Stash Killer!: January 2017

Sunday, 8 January 2017

Westmalle Dubbel

Origin: Belgium | Date: 2008 | ABV: 7% | On The Beer Nut: October 2007

It's a longtime favourite today. Westmalle Dubbel goes back to the very beginnings of my discovering beer, and my first drinking excursions to Belgium. Just one sip and I'm back at A L'Imaige De Nostre Dame in Brussels. But I've no idea how an aged bottle tastes. The original of the style is also the weakest I know of, and it's possible that a mere 7% ABV will not provide enough for time (eight years) to build upon. I'd better open it.

I haven't had a fresh one of these in a while, but I think it smells more pungent than they do, and an almost Pedro Ximinez level of ripe boozy raisin. There's sweet sherry in the flavour too, which is possibly just oxidation at work, but it does transform the beer in a fun and pleasant way. It hasn't become magically heavier than usual, but it has elements of the things you find in double-digit dark Belgian-style beers: the fruit, the cake, the rounded estery greasiness, though not the heat. It still remains lightly textured and easy drinking.

Seems to me like a handy way to upgrade your Westmalle Dubbel into something more complex is leave it alone for a few years.

What is this?

A floor was installed in my attic in 2008. I've used it to store beer ever since. It's particularly handy in winter when everything inside is kept at perfect drinking temperature. And right from the early days I began hoarding odd bottles, ones I'd already reviewed on my main blog and I thought it might be fun to leave them aside to see how they age, or to drink on a special occasion. The problem is, in seven years, the special occasion never arises. I'm the luckiest fucker alive: every day is a cause for jubilation, and it never seems to occur that I should probably mark this with a celebratory vintage beer.

But no more. The stash is getting out of hand, I'm no closer to actually drinking any of it, and I've begun to worry about fires, earthquakes, sudden death, or any number of other inconveniences that might prevent me from getting to those bottles. So today begins the project to do just that. I reckon a blog is the way to encourage me to keep it going. It won't be as regular as The Beer Nut, it won't cover beers I haven't already written about there, and it's not as open-ended: there is only a finite amount of liquid up there, after all.
-- November 2015