So glad to see this; I just found this beer on Sunday am am looking forward to uncorking. Seemed a little potent for a week night...

On a related note, I've been trying to cut back on my consumption on some nights of the week, and sometimes don't want to finish a large bottle. What do folks use to keep the beer from going flat? I bought an expandable rubber plug that inserts in the neck and then when you pull down the lever on top it is supposed to make a seal. Unfortunately, it is not large enough for beer bottles, and the seal is inadequate. I wrapped many layers of teflon tape around it for the last few weeks, but this is still not perfect and not tenable as a long term solution. Any ideas?

Thanks as always for sharing your collective wisdom.

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I just use a cheap plastic bottle stopper/pour. I wish I could remember where I got it, I believe it was at the local grocery store, one of those small hanging displays they have scattered throughout the aisles. It's tapered so it can fit a variety of different bottle sizes, so that would be a feature I'd look for in another.

Also my rule of thumb with the big bottles is if I'm not going to finish it the same night I finish it the following night. That cheap stopper works well for a day or two tops. And I'd imagine even a top quality stopper isn't going to be effective for more than a couple days either. I don't know that for a fact, more of a supposition on my part, but I never saw the need for anything fancy since I finish off those bottles quickly once their opened.

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Cool! Check this out from a great craft brew bar in Vancouver:

http://staugustinesvancouver.com/

Anyone seen anything like this?

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Nothing will work very well as a heap of oxygen is getting in there. My advice is if its a really nice bottle of beer, dont treat it like that. Give it the respect it deserves and drink it all in one sitting.

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My guess was that this wouldn't be a problem, because once the bottle is open and upright, CO2 coming out of solution would displace the air in the bottle because it is more dense. By the time I stuck the plug in, I figured the space in the bottle above the beer would be mostly CO2 and some N2, with very little O2.

As the CO2 is not very reactive with the flavor compounds in beer, I thought that would be all right. In fact, the bicarbonate formed from the CO2 dissolved in the beer is presumably important to the pH buffering and flavor of the beer. That's why I was hoping for an airtight seal. With wine, the big problem is oxygen reacting with various chemicals and, to a lesser extent I'd think, the evaporation of volatile compounds like esters. If you top up a wine bottle with a heavy, inert gas like xenon, I wouldn't think you'd even have to put any cap on at all for a few days. But with beer, the seal is needed, not only to keep problematic chemicals out, but to keep necessary CO2 in.

CO2 is not very soluble in water (or alcohol), so you need the pressure for it to dissolve or stay dissolved. An uncorked beer, even if kept at cellar temp in a box of completely inert gas and away from light, would soon taste different as its pH increased due to carbonation loss.

Of course this is all besides the point as you are right - I should stop being such a Pu&&y and ingrate and just enjoy the beer while it's in front of me!

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That St. Augustines tap list is impressive because of the % remaining feature. I wonder if they have some kind of sales tracking tied into the site in real time. Otherwise that would be a real bitch to maintain that list. Plenty of unfamiliar beers since it's in Canada, but I recommend the Rogue Brutal Bitter IPA. Thats a new favorite of mine that we carry in the bottle now.

Tonight's selection: Surly Abrasive for me and Bell's Winter White for my wife.

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