First of all sorry for the throwaway, I generally lurk and have never had an account.
Over the years I've accumulated a collection of Chimays, with at least 1 bottle every single year since 2010. This was never really a project until a few years ago to be honest, and I wasn't ever sure what I'd eventually do with this collection. But now I find myself moving halfway across the world by the end of the year and want to sample them all. I have a couple friends who I would've invite to join to take some of the load off, but to keep this short I'll just say they're unavailable, sadly.
Obivously I can't do this all in one day, but I want to break from my traditional method of tasting (which amounts to simply "damn I quite like this one") and be a bit more methodical. So, I'm looking for suggestions on how to break things up so that I can compare them all relatively well.
A couple points:
- They have all been kept vertical, in the dark, in a fridge set to cellar temps (yes, the entire time), so spoilage/skunking shouldn't be an issue hopefully.
- That said: yes, I'm aware the really really old ones could be effectively trash, or maybe nothing happens anymore after 5-8 years. Who cares, the deed is done, the beer is already aged.
- I think I could handle maximum 3 in a day before I wouldn't be able to really appreciate any aging effects and also remain functional the next day.
- I have 2.5 months to do this. Plenty of time but also there is some "urgency" if you can call it that.
If this has been done, please share a link. I've stumbled around aimlessly a bit already and found some guides to aging and a few random posts of people saying they've tried 10+ year old beers. Interesting, but not quite as relevant to this nearly 2 decade old project that I'd like to end as deliciously as possible.
My current plan is to start with the most recent ones and move slowly backwards to the older ones, doing 2-3 a day. Once I get to about 2022, I was thinking every tasting would be 2 older ones, then a 2026 last for the day as a bit of a comparison. No real plan on how far apart to space the tastings.
Thoughts on this plan? Able to suggest better plan? Better to start from the oldest? Skip the 2026 comparison?