Open That Bottle Night

Open That Bottle Night, or OTBN, is a wine thing. Basically, people that are saving nice bottles are encouraged to open them once a year on a pre-determined night. This year it was February 27. The idea is that if you are looking for an excuse to open that special bottle that you have been saving, OTBN is it. I know personally I have a hard time keeping beer in my possession. I have kept a few things around, but mostly I drink them as soon as I purchase them.

So in the spirit of OTBN I went into the closet and pulled out something I had been saving for just about a year. Well, not really. Let me give you some back story. What I pulled out was a Troeg's Nugget Nectar from last year. Nugget Nectar is a spring seasonal. They claim that it is an Imperial Amber. In reality it is a rather hoppy amber with a higher ABV then your average American ale (7.5%). It is a beer that I look forward to every year, but it is gone before I really get my fill. So last fall while I was cruising a beer store in Rahway I spotted the Nug. They only had three bombers left on the shelf, so needless to say I snatched up all three. I drank two that night but saved the third. Now the new batch is out and I figured it was the perfect time to do a side by side comparison and see how the aging process effected the beer. Truth be told, an amber with an ABV of 7.5% is not a beer that you would typically cellar, but I hadn't had an occasion to drink the thing until now. I guess that is what they invented OTBN for. Well let me tell you, they did a better job on the nugget nectar last year then they did this year. Either that or the aging process really did positively impact the beer. There was a noticeable difference in both flavor and clarity of the beer. It is tough to say. The '09 was much more murky. It went down smoother. It also was more hop centric and had more body. The '10 is definitely good, but it seems more separated (if that makes sense). You get a lot of hop aroma and some hop bitterness but not as much flavour to bridge the gap. The balance seems to be off on the '10. The hops and the malt are independent of one another in the '10 compared to the '09. I noticed that right when I had my first '10. The trip back to '09 definitely confirmed it for me. Overall, the 2009 Nugget Nectar was a much more complete beer. It tied all elements together for me, and was really a top shelf beer. Still, I don't want to dissuade anyone from checking out the 2010 version. It is good as hell. Perhaps it will benefit from aging for a year as the '09 version did.

As far as aging or cellaring is concerned, It is something that can not be done with all beers. I lucked out with the Nugget Nectar. You want to cellar beers that are malty with a higher alcohol content. The alcohol helps to preserve the beer. In general malt tends to age better then hops. So a beer with more of a focus on malt will age better then, say, an American pale ale or amber. This, however, is not a hard and fast rule.

Aging was an enlightening experience for me. I don't know that I have the space to cellar beers on the regular, but maybe for those select few that I really dig. I've heard tale of Chimay Blue Caps aged for 35 years being sampled in the basement of the abbey. For me, I still have a few surprises in my closet and I hope to add to my small collection, but so far beer doesn't last long in my possession. Hopefully someday, when I have the money and the space I can put together a proper collection. But honestly, I don't mind living bottle to bottle.

Troeg's Nugget Nectar from 2009

Troeg's Nugget Nectar from 2010