Slow Beer

Friday, December 26, 2008

Cellar Notes - Bottling Date Resource (Updated for Oud Beersel)

I find the whole aged beer / cellaring thing quite fascinating. Unfortunately, and unlike wine, determining bottling dates for many beers can be a difficult task. Below I've pulled together a few bottling date conventions:

Note that all data with respect to the trappist beers has been sourced from Danny Van Tricht at http://users.pandora.be/dvt/trappist2007/html/chimaybierene.htm (great job BTW).

Chimay
Dore: 4 years from best before ('BB') date
Blue: as per vintage year
Red: 4 years from BB year
White: 3 years from BB year

St Bernadus (our educated guess - happy to hear confirmations)
Triple: 3 years from BB date
Pater: 3 years from BB date
Prior: 5 years from BB date
Abt: 5 years from BB date

La Trappe
Blond: 2.5 years from BB date
Dubbel: 2.5 years from BB date
Tripel: 2.5 years from BB date
Quadrupel: 3 years from BB date

Orval
As per label bottling date

Oud Beersel
20 years from BB date

Rochefort
6: 5 years from BB date
8: 5 years from BB date
10: 5 years from BB date

Westmalle
Dubbel: 2 years from BB date
Tripel: 2 years from BB date

Gouden Carolas
Classic: 3 years from BB date

Unibroue - See below (unless vintage dated on bottle)
It's easy to translate the bottling date from the code printed on the bottle. For example, 'C08071726Q' translates to:

C = month (ie March)

0807 = day & year (ie 8th March 2007)

1726 = time (ie 5.26pm)

Q = location (ie Quebec)

If anybody has bottling date 'rules' or conventions for any other beers I'd love to get hold of them.

cheers

Labels: ,

4 Comments:

  • Oude gueuzes and krieks are usually 20 years, though I think Hanssens (or someone else) might be 25.

    Cantillon's bottling year is given on the cork (not that helpful!) and the brewing year (i.e. at least two years before bottling) is given for beers which aren't a blend across years.

    I'm pretty sure Coopers "best after" date is 1 month after bottling.

    German beers for export are usually 1 year after brewing.

    I think Duvel and La Chouffe are 2 years (?)

    Emerson's BB dates are all over the shop.

    St Bernardus would be a good one to know but I can't recall off the top of my head.

    We're gonna struggle to get Aussie micros to vintage-date beers if they won't even give BB dates. I guess it's a moot point seeing as nobody here brews anything worth aging anyway.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:17 am  

  • Ta Lach,

    Thanks for the feedback on Coopers Yellow.....I have been working my way through a June 2006 stash and I have to say its not really getting any better with age.

    Re St Bernardus I have emailed the brewery but have not yet had a reply.

    Judging from the beers we had the other night one would think Cantillon Iris is a 7 - 10 year proposition and I would think the Pannepot could travel 5 years with ease.

    By Blogger Stewart Went, at 8:19 am  

  • I should be able to deduce the St Bernardus dates - just gotta remember to check out the bottles I have stashed away.

    Definitely agree that those beers had a lot of life ahead of them, but I'm not certain they'd improve with age. I think Iris would lose it's hoppiness (becoming more like a gueuze I guess) and Pannepot's spiciness would fade - both of which are defining features of the beers. That said, I've heard very good things about aged Iris.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:48 am  

  • St Bernardus appears to be 2 (Tripel), 4 (Prior) and 5 (Abt) years respectively. I don't have a bottle of the 6 at hand.

    The thing I've been trying to figure out lately is whether the dates on oude gueuzes are from when the beers are bottled or when they leave the brewery (~6 months hence). E.g. I have a bottle of Boon Oude Gueuze with a BB of 26/03/2028 but I don't know whether it was bottled on 26/03/08 or it left the brewery then. I'm guessing the latter.

    As you can see, Boon is also 20 years. There are no dates on the Hanssens you guys have currently which is annoying.

    I've been reading up on esterification and other wine aging stuff lately. It all seems to click with my experience with Cantillon and Hanssens. Young they are usually one-dimensionally acidic (closed perhaps?), but they can really age into something special.

    The Oud Beersel Gueuze seems like it will age really well too. The Boon seems a bit flimsy to last too long.

    Oh yeah, Tim Webb also says Duchesse de Bourgogne ages to a 5 star rating, though the bottles here taste like they've already been 'aged' quite a while. I don't think they'll go much longer.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:29 pm  

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