Hopfully 12 Lovers

Origin: Ireland | Date: 2019 | ABV: 6.5% | On The Beer Nut: December 2019

Today is Baltic Porter Day. Confelicitations to all who celebrate; the rest of you, keep up. For the occasion I've dug out this one from Hopfully's contract brewing days, produced at what's now their headquarters in Waterford but back then was still Metalman Brewing. According to my contemporary review, I liked it, even though it didn't present typical Baltic porter features to any great extent. Let's see if it's become any more authentic after a spell in the stash.

It still pours well, with the head forming exactly as perfectly as when fresh. There's only a very faint dark chocolate hint in the aroma, perhaps suggesting that its dark lager nature has reasserted itself. I think it has dried out: the flavour doesn't have the chocolate and caramel I described in the original version.

Instead, it's grown-up and savoury profile: dried grape, winter spices and alcohol, somewhere between a posh mince pie and a Negroni. The finish is a tarry sort of bitterness, with some strong green herbs, al dente asparagus and a twist of black pepper. There's complexity for days, and what I've written covers merely one facet of it. It's still not quite a proper Baltic porter, however: too big and too sticky, suggesting that if they did use a lager yeast in the first place, it hasn't taken.

Nevertheless, I deem this a triumph of ageing canned beer. It was my only stashed can, so if you have one, now is great for drinking it.

Guinness Draught

Origin: Ireland | Date: 2018 | ABV: 4.2% | On The Beer Nut: n/a

In 2018, the Christmas gift from Diageo to the media people on its PR list was eight litres of Guinness Draught. A big box containing two eight-packs of 500ml cans arrived on my doorstep. It's not a beer I'm especially fond of, but over the ensuing months, well into 2019, I got through them, one by one. Coming towards the end, though I can't tell you exactly when, I thought I noticed something: was the flavour changing? Improving, even? Is there a case for including this unlikely beer in my dubious and disorganised vintage beer project? With the idea planted, there was no question of me not doing it, so the final can went into the stash.

15th August 2019 is the date on the bottom of it. It's no different on pouring to the fresh version: the widget has maintained its payload perfectly. There's a little bit of aroma, the nitrogen not killing that end of things off completely, though there's nothing special, just the typical Guinnessy mix of dark dry toast and sharper acidity.

It's in the flavour where I think we've had some evolution. It's definitely more flavoursome than when young, and I wish I had a fresh can to hand to compare. The tartness has both increased and become more rounded, adding a kind of classy balsamic vinegar effect. Conversely, that finishes on a sweeter note, with some chocolate, which is something in most stouts that I find missing in Guinness, and a little maraschino cherry. We're back to regular programming with the quick finish and minimal aftertaste. 

While it's far from a radical transformation, especially for a solid six years of ageing, equally I've reviewed canned beers on here to which less had happened. That bonus burst of complexity in the middle of the flavour makes it a worthwhile experiment. Flanders red is one of my favourite beer styles, and this seemed to be on its way to becoming one. I'm going to try the experiment again, but for longer.

Porterhouse Barrel Aged Celebration Stout

Origin: Ireland | Date: 2011 | ABV: 11% | On The Beer Nut: February 2012

This is the third version of Porterhouse Celebration Stout to feature on the blog, having already done the original 10% ABV one (twice!) and the 7% ABV regular one, now no longer in production. This is the Kilbeggan barrel-aged special that appeared briefly in the winter of 2011/12 and I don't think has been around since.

I was impressed by this when first tasted, admiring the big whiskey flavours and decadent chocolate richness, and also noticed that it was tricky getting a head to form. 12+ years later the head is a lost cause, fizzing away quickly to nothing on pouring. The aroma is fairly minimal, offering token custard-like vanilla but not much spirituous warmth. Thankfully the chocolate is still there in the flavour, and it hasn't picked up any nasty oxidation, which is always a worry with these pull-tab Porterhouse stoppers. There's whiskey too: I had thought it more bourbon-like when fresh, but age has mellowed it into the smooth and honeyish Irish whiskey I expected originally. There's no richness, however. The main thing that age has done to this is thin it out.

I can't say it has gained any extra complexity. It certainly doesn't taste like something that's been matured for over a decade. It's still very good, however, retaining much of what made it great in the first place. I'm glad this isn't my last bottle.

DOT Brew Cellar 8

Origin: Ireland | Date: 2019 | ABV: 14.4% | On The Beer Nut: December 2019

Today's beer is an interloper, having come to me recently from the stash of someone else; someone who realised that after more than four years of hoarding it that they just didn't have a use case for a double-digit, double-barrel-aged rye wine. Well on this dark and chilly evening, I certainly do.

When first released, the liquid was already two years old, a blend of amber ales aged in two different types of whiskey barrels. Now it's had even longer, a waxed cap actually making itself useful for once. The aroma still offers subtle, warming notes of dark sherry and unmistakable alcohol. It has held on to its light sparkle and there's no nasty oxidation, other than what's allowed to be there from the sherry component. No vinegary tang, either. In fact I'm not seeing much difference between this now and how I described it in 2019. Fancy chocolate, plum pudding, and a subtle whiskey warmth all still present, and absolutely nothing to complain about.

I confess that I thought the only thing that would happen here is the beer would get worse. I don't know what could have happened to improve it. As things are, I'm very happy with the serendipitous stability.

Franciscan Well Jameson Stout

Origin: Ireland | Date: 2012 | ABV: 7.8% | On The Beer Nut: December 2012

This is my second and final bottle of this beer in the stash. When I reviewed it here in 2017, I remarked that it hadn't changed much, but may be on the cusp of either greatness or ruin. Today we find out.

The carbonation seems to have been a victim in the intervening years and it really doesn't want to form a head at all. And if gas has been getting out then presumably gas has been getting in. It certainly seems drier, and a little papery, but is far from ruined by oxidation, I'm happy to say. With that newfound extra dryness, the chocolate element has been relegated to the background. The honeyed whiskey is completely gone.

It's actually all rather plain. The one new feature is a mild tangy sourness. Combined with the simplistic dry roast, it ends up tasting a bit like Draught Guinness, and it definitely didn't used to. The big and smooth texture is still there and is something of a redeeming feature, but this is well past its best.

It's still OK to drink, enjoyable even, but if you're still holding on to some, get it drank before something worse happens to it. I would be very surprised if it suddenly took a turn for the better. For the reason I'm opening this particular bottle now, see the main blog.

Metalman Decade

Origin: Ireland | Date: 2021 | ABV: 5.2% | On The Beer Nut: July 2021

New stash rule: if a beer looks explodey, it gets opened immediately. This tart porter with cherries certainly did, though the can seamer has proved fit for the task of keeping it all in. It was put away only two years ago, though is already of historical interest as Metalman has since folded. It's quite poignant that Decade was created to mark ten years in business when they had so few left.

The can was just shy of a year past its best-before and poured extremely fizzily, unsurprisingly, though in fairness it didn't gush out. It still smells properly roasty, and rich with it, in a way I don't think this beer did when fresh. Dryness is still a core feature, but it tastes mellow, not sharp: chocolate and mocha, rather than pure coffee beans. I also get more of the cherry than I did before, representing as a sweet jelly or jam, right on the finish. Amazingly, the fizz doesn't get in the way and it doesn't feel over attenuated.

I think this beer has rounded out nicely over the two years. All the benefits are preserved and what were once subtleties of flavour are more pronounced. That it doesn't taste drier than I remember it seems to be in defiance of science, but it's far more likely that my memory is at fault. Either way, if you have surviving cans of this and they don't look about to blow, they're worth drinking, or possibly even ageing further.

Hertog Jan Grand Prestige

Origin: Netherlands | Date: 2017 | ABV: 10% | On The Beer Nut: February 2009

If memory serves, it was literally the last day of 2017 when I picked this up in a supermarket in The Hague. The 2018s had already started appearing on the shelves so this was a last chance to get a 2017 into the stash. It's a mass-market beer from the world's biggest producer so I wasn't planning to age it long-term. Five and a bit years seems like a fair amount of time to check in with it.

Looking back on my review of a fresh one in 2009, it seemed quite a busy affair, all acetone and forest fruits. So it was a surprise that there's basically no aroma here, only minor hints of chocolate and raisins. The texture is very smooth, yet there's no heat, which is surprise given the strength.

If there were spiky higher-alcohol edges on this to begin with, they have all been planed off by time. The end result is a beautifully integrated palate of port and dark chocolate with flecks of vanilla, black cherry and cocoa. Black Forest gateau comes to mind. While it's not hot, it does have a warmth which I thoroughly enjoyed on this cold winter evening. It made me want to light the fire and sip slowly in front of it.

I genuinely expected this to be a mess so I'm delighted how it turned out. This is exactly what the stashing project was meant to bring out and I'll be buying more than one bottle of the next vintage I have the opportunity to collect.