The Pour Man: Aged beer is something to celebrate

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The best beers to hold onto include imperial stouts (pictured) and lambics.

A FEW TO AGE

In addition to Celebration Ale, try aging Sierra Nevada Bigfoot; Goose Island Matilda or Pere Jacques; Thomas Hardy’s Ale; Orval; Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout ; Chimay Blue; or J.W. Lees Harvest Ale.

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Updated: May 9, 2012 9:55AM

On the night of Jan. 1, 2009, I made my way to the venerable pizza grotto called Bricks to drink old beer.

The Old Town spot at 1909 N. Lincoln has some of the freshest, finest beer in Chicago on draft and in bottles, and it had one of those inverted glass rinsers long before most other places did, just to make sure that every pour was the best it could be.

But the fresh beer flows alongside the aged beer at Bricks, and on New Year's Day almost three years ago I met a small group there for a vertical tasting of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, a seasonal beer that arrives around the holidays. We would be tasting Celebration out of bottles, from the brand new 2008 release all the way back to 2003.

In years past at Bricks I had tasted two different vintages of draft Celebration side by side, but this was the first time I would be tasting six years all in one sitting. Let me tell you, friends - it was fun.

It was fun not only because drinking great beer is delicious and good for the soul, but also because it was science and art and a reminder of the delicate passage of time. Another year, another beer. And so many moments in between.

We each had only a few sips from each bottle - poured into glasses, naturally - but at 6.8 percent alcohol, the Celebration quickly begat a celebration. We were giddy and poetic about the beer in no time, bewitched by a funky soundtrack of Booker T. & the MGs, Parliament and a passel of other '70s freaks. A good vertical demands good music, and Bricks loves the funk.

The 2008 Celebration was pleasantly hoppy and fresh, with a dry finish. Ben the bartender noticed that the 2007 was "wetter and . . . fluffier" and smelled meatier than the 2008, and he meant every word of it in the most positive way.

After a sip he floated a general query, "More car-a-mel?" and followed that with a tilt of his head. Those are my kind of descriptors: straight from the gut. And what an interesting beer that would elicit such consideration.

Of the five tasters, one of us chose that beer, the 2007, as the best of the lot. The rest of us liked the 2005, which had lost some of the floral qualities of the newer Celebrations but was pleasantly mellow and balanced. Not bad for a beer that was three years old.

Starting around the first of December, Bricks will offer three vintages of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale on draft - 2011, 2010 and 2009 - and this is a bar with only six taps total. Bricks believes. Drop in with a friend or two and run through a vertical tasting of your own.

You might not have the room or the dedication to store full kegs of beer at home, but if you're interested in aging a few bottles, or even a few cases, all you need is a cool dark place. Like a basement.

Store ales - not lagers- and for the most part make sure they contain at least 6.5 percent alcohol. Generally, the higher the alcohol, the better the aging potential. Bottle-conditioned beers, which contain live yeast, usually age better and with more interesting results than beers that have been pasteurized or filtered.

Safe bets are strong ales, Belgian abbey ales (dubbel or tripel), imperial stouts, barley wines and lambics. Your cellar should be around 55 degrees and fairly stable all year long, with no sudden spikes or dips in temperature. Set the bottles upright, not on their sides, and leave them alone.

Then, next winter, show up at a party with two different vintages of the same beer - the one-year-old and a brand new one - and ask who would like to sit down and taste them. Shazam - you've instantly made that party better. And it only took you a year to do it.

That's time well-spent, if you ask me. Or the beer funk disciples at Bricks.

Michael Austin is a Chicago free-lance writer. E-mail thepourman@suntimes.com.