How Long Will My Beer Last?

Today we'll quite masterfully reply to a commonly asked question about one's beer stash: How long will it last?  I literally receive millions of letters a week from rabidly loyal fans about this topic.  (DISCLAIMER: no one actually reads this blog, and it's probably for the best that they don't, but if I did have fans, they would probably be the John-Hinckley-need-a-restraining-order type who send in millions of letters a week.) I digress a bit, but I thought now would be a good time to attempt an answer to this ageless question.

Not now creepily, obsessive, lady-fans, it's time to blog

The number one factor in determining how long your beer will last is its alcohol content.  The higher the abv%, the longer it will last and still taste good. Plain and simple. Although hops and their alpha-acids aid in preserving and disinfecting beer to a certain extent, a brew's IBU spec pales in comparison to its gravity (alcohol) when considering potential shelf life. 

In fact, styles that showcase hops such as pale ales and IPAs make rather poor candidates for aging.  As hop-heavy styles age, the flavor and aroma of the hops begin to dull and become more mild.  IPAs, pales, American reds, et other hoppy styles are really best drunk as close to the release time (or the end of the bottle conditioning/forced carbonation kegging time in home brewing) as possible.  However, if you mistakenly bought a beer that's just too hoppy for your taste, by all means, try letting it mellow out by aging it several months. 

So let's tackle how long your beer will actually last, and still taste as the brewer intended.  Of course these aren't rigid rules, but more of a loose guideline to work from. It's not an entirely black and white issue, but the following chart attempts to set fairly broad parameters for optimum beer life sorted by abv%.  I purposely overlapped the ABV% values, to cover the decimals (i.e. 4% vs 4.5%):

ABV%                       Storage Limit Time for Optimum Flavor
4 or less                      3 months
4-6                              6 months
6-8                              1 year
8-10                            3 years
10+                             3+ years

If you're looking to age a higher gravity beer for a year or longer, some ideal styles include wheat wines, barley wines, Belgian tripels, Belgian quads, strong ales, dopplebocks, and meads/real ciders* (technically not beers, but commonly made by home brewers).  Basically, any high gravity beers that tilt more towards the malty side than their hoppy counterparts will be great candidates for aging. 

If you do plan on aging your fancy schmancy Westvleteren 12, Allagash Curieux, or Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, store your bottles upright in a dark, dry room at about 50-60 degrees.  Each year your beer ages, possible harsh alcohol tastes will begin to mellow, and new complex flavors will begin to emerge, especially in bottle conditioned ales (the yeast is still in the bottle and very much alive). 

If you want to compare an aged ale to a more recent bottle, The Brickstore and the Porter Beer Bar are great Atlanta locations that have a vast collection of in-house cellared bottles.  If you don't have a cellaring bar near you, start your own aging program NOTE: An extraordinary amount of will power is required. 

The Brickstore's massive cellar.  A great place to chain and wall in a buddy over a glass of Amontillado if so inclined.

So get to aging, and in a week you can tell me how it's going in your next batch of letters.  By that time, the restraining order should be in full force.  Ttyl.