Commentist Beer Barrel: Extreme Beer Aging

Before I get started, I want to thank Son of Spam, Brett Favre’s Colonoscopy, and Electric Mayhem for contributing to Beer Barrel in my absence. Credit for the feature’s increased quality during that time is due entirely to them. Credit for the scheduling fuck-ups that caused us to have three Beer Barrels in two weeks, on the other hand, is all mine.

I’ve written once or twice now in this series about aging beer, which is one of the only science experiments where you’re advised to drink your results. It’s great to see how a beer evolves over time, especially if you’ve got a fresh bottle to compare to, but the downside is that you have to put your beer somewhere and not drink it right away, instead of drinking it right away. I understand this is a deal-breaker for a lot of people. “I could never be that patient,” I’ve heard more than once. I’ve found it doesn’t seem like such a big deal if I just find other things to drink until the thing I’m aging is ready. But if even that’s too much of a burden—or if you want to know what something really old tastes like, something on a timeframe well beyond the foreseeable portion of your future—J.W. Lees & Co. of Manchester has you covered. For many, many years they’ve been cellaring their own Harvest Ale and releasing bottles a decade old or older, ready to drink straight away.

The beer I’m about to review, bottled in 2001, is half as old as I am and the oldest beer I’ve ever tried by quite a bit. Now, J.W. Lees Harvest Ale is a big, beautiful sugar bomb at any age. I’ve had it before at twelve years and in a port cask–aged version at, I don’t know, five years? It’s a murky dark brown color in the glass, with a fair amount of sediment settling to the bottom. At fifteen years, the predominant flavors are raisin, cocoa, honey, and brown sugar. Malt-heavy beers like this—especially English barleywines like Harvest Ale—tend to become port-like in taste as they age. Some of the soy-sauce flavor that’s also common in long-aged beer is also here, but it’s muted. The ale finishes like a good slice of buttered toast, of all things. The buttery component is probably diacetyl, which in most beer style is considered a defect. It works here, though.

Overall, this is a malty, boozy, flavorful treat. The 9oz bottle is probably the exact right serving size, enough to sip for half an hour or so, but not enough to make you feel like you’ve given yourself diabetes. Ideal for fans of dessert wines, impatient people curious about aging beer, and really also everyone else, at least once.

lady snow says: I feel like I’m drinking a port beer. It’s different. It really seems more like I’m drinking a wine than a beer. I think it’s the whole rasinette taste. It’s definitely not a beer that I could drink in large quantities.

tl;dr: Aged 15 years and released ready for immediate buttchugging.

Grade: It hasn’t gone bad yet!

make it snow is an alot of beer who was in Denver last weekend and drank some really good beers at places like Great Divide and Crooked Stave. He drank about seven ounces of J.W. Lees Harvest Ale while writing this review, and lady snow drank the rest. Thanks again to our guest reviewers!