Cellarmanship - Interview with Chad Yakobson of Crooked Stave and beer writer Patrick Dawson

We met up with Chad Yakobson, brewer and owner of Crooked Stave in Denver along with Patrick Dawson, author of the soon-to-be-released book Vintage Beer. The interview was conducted by our own Scott Simmons, with Daniel Flanders behind the camera for our Cellarmanship series. We talk about the thrills of aging beer, how people can make informed decisions on cellaring beer based off their personal taste, and how Brettanomyces affects a beers ability to age.

As Patrick points out, cellaring beer is all about allowing a beer to change into what it could be. He notes that it’s really important to understand the mechanisms that beer undergoes as it changes. So, in that spirit, this video is quite educational. It lasts about 47 minutes so be sure to come back and finish the video if you can't watch the whole thing now. Below we've included a general timeline of what we talk about, in case that's helpful.

And also, be sure to check out our other Cellarmanship videos with New Belgium and Avery Brewing. Chad has some different opinions than those brewers so it's very fun to see the differences throughout makers of wild beers in Colorado.
Timeline of talking points in this video:

• 00:00 - Introductions 
• 02:00 - Talking about the Wild Wild Brett series and exploring the possibilities of Brettanomycs
• 05:10 - "What's your take on cellaring beer?" Personal taste, subjectivity, and changing profiles.
• 13:55 - Aging hoppy beers with Brett, especially WWBG. What age has done to the wwb series
• 17:28 - Bottling with Brettanomyces and how Brett works with complex sugars and cellulose
• 22:20 - Petite Guava and aging as experiment and education
• 26:50 - Laying down corked beers for home aging
• 37:00 - Aging Fruit Beers, and tasting Persica
• 40:55 - Strains of Brettanomyces, blending, and acids in beer beer

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Cellarmanship: Interview with Avery Brewing's Matt Thrall and Andy Parker

Cellarmanship - Interview with Avery Brewing's Andy Parker and Matt Thrall from Focus on the Beer on Vimeo.

Continuing our Cellarmanship series, about the joys and how-to of storing and aging your beer at home, we interviewed the brewers at Avery Brewing Co. in Boulder. Matt Thrall is Avery's head brewer and Andy Parker is the head of their barrel program. Avery's barrel program has brought us some spectacular beers including, but not limited to, Rumpkin, Uncle Jacob's Stout, Brabant, Immitis, and Muscat D'Amor. Avery's non-barrel aged beers are also delicious, you may have heard of some of these: Hog Heaven, DuganA, Mephistopheles, Samael's, The Czar, The Reverend, and  Maharaja to name a few.

In this interview we talk to Andy and Matt about the joys of drinking beer fresh. We talk about off-flavors and oxygenation in aged beer, especially Trans 2 Nonenal which imparts cardboard flavors in addition to sherry and port flavors. We open up a vertical of Avery's Hog Heaven (and Mephistopheles for a later video). You might be surprised by some of the things they say about aging your beer at home. Also check out our previous interview with Eric and Lauren Salazar, of New Belgium, for more on the topic.

Cellarmanship Part 2: How To Store Your Hoarded Beer Properly

Welcome to the third installment of Cellarmsanship, a series where we talk about the how-to, the joys, and details of cellaring your beer at home. In our first article we introduced you to the topic and explained why we find joy in doing it. Next we interviewed Eric and Lauren Salazar of New Belgium for their opinions and guidance on storing beer at home. With this post we would like to dive into some of the how-to of the matter.

Intro:
Perhaps by now you're convinced to stash a bottle of beer or two away. Where will you keep it? What do you do with this beer? Do you make a time capsule and bury it under the sidewalk of your kid's elementary school? Storing beer properly is probably the most crucial step of cellaring beer bottles once you've decided what you want to age. It can mean the difference between opening a 5 year old beer and having your taste buds cry with joy or giving it a nice pour down the drain. Nothing like buying a beer, setting it aside, resisting the temptations to drink it over and over again, rocking it to sleep every night, and then when the occasion comes you crack it open and it's gross. There are some things you have to do to age beer properly. Then, there are things you can do that are more of a choice and open for debate.

Cellarmanship - Interview with New Belgium's Salazar Team

Cellarmanship - Interview with New Belgium's Eric Salazar and Lauren Salazar from Focus on the Beer.

We recently started a series of posts that we call Cellarmanship where we talk about the how-to, the joys, and details of cellaring your beer at home. We've also decided to ask some of the experts in the beer industry about their own home cellars and their opinions on aging bottles. This is the first in the series of interviews and we think you'll really enjoy it. Scott talks with Eric and Lauren Salazar of New Belgium. Eric is the brewer for their wood aged beer program and Lauren is the wood aged program manager and blender and they have a number of really interesting, educational, and surprising things to say on the topic. They talk about corked beers compared to capped beers, the blending of La Folie, and personal thoughts on at-home cellars. Please enjoy the video above and tell us what you think, what's in your cellar, what do you to keep your beers properly stored away, are there any that you're afraid to open, what are some of your worst experiences with cellared beer?

Cellarmanship: An Introduction to the Joys of Cellaring Beer

The mainstream tells you beer needs to be consumed as fresh as possible. Hops degrade leading to astringency and lackluster aromas. Oxygen has more of a chance to attack a beer, providing cardboard-like off flavors. UV harms the beer by reducing good hop bitterness and creating similar compounds found in a skunk’s aroma. Temperature fluctuations can cause chemicals to accelerate at different rates leading to all sorts of off-flavors including vinegar, butter, and bandaids. It could be infected making it undrinkable in short time. So it would seem that time is against you and your beer.

All the things listed above make it seem like storing beer for an extended amount of time would always be bad. So why are certain aged beers sought after, collected, and held in such high regard? Why are there verticals, why are there best AFTER dates, and why are there nerds stocking up on beer like it will help them survive the zombie apocalypse?