If you’ve ever considered collecting bottles of fine beer and storing them till they’re aged to perfection, Christian Albertson, co-owner of The Monk’s Kettle and The Abbot’s Cellar, has saved you time, trouble, and expense. 

Since the opening of Monk's Kettle in 2007, Albertson has been setting aside select beers to gently age in cellars beneath the streets of the Mission. Over the years, Monk's Kettle and Albertson’s more recent project, Abbot's Cellar, have accumulated an impressive cache of beers. Many of these are now at their peak, so Albertson and his staff are raiding their stash and having a sale at Abbot’s Cellar next Saturday July 26, from 11 am to 1 pm.

This year, Albertson is offering a number of boxed sets—packaging various verticals, collaboration/blended beers, and other collectable combinations. Here are some highlights:

• Deschutes Mirror Mirror 5 Year Vertical (From 2009-2014) - Mirror Mirror is an oak-aged barley wine. The recipe is based on a double strength batch of Deschutes popular Mirror Pond Pale Ale. The beer is hard to come by in the years when it’s released, so finding a vertical collection of these is extremely rare.

• Almanac Sours “Ten Pack” - While Bay Area beer fans have first crack at buying new beers from local brewer Almanac, it’s hard to find a store that has more than a couple in stock at any one time. Almanac specializes in limited release “farm to barrel” beers and their barrel-aged sours are especially sought after.

• Alesmith Numbskull Series - Alesmith’s Old Numbskull is an American barleywine and this huge beer showcases malt sweetness, intense American hops, and an aggressive bitterness. It’s well suited to aging so having a series of these gives you some great sippers now with more to enjoy in the years to come.

• Russian River sets – Santa Rosa’s Russian River Brewing bottles many fine Belgian-inspired and barrel-aged beers. Since the sets contain various rarities, there is only one set available per person.

• Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Break Series – Rated a perfect score of 100 points on RateBeer, Evil Twin’s imperial porter drinks as smooth as a breakfast stout. The beer was brewed with coffee, vanilla, almonds and coffee from Charleston Coffee Roasters in South Carolina. The Evil Twin IBB series includes variations on this theme, but you’ll need to go to the sale to see what they are.

Continue the anniversary celebration with 12 collaboration beers that Sierra Nevada crafted with some of the best breweries in the nation. For the weekend of Friday, July 25 through Sunday, July 27 (or until they run out of beer), Abbot’s is also offering a special tasting menu highlighting six of the collaboration beers.

The tasting menu will be available for $85 per person and includes six courses with beer pairings. Abbot’s Cellar is the only restaurant to have all 12 beers. Reservations can be made here.

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Tasting Menu

• Amuse - Halibut crudo with county line summer melon: Torpedo Pilsner - Firestone Walker collaboration
• First - Gulf prawns & prosciutto, brentwood corn fritter & padron peppers: Myrons Walk - Allagash collaboration
• Second - King salmon, morel mushroom & wheatberry salad: ESB - New Glarus collaboration
• Third - Bison sausage, blackberry & orange marmalade, sourdough bread pudding: Tater Ridge - Asheville Brewers Alliance collaboration
• Fourth - Duck breast & confit, cranberry beans, coffee candied bacon: Maillards - Bells collaboration
• Fifth - Dark chocolate & salted caramel tart, crème fraiche, hazelnut: Double Latte-Ninkasi collaboration

In case you’re curious, the remaining six collaboration beers that will be on draft are these:

• Chico King Pale Ale - Three Floyds collaboration
• Alt Route - Victory collaboration
• Electric Ray - Ballast Point collaboration
• Yonder Bock - CigarCity collaboration
• Yvan the Great - Russian River collaboration
• Rye Bock - Oskar Blues collaboration

Beer lovers who can’t make it to the anniversary sale or the beer/food pairing, should pop in anyway. Starting each Friday, Abbot’s offers a different weekly beer flight of three tastes.