I have create your own 6er, is this beer a try in 6 months to a year or just pop the top and enjoy? any opinions of the beer going in?
I say try it now. It’s a Belgian Strong Ale and of course would age nicely, but I bet it’s delicious now. Dangerously drinkable.
I’ve never thought of it as a beer that would benefit from aging.
Now that I find 8.5% on the back of the bottle, so probably not great to age… I thought it was stronger than that…
+1 to drinking it fresh. It probably already has some age on it.
FWIW, I wasn’t saying it needed to age, only that an 8.5% beer could age nicely for a while. Who knows how old it is now - I’d drink it now.
Yeah, isn’t that a winter release for them? I could be wrong, but if it is, that means it was probably brewed late last fall or earlier. I do love that beer though. Haven’t had it in a while.
Oh I know that, I just thought going in it was like a 10%+for some reason, probably because it was a $6.50 11.5oz bottle, I was progressively wishing I got more bang out of that. I will be cracking the seal here soon
Cool. Yeah the Belgian stuff definitely isn’t cheap. That’s a nice, really drinkable beer though. Love Belgian beer.
Me too, and being right around the corner from Taxmans I get to try some fresh Belgian beers. The Tripel Exemption is really good
Nice. Their dubbel and quad are pretty tasty, too.
Nocturnum is year round. Delirium Noel is their Xmas seasonal. I’ve aged Nocturnum for about 3 years. It gets more rounded & soft, but loses some brightness. I’d suggest drinking it now.
Just have to say I find it utterly hysterical we are at a point now in the US where we are saying “It’s only 8.5% ABV” as if that’s low alcohol. That said, I don’t find that many beers aside from barley wines and RIS age very well. Often time the Delerium line tastes old to me, can’t say I have had one in quite some time though.
Don’t get my wrong it’s not that it’s “only” 8.5%. It was more of, “Should this be hidden and forgotten about, or enjoy now” kind of question.
It is true, that 8.5% is more than 2x the macrobrews out there in strength so I get your point. But yeah the available high gravity imperial beers above 10% has changed everyone’s spectrum of high gravity beer. Same as the spectrum of high IBUs does 85IBUs seem like a big deal these days? Not to me it doesn’t.
I don’t know how old you were but I can remember thinking 6.5% was a “high abv”. That’s all I’m sayin’. Amazing how much has changed. Not meant as a criticism to anyone.
Yup. I call it “alcohol creep.” 
Living in a place where the daily high is above 90F for 7 months out of the year - I want nothing to do with beer over 6% most of the year. Breweries here have mostly caught on and are pretty good at putting out a decent number of 4.5-5.5% beers (although a lot of them aren’t very well executed).