Geez, that's $400+ of beer in one photo.   Cripes.

Sours in hand.

 

Geez, that's $400+ of beer in one photo.   Cripes.

22 bottles @ $25 each + tax. I had to break out my emergency credit card. 

So as an aside, went over to the neighbor's place today.  Took a peach lambic that Trent sent me.  Bottle date in 2010.  Plenty of peach on the nose but very subtle on the palate.  So, I am thinking that if you want the fruit you need to drink these things within a year or so?  Don't get me wrong, it was delish.  Just not much fruit on the palate.

Upland's line is that these should be consumed fresh. Most experts disagree, but 3-4 years is pushing it.

So much beer.  So little time.  I guess I need to get to that raspberry one then.  Heh.

Makes me think tho, these new ones I am getting will not last past the summer. I want to taste the fruit.

So as an aside, went over to the neighbor's place today.  Took a peach lambic that Trent sent me.  Bottle date in 2010.  Plenty of peach on the nose but very subtle on the palate.  So, I am thinking that if you want the fruit you need to drink these things within a year or so?  Don't get me wrong, it was delish.  Just not much fruit on the palate.

I'm thinking it's kind of like the coffee in a stout or porter. The longer it ages, the less up front fruit you'll get. My guess would also be that it will vary with the different types of fruit.

But then again, what do I know. I just blew my paycheck on a bunch of beer.

 

I'm thinking it's kind of like the coffee in a stout or porter. The longer it ages, the less up front fruit you'll get. My guess would also be that it will vary with the different types of fruit.

 

But then again, what do I know. I just blew my paycheck on a bunch of beer.

This is correct. The longer it ages the fruit fades and the more sour it gets. The key is finding the sweet spot with the fruit and sour. Cantillon recommends drinking their kriek within one year of bottling

 

The Peach Lambic was bottled in 2010 in either October or November (forget which but it was one of those months) so it was a little under three and a half years aged.  I would not say that it was overly sour but the peach flavor was all but gone.  It did have a noticeable peach aroma.

 

While it was quite tasty, aging it that long seems to defeat the purpose of having the fruit lambic.  Just go buy a sour and be done with it.  I have a raspberry one from the same time period.  Might as well drink that one soon.  Gonna shoot for around six months with the kiwi one that I have and see how it goes.

I opened a blackberry  last night that was bottled in March 2012. I was drinking very well. Still a decent amount of blackberry with the perfect sour balance. One odd thing was observed. The first few pours from the bottle were very clear and the rest was much more opaque. Half the group got clear and the other half the cloudy darker stuff. Everybody enjoyed it a lot but the cloudy seem to be more complex. It looked like two completely different beers.

bottle share pic

Also it is not recommended to host bottle shares on a Monday night. Way too much beer with all those stouts for 8 people. BTW, Trent the Cinnamon Rolled WnB was the hit of the night