2004 Vintage at 10 years old

My experiment in terms of cellaring beer has long been over, but there remains the small matter of trying to drink down the once 1000+ bottles that resided there. This beer is an interesting one to me, since it has hit the 10 year mark, and it’s a beer that I’m generally quite fond of.

While I was tinkering around in the basement a few days ago I noticed that there was some damage to the wax seal on this bottle. It looked like there had been some (very minor) leakage, and to be honest at that point it had to be opened. It’s more of a coincidence that the bottle happens to be just over 10 years old. It’s bottle #958, of the 2004 Sweetwater Festive Ale Vintage.

I figure that that a beer of this age is going to go one of four ways;

• #1 be completely undrinkable
• #2 be just about drinkable but oxidized to a point that made it something that I had no interest in
• #3 be drinkable, but not especially interesting
• #4 be an amazing experience that would blow me away

I didn’t include a category of ‘no change’ since I think that’s pretty much impossible on a beer of this age.

The bottle opens with a moderate ‘pop’ which to be honest, is a relief. The beer also pours with an initial carbonation that is not bad at all. Jet black pour in poor light, more dark brown notes in better light.

The nose offers quite a lot of oxidative sherry notes, which on the whole I am in favor of.

The real problem here is the lack of depth. The beer is frankly ‘weak’. There’s little body of any description, and the beer does not offer any alcohol at all. For this beer, that’s a bit of a problem.

Honestly, the beer does not taste too old in terms of taking on a cardboard note, but the thinness that has set in takes a a long way away from its original intention. I didn’t dislike it, so it’s definitely not in category #1 above. THe oxidation is not all that harsh either, so that takes it out of category #2 (just), but at the same time the drinkability is quite low which means that it doesn’t really sit squarely in category three either. It sits between #2 and #3 with the emphasis on #2.

2008 vintage from a 12oz bottle.

Thought that it was time to re-review a fresh vintage so here we go with the 2008 version.

The usual dark, dark brown almost black pour with the promise of a creamy experience in the head and lace. Large, creamy and coffee-milky bubbles form at the edge of the head. Some lace.

Nose and tastes this year seems a little less spicy to me, but there is a VERY distinct harsher, solvent alcohol edge to this beer.

Some acidic, orangey licorice notes.

Quite sultry and dark; definitely less highly spiced on my palate in 2008.

Worth looking at my other reviews of earlier vintages for some more perspective.

2006 Vintage

1.5L wax covered swing-top #5249.

The new 2006 vintage out of the bottle is drinking like a brown ale (just like the 2006 draught version – see my review of that).

A little thinner in the bottle (perhaps just my imagination) and it seems to have a touch more alcohol content in the bottle.