Bunker management

[dSculptor]

Hey guys,

Just curious on how you guys handle your bunkers when it comes to new additions.

Do you bunker the new one and open the old or vice versus. Myself I tend to keep the old versions and pop the new ones as needed.

For example: You just ran out of GTS '14, and you just purchased a '15, but you have a '13 and a '12 in your bunker which one are you going to pop? I'm going with the new one.

What about you guys?

[Sluggo]

I try to bunker the ones I like best. If I get a new batch I'd have to taste it first to determine if it's worthy of bunkering more bottles.

[b1gcountry]

I don't have the problem of trying to decide which bottle of a specific BTAC to open when the one i'm drinking runs out

[mbroo5880i]

I tend to work on open bottles with a few exceptions. I am more likely to finish an open GTS 14 before I would open a GTS 15. For example, I just bought an ECBP Batch #8 and placed it in the cabinet behind an unopened bottle of ECBP Batch #5. I will probably finish the Batch #5 before I open the Batch #8.

[Paddy]

I tend to work on open bottles with a few exceptions. I am more likely to finish an open GTS 14 before I would open a GTS 15. For example, I just bought an ECBP Batch #8 and placed it in the cabinet behind an unopened bottle of ECBP Batch #5. I will probably finish the Batch #5 before I open the Batch #8.

[b1gcountry]

I don't even own 20 bottles but the nicer ones I tend to drink and finish. Maybe I leave a drink behind on the bottle. Until a little while ago I didn't realize that changed the taste.

On the standard jd, jw, Jameson, I don't care how long I leave it open.

[Tony Santana]

The rarer the bottle, the more likely I am to leave it unopened for a bit longer and uncork an alternative. If I have multiples of a bottling like EWSB, I'm more likely to open a year that I have duplicates of, than simply going with either the newest or oldest. Same with different Bookers batches - even if I know I love the 2014-6, for example, I'm more inclined to open a Center Cut if I've got two of those. Ditto, if I've got two SAOS 7 years and only one SAOS 8 year.

But life is short - sometimes you just have to open the one you think is best, particularly if its something you haven't tried before. If I've got a 2013 and a 2014 GTS, I'll probably open the latter simply because the reviews on it were better.

[Tucker]

FIFO. Typically.

[Flyfish]

I line up bottles according to producer: BT, HH, 4R, Beam...Occasionally I lose track of what I have in the back. Just yesterday, for example, I found that bottle of HH6BIB that I had forgotten I had. It is not a "management" plan. It is just a way of finding what I'm in the mood for more readily.

[mosugoji64]

I usually decide what to open next based on what I'm craving at the time I happen to empty a bottle. Sometimes having an older version will sway the decision. Mostly it's whatever catches my attention when checking out what's available.

[BonVivant84]

I'll just pick what i'm feeling, and in regards to LE stuff I will open multiples first.

[Radsman13]

I tend to keep open what I enjoy but more likely easily replaceable (most commonly WR Double Oak) and tend to let the limited stuff sit and collect dust...

My father-in-law (one who turned me onto bourbon) says life is too short to let that stuff sit.

[El Vino]

I was lucky enough to start this hobby when you could find the unicorns on the shelf. So the bunker has by today's standards a nice number of hard to find items. But because I am unlikely to be able to replace them, I tend not to pull from them - barring special occasions. Whisky that I really like and drink on a regular basis (FR privates, Blanton's, SA) and that I buy multiple bottles, I manage FIFO. That said, I have Whiskey Nervosa in full bloom and buy more than I currently consume - though I do share/gift quite a bit.

[Auracom]

90% of my bunker is intended for consumption pretty far in the future... So I guess my "management" is to let them gather dust until I hit my 40's-50's. There are so many good bottles sitting around shelves that I'm content with as daily drinkers. The bunker is meant to be special.

[B.B. Babington]

I was lucky enough to start this hobby when you could find the unicorns on the shelf...I tend not to pull from them - barring special occasions...

yep, what used to be regular pours are now treasures. but on the bright side, it forces us to explore new options. My bunker management is haphazard, going through boxes sometimes ends with "I didn't know I had this" or "how'd I get so many of these?"

[Frodo]

I have to have an occasion to open a LE or HTF. Thankfully having a good friend over suffices...

[Madhatter]

I have an odd habit. I have a number of spiffy, unused, little laboratory storage bottles that I acquired for free. When a bottle I've liked is down to that level, I transfer the remaining contents to a storage bottle and label it. In the long run, I'll have a library of reference bottles. Then, in later years, I can redo my enjoyment of a long ago bottle, or do sbs tastings of old vs. new, or better appreciate the contents as my tastes change. Anyway, this practice makes less relevant to me whether I open old or new first.

http://www.labdepotinc.com/p-59940-pyrex-round-media-storage-bottles.php?c=343

[b1gcountry]

I have started doing something similar.it also let's me bring a couple bottles to a friend's without throwing my back out.

You can get 12 4oz Boston rounds bottles from amazon for less than $15

[The Black Tot]

Irreplaceable goes in, and what goes out is prioritized in this order:

First: Stuff I don't like

Second: Stuff I do like but is readily replaceable.

3rd: Some irreplaceables get opened or else poured from when enthusiastic friends come over, or when that top shelf mood strikes.

It's not that I have anything against opening the unicorns - far from it. But if you don't cull the bunker of the weak and the sick, you end up with a bunker full of non-special bottles.

Drinking and thinking this way has made me more selective as well - I try not to risk buying a bottle I'm going to find to be blah, because I know it's then going to be between me and the bottles I DO love!

[dcbt]

I go for anything I have a multiple batch of first, then generally drink in a LIFO basis after that, thus preserving the older stuff as long as possible. But at the end of the day it all gets consumed so it's a moot point.

[Golzee]

Recently, I have bought more than I consume, so my bunker is growing. I open bottles in groups, also, I don't really have any unicorns so anything in the bunker is fair game at any time. The more expensive bottles tend to sit in the bunker longer though.

[dSculptor]

Irreplaceable goes in, and what goes out is prioritized in this order:

First: Stuff I don't like

Second: Stuff I do like but is readily replaceable.

3rd: Some irreplaceables get opened or else poured from when enthusiastic friends come over, or when that top shelf mood strikes.

It's not that I have anything against opening the unicorns - far from it. But if you don't cull the bunker of the weak and the sick, you end up with a bunker full of non-special bottles.

Drinking and thinking this way has made me more selective as well - I try not to risk buying a bottle I'm going to find to be blah, because I know it's then going to be between me and the bottles I DO love!

I like this mentality,(excluding the first) because I rarely put a dislike in the bunker, those are the new ones that I buy to taste and they get opened right away.

Do you just buy 2 of everything right off the bat, whether new or not?

Actually after looking at mine right now there is one in there which I really don't care for and that is the WT forgiven, it's in there just because JR signed it at the gift shop. Really don't care to open it anyway because then I'll be forced to drink it.

[Kwats7]

Irreplaceable goes in, and what goes out is prioritized in this order:

First: Stuff I don't like

Second: Stuff I do like but is readily replaceable.

3rd: Some irreplaceables get opened or else poured from when enthusiastic friends come over, or when that top shelf mood strikes.

It's not that I have anything against opening the unicorns - far from it. But if you don't cull the bunker of the weak and the sick, you end up with a bunker full of non-special bottles.

Drinking and thinking this way has made me more selective as well - I try not to risk buying a bottle I'm going to find to be blah, because I know it's then going to be between me and the bottles I DO love!

This is my philosophy as well. In addition, open bottles that I don't like get mini-vatted with daily drinkers to try to make them palatable; worst case they go in a decanter for guests to mix with coke. If the crap stash gets too large, i've been known to have a few crap 'n cokes myself.

[Harry in WashDC]

First time I read this thread, I had no comment because I didn't think I had a philosophy of consumption. TBT, sort of, got me thinking. Over the past year or so, I've been forcing myself to follow his order (i.e., consume the clunkers first to remind myself NOT to buy them again) although 2 & 3 are more like 2A and 2B.

Also, recently, I have been adding bottom shelfers to the bunker so I don't have to make trips so frequently to replenish basic supplies. Working off kwats7's comment, I've been using the clunkers in cocktails instead of drinking them neat and, SURPRISE!, some of them work really well in particular cocktails. For example, one NDP "from" Colorado that somebody gave me, when vatted with its high-proof namesake rye (and I don't mean High West), makes a mighty fine Old Fashioned when mashed in a glass with a fresh orange slice and a cube of demerara.

[b1gcountry]

I keep some cheap stuff around for company and the occasional jack and coke