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Bring up the subject of old beer to most beer drinkers and you’ll most likely be met with a blank stare, or a distasteful look. The very concept of aged beer is foreign to many beer enthusiasts, as opposed to the wine world, where aging bottles 10 or 20 years or longer is quite common for some styles.
As with beer, aging wine basically comes down to the style of wine. In general, white wines benefit less from aging than reds, especially the heartier, more complex reds like Bordeaux and Cabernet Sauvignon. Besides the style of wine, many other factors come into play, from the size of the bottle, how heavily the wine was filtered, and, of course, storage conditions such as temperature ranges, humidity levels, atmospheric pressure, and so on.
Beer, on the other hand, is regarded as a beverage best consumed young, indeed, the fresher the better is the rule most go by. As with wine though, certain high gravity styles like barleywines, and the focus of this most recent tasting, Russian Imperial Stouts, do benefit from aging. The question, though, is how long to age? Even with these strong beers, common practice is to age no more than 10 years. Those of us who attended this recent tasting walked out with a completely different view.
Spuyten Duyvil, Brooklyn’s stellar beer bar, was the perfect setting for this amazing lineup of Russian Imperial Stouts that Malted Barley Association former presidents Bill Coleman and Warren Becker amassed. The lineup included Courage Imperial Stouts from 1993 back to 1957, followed by two Old Ales also from Courage, a 1953 Alton Ale, and a 1937 Founders Ale, and topped off by an extremely rare corked Champagne bottle of1935 Courage Barclay Russian Imperial Stout. It was an intimidating lineup of strong beers to say the least. As Heavyweight brewer Tom Baker mused, "How often do you get to ingest something made in 1937 — malt, hops, yeast from that long ago going into your body…" Indeed, it does boggle the mind.
The pleasant surprise was that nearly all of these beers were in good shape, some exceptional. Although it was impossible to know the variables that each had been exposed to as far as temperatures and handling, they all held up remarkably well. This tasting made believers out of anyone who had doubts as to the viability of beers of this age.
All of the bottles bore the Courage name; the older ones also had the Barclay name on the bottle also. Unfortunately, space doesn’t permit all the tasting notes to be printed here, so we’ll cut to the highlights. Although many of these beers had similarities; winy, estery, soy/chocolate aromas, it was amazing to note the differences. Some years stood out. The 1983 bottle had a maltier, fruitier flavor than the 1993 bottle that preceded it, and tasted younger to boot.
The 1969 was also a standout: "The year Neil Armstrong walked on the moon!" somebody cried out. The beer was starting to show on all of us. "Burgundy aroma, plumy dark fruit, fruitcake. Dry, great rounded finish. Probably the best so far." "Delicious, wonderful balance, combination of flavors." Tom Baker remarked, "There is a mindset that beer is perishable. This shows that isn’t true — 35 year old beer is great!"
After this, we moved on to the even older bottles. The1937 Courage Founders Ale was a standout: "Port/Cognac aroma, sweet, raisin flavor, warming aftertaste." "Fruit, alcohol, port. Rich, plummy, slight acid—still has malt! Better shape than the1953." Someone remarked, "I wonder if anyone who brewed this beer is still alive?" Very doubtful. An oddly humbling thought, that we were drinking the fruits of someone’s labor that had long passed on.
And finally, the Piece de Resistance, a 750 ml. corked bottle of Courage Barclay Russian Imperial Stout. The bottle was dated 1935, but it was generally agreed that the beer was probably brewed around 1932, which made this beer a mind-bending 72 years old. We all held our breaths as Joe patiently worked the Champagne cork out. It broke off, as expected but he successfully extracted the rest with a corkscrew. "Poured with head! Nice mellow aroma, no obvious oxidation. Alcohol nose, malt flavor, fairly clean, some alcohol finish." "Great beer and Burgundy aroma. Malty. Alcoholic. Dry great finish, very rich." "Smooth, molasses taste, slick on palate. Full bodied, chocolate, malt. 72 years old!!"
And then it was over. We lingered awhile, even tasted a couple more beers with the tattered remains of our palates. The overall feeling among the group was that this most remarkable tasting was both a life-affirming and life-changing experience.
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