Most beer is intended to be consumed when it is young, and in many cases it’s at its peak on the day it’s released. But this isn’t always the case. Some beers hold up very well with age, and a few will actually improve with age. Fuller’s Vintage Ale is one of these.

Fuller’s Vintage Ale is brewed once a year, in limited quantities, and released in the fall. I started collecting these ales years ago, and I now have a reasonable collection reaching back nearly a decade. Once a year, I usually get together with friends and have a vertical tasting, to see how the ale changes with age. This year I proposed this lineup.

And then Bill offered to add a few from his collection…

When we put them together, our tasting will span two decades, with every second vintage from 2024, all the way back to 2004.

This is going to be an epic tasting, and I’m looking forward to this once-in-a-lifetime experience.