The solera concept for making an aged beer has a certain appeal to me. As I understand it from Wikipedia and The Mad Fermentationist, you set up a long term brew --> age/store and harvest it at whatever interval, replacing the harvested beer with younger or, even, new brew. For example, Mike T. and his brewbuddy Nathan have a sour one keg system where brew is harvested on some set period and it's replaced by freshly brewed / new beer. As the beer matures over time, the average age of the kegged brew gets older and older and eventually reaches a plateau age. They had just started a big wood barrel with a sour beer.
Another, more complex, approach would be to have a series of smaller kegs, each started at some interval and, upon 'maturity', a portion of the oldest keg would be harvested and replaced with the same amount from the next oldest keg, and so on down the line of kegs, with the youngest keg getting 'fed' the newly brewed beer. I tried to figure this out in a spreadsheet and like it better than just one (big) barrel.
For example: 4 kegs (or carboys), each 3 months apart in starting age with 1/4 (1.25 gallons OR ~ 12 12 oz. bottles) of the oldest keg harvested each period (after 1 year startup) and 1.25 gallons transferred from the next oldest keg (the 9 month old one at this point). After 15 of these 3 month cycles the oldest beer would have an average age of nearly 1.75 years. I could then drink a bottle of this beer per week (actually from 1 year on) FOREVER (skipping week 13 each three months).
What beer(s) to try with this? Well, one that ages well. Everyone focuses on a sour beer, so I thought of an Orval clone. Others (Mike T. and Nathan) have tried a lambic-like beer (but the hops weren't 3 years old). The lambics aren't a dark beer, which tend to aged better than the light or golden ones, but, of course, they are well aged and the gueuze blends use up to 3 year old lambics.
I also might try a Belgian Dark Strong Ale, since JZ states you shouldn't even be drinking this beer at less than a year old. OR. Maybe I could add a Brett. brux. to this as is done with the Orval clones (JZ Belgian Specialty Ale recipe).
Note: I already have an Orval clone in a keg (Northern Brewer's extract kit 'Notre Dame d'Golden Valley, kegged age will be 3 months on 8-Jun) AND a BDSA in a keg (Northern Brewers all grain kt 'Golden Dragon', kegged age will be 3 months on 21-May). I would need to start brewing for the next solera in the cycle about a month ahead of these 'kegging' dates, so I need to get on it (at least for the BDSA). If I really like the original Notre Dame or Golden Dragon a year from now, then I'll just wait 3 more months until the ones I'm about to brew are a year old, and start the solera from then on.
