The World Needs More Dannys

June 25, 9:53 AMBeer ExaminerCharlie Papazian

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Jamie Schwaberow for The New York Times

Danny Williams, featured in this column on April 17, has found his way into the New York Times.  The story, Beer Lovers Make Room for Brews Worth a Wait, appears in today's New York Times.  His stash sure beats what I have in my walk in cooler.  
    What's worth waiting for?  Personally I have a collection of assorted beers.  My first entry into my own collections includes about a dozen bottles of Wedding Celebration Ales, specifically I was traveling in England during the time Prince Charles and Lady Diana were married.   There were hundreds of breweries that brewed a special ale to commemorate the event in the summer of 1981.  Perhaps the oldest beer I have is a beer that commemorates the Queen's Silver Jubilee in the 1950s.  The publican that gave me the bottle made me promise that I would never open it.  My luck.
    Other beers I have worth noting are assorted Belgian Lambics, Gueuze and Kriek Lambics that date as far back as 1982.  I tried a bottle of Lindemann's 1982 Kriek last year.  It was still terrific.
    I have the odd Boston Beer Tripel Bock and Millenium, an assortment of Alaskan Smoked Porters from many years and a quite a collection of Thomas Hardy Ales that go back to the 80's.   And then there's the one bottle of Courage's Russian Imperial Stout.   Early bottles of Anchor's Foghorn, Holiday beers (I have the Liberty Ale which was originally released as a holiday beer.  An original Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale and Bigfoot Barley Wine.   A sixpack of long ago Alaska brewed Prinz Brau sits on a shelf - no need to open these.   Also a bottle of test marketed Anheuser-Busch's O'Doul's Pale Ale adorns a shelf.  Bottles of beer from New Albion (America's first pioneering microbrewery), DeBakkers, Boulder Beer, Thousand Oaks (when it was brewed in a kitchen), and several other micros abound in boxes.
    I have brewed all through these years of collecting and some of my own lagers and ales are worth saving, such as barely wines, lambics, doublebocks, meads, etc.  They are slowly improving with time.  
    Helpful Hint: If you are stashing beers for any length of time and you truly intend to drink them, invert the bottle and dip the capped end in a melted pot of paraffin.  They can then be stored upright.   This has worked well for me and minimizes air "ingress" into the bottle (no matter how securely a bottle cap is atop a beer bottle, there is a slow "creep" of air into the bottle from the outside - it has to do with Boyle's Law for all  you engineers)  thus preventing negative aspects of oxidation.   I have tried 25 year old beers and meads that have held up well with minimal oxidation.

Here's to Danny.  The world needs more Dannys.