Vintage Beer: A Taster’s Guide To Brews That Improve Over Time Storey Publishing

Aging isn’t just for wine. Some of the world’s finest beers — barley wines, stouts, sour beers, and other strong brews — develop and improve with age, showing richer flavor in two, five, or even fifteen years. Closely examining what’s happening in the bottle as beer ages, cellaring enthusiast Patrick Dawson provides everything you need to know to build a beer cellar you will savor for years to come.

Much like good wine, certain beers can be aged under the right conditions, a process that enhances and changes their flavors in interesting and delicious ways. Good candidates for aging are high-alcohol brews, bottle-conditioned beers with yeast in the bottle, barleywines, lambics, and winter ales. Patrick Dawson explains how to identify a cellar-worthy beer, how to plan and set up a beer cellar, what to look for when tasting vintage beers, and the fascinating science behind the aging process. He also includes a comprehensive buying guide to help you select already-aged beers (from the readily available to the tantalizingly rare) to enjoy as your own collection is aging.

About the Author
Patrick Dawson has been accredited as a judge through the Beer Judge Certification Program. He travels the United States and Europe collecting beers worthy of aging, and has become a respected voice on the subject. He is the resident beer columnist for the North Denver Tribune, and his works have been published in DRAFT and Zymurgy. His ever-revolving cellar holds hundreds of beer at any given moment. He lives in Denver, Colorado.