Barleywines: A few to lay down.

I recently embarked on Febfast.

Now I must preface this by saying that firstly I'm not collecting for charity. My motivations are all together more selfish than that: a simple challenge from the missus. Not one to back away from a challenge I agreed and in a serendipitous twist of fate, passed Blackhearts and Sparrows in Windsor (one of my favourite craft beer bottleshops in Melbourne) a few days later.

It occurred to me that I wouldn't be imbibing for several weeks so was a great opportunity to kick start my beer cellar again. Now whilst the word cellar conjures up dimly lit, romantic, cobweb strewn caverns, dank and musty, lined with hundreds of dusty bottles and barrels, I use that term in the broadest of senses. My last cellar was a shoe box sized space under the laundry sink.

Last year I'd managed to resist the urge, and "laid down" several bottles of Coopers Vintage Ale 2009-2011. Likewise with a Red Hill Barrel Aged Imperial Stout and a Unibroue Terrible.  Just knowing that those little beauties were doing their thing, silently in the house, made my life on some minute level, more complete.

Alas my stock had been depleted over the months and thought it was the perfect time to address the blank spot under the laundry sink. Beers, like wine, can be cellared, many for up to ten years or more. There are obviously certain styles that are more up to the task than others. Barleywines are one such style. Barleywines are the big on the alcohol, malt and hops. Over time the hops with dissipate and the malt characteristics will become more prominent. Or so I've read somewhere.

I picked up two Barleywines - Renaissance Tribute (10.8%) and Green Flash Barleywine (10.9%). Both massive beers. The Renaissance was quite possibly the most expensive 330ml I'd ever purchased ($22!), but put my faith in Renaissance as they brew consistently great beers. Their Scotch ale and their Porter in particular are faves. I was less familiar with the Green Flash, but am a fan of West Coast American hop bombs, so this San Diego brewed drop was a gamble worth taking. I also grabbed a bottle of Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper 2011 (10.9%), which I believe is a Belgian Quadruppel (further research may prove otherwise).
That one is marked for a Christmas 2012 opening.

 I'm not going to give you too much technique regarding ageing beers (because I lack it myself). All I know is that unlike wine, you need to cellar the beer upright, but like wine, in a cool, dark place (like underneath your laundry sink).
Logic (but not my wallet) suggests to buy two bottles, have one now and then cellar the other. I for one cannot remember what I did last Thursday, let alone the intricacies of aroma and flavour from a beer that I'm comparing to years earlier. Poor palette memory perhaps.

So these beauties will hide away, developing and changing their flavours, smoothing off the rougher edges before finally pouring out into a goblet / snifter glass sometime in the distant future.

I'll let you know when I crack one open.