Vintage

I walked into a local establishment to order some food, and of course check the beer selection. They had a bottle of each variety(other than draft beer) proudly displayed on a shelf above the register. One of the selections was black butte porter from deschutes. The particular bottle on display appeared really old, and I asked if I could purchase it. The server said she would ask the owner. I went back with a fresh bottle of B.B.P. today, and the owner was kind enough to swap bottles with me. The only stipulation was that I did not imbibe the aforementioned beverage. I agreed, but of course went home to refrigerate my trophy. I asked how old she thought the beer was, and she said she'd been in business for 7 years, and it'd been on display the whole time. When I opened the beer it smelled as fresh as ever. Quite thin, but twice as chocolatey as any pint of B.B.P. I've ever had. All in all it was a very good beer. This re-enforces my trust in beer. I've done some mean things to beer, and she's still so good to me. Old hops, culturing yeast from 2 year old smack packs, and dry yeast from '93. It's harder to make a bad beer than a good beer in my opinion. That bottle spent 7 years on a shelf with no love? How could that be? There's a beer out there for everyone, and I love this one.