Oh it’s totally uncharted territory, really. There’s never been much of a process, in any beer culture, of deliberate ageing, I think mainly because unlike wine, beer production isn’t really seasonal so there are no vintages as such (obviously hops are seasonal but they aren’t typically used as a fresh crop) so any annual releases are entirely discretionary depending on when they’re brewed.
That being said, lots of people have reported good / interesting results from stuff like strong English barleywines and imperial stouts, even decades down the line (a lot of ales produced for the silver jubilee or Charles and Diana’s wedding and stuff) - the brewer could never have conceived that they’d end up in a particular way, but people seem to like them. I’ve been buying bottles of Fullers Vintage Ale for the past few years to see how they wind up.
I don’t think a lambic can really go bad as such, so will be interesting to see what becomes of it if it survives that long… I know it’s all a bit bollocks, but part of the fun is the romance of the thing, you know?
