Best styles for extended aging?

[Bear419]

I've been inspired by Revvey's 50th birthday barley wine and want to do something similar, age a beer for 3 years for my 30th birthday.

My question: are there any ale styles other than barley wine that would benefit from such a long aging process? I am a big fan of RIS, and was thinking of doing a beefed up version of an RIS along the lines of old Rasputin or Dragon's Milk, but am not sure if there is much benefit to aging an RIS for that long.

Suggestions?

 

[phenry]

A good RIS will do great with 3 years under its belt. Other styles that can really shine with some years put on them other than barley wines are just about any of the Belgian strong ales. My friend found a bottle shop here in MO with a bunch of Boulevard's Smokestack series Tripel and Quad bottles all 2 years and older. Amazing doesn't even begin to describe how good they were.

 

[TyTanium]

Generally, more ABV and more hops = better aging.

 

[kingwood-kid]

Generally, more ABV and more hops = better aging.

I think that should be less hops. Hoppiness is pretty much the first thing to fade. When you lose one of the defining characteristics of your beer, you've kind of lost the beer. But I agree on the ABV part. Dark beers generally age better than paler ones, but that is frequently a function of relative hoppiness. I suppose you could make a 3-year-old lambic.

Courage stout is supposed to have been good for 25+ years. Here's a couple recipe links:
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2007/11/courage-russian-imperial-stout.html
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012/02/lets-brew-wednesday-1914-courage.html

I made the second one a couple weeks ago with a slight change in yeast. That was a long time to sit by a turkey fryer and watch for boilovers.

 

[inhousebrew]

Any interest in sour beers?

I've wanted to do a giant RIS with some smoked malt and oak cubers for a while. Right now I have a 13% Barleywine sitting in the secondary about to be bottled in the next month or so. Maybe the that stout will be my next big boy.

 

[TyTanium]

I think that should be less hops. Hoppiness is pretty much the first thing to fade. When you lose one of the defining characteristics of your beer, you've kind of lost the beer.

Hops are a preservative. The flavor fades, but, ceterus parabis, hopped beers last longer. Say you needed to keep beer fresh on sea voyage from the homeland to a distant colony...

 

[LoneWolfPR]

Hops are a preservative. The flavor fades, but, ceterus parabis, hopped beers last longer. Say you needed to keep beer fresh on sea voyage from the homeland to a distant colony...

To add to this, as an example RISs tend to be pretty aggressively hopped. The high alcohol and huge malt content stands up to the intense bitterness. I've had some as high as 90 IBUs. Yes the flavor of the hops will fade, but for a style like that bitterness is more what you want to balance out the malt sweetness.

 

[kingwood-kid]

I don't think the OP is putting his beer in used, poorly sealed wooden casks and taking it on an unrefrigerated 3-month boat trip halfway around the world. He won't need the anti-microbial properties of the hops, especially if the beer is as alcoholic as we all agree it should be. If the beer needs 90 IBUs three years from now, it would have to have, I don't know, maybe 150-200 IBUs now. That's hard to accomplish, and just as hard to accurately estimate how many IBUs you'd need now. The tannins you get from heavy hop usage (by weight, not by IBUs), oak or another source will hold up better over time and will help balance the beer. High attenuation helps too.

 

[Bear419]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'm definitely leaning towards a BIG RIS now. I love oaked beer, so I think I may play around with soaking oak in different sprites to and sampling the resulting tinctures in different commercial RISs to see what flavors compliment each other. Toying with the idea of soaking some medium oak cubes in sherry and scotch.

 

[pohldogg]

Make a lambic each year and then blend a gueuze for yor birthday.