the hops had mellowed and it tasted more like a "normal" ale to them.

IPA Was Originally A Traveling Beer
 

Sorry -- accidental double post

IPA Was Originally A Traveling Beer
 

Very true that the IPA beer style was developed in England to survive shipping to troops in India in the days of unrefrigerated sailing ships across the equator. (I think we can all understand how it would be unwise to serve spoiled beer to men with firearms.)

While I've been told by people I would listen to on this topic (including Steve Wellington, the man who currently brews it in Burton-on-Trent) that Worthington's White Shield may be the closest modern beer to the ancient style, no one really knows what those original IPAs tasted like; along with the transit time and uncontrolled temperatures, the brewers of the day used wooden kegs, not stainless steel or aluminum, so there was probably a bit of flavor transfer from the wood as well.

There would certainly be some mellowing of the hops and mingling of the oak flavors along the way but the sort of aging we're discussing here is for multiple years, much longer than the journey from Liverpool to Mumbai by sail.

Actually, to return to Worthington's, a stash of very old beer was found in Burton a couple of years ago and what was opened was apparently quite drinkable after nearly fourteen decades. They had lost most of their hop characteristics and carbonation to become more like port or sherry. But this should answer the question, "can you age beer successfully?" My answer would be yes, certain styles of beer can be aged very successfully -- some I've had even need a year or two of cellaring to be their best -- but don't forget where you put them.