What beer are you drinking - Autumn '12

[stevegoz]

BTW, Main Street is still well-stocked with Bourbon County. Too bad the damned stuff costs $25 a four pack!

Bought a case last week!

[tanstaafl2]

Tried a Founder's Dirty Bastard after learning that I missed out on the Backwoods Bastard this year. Pretty good stuff!

I also picked up a couple of Traquair 2020 ales yesterday (more a true English barleywine than Scotch Ale that supposedly can sit on the shelf until 2020) and hopefully encouraged the store to get some of the Traquair House Ale and Jacobite Ale so I can see what a true Scotch Ale should taste like.

True English Barleywine isn't that easy to find either so will try to one of the 2020's and then leave the other to sit a spell.

[clingman71]

Drank a 90 minute with dinner, but the real news was picking up 2 Westvleteren gift packs, 2 4 pks of Bourbon Co stout, and a Brooklyn Black Ops, pretty Damn good day!

[stevegoz]

Drank a 90 minute with dinner, but the real news was picking up 2 Westvleteren gift packs, 2 4 pks of Bourbon Co stout, and a Brooklyn Black Ops, pretty Damn good day!

How much did the Westys run? They were ~80 bucks in Chicagoland.

[clingman71]

$85, it was supposed to be a set price everywhere.

[tanstaafl2]

I learned from a friend in the business that Total Wine here locally was making them available (albeit quietly) a week and a half or so ago. As a result I was able to pick up 3 six packs and managed to avoid any potential hassle of fighting traffic and waiting in line yesterday morning, especially since I already had a dental appointment that morning and didn't want to cancel.

I must say the included glasses are small and kind of chintzy. I much prefer my standard full size Westvleteren glass.

I am particularly interested in putting one up against the last remaining 12 I have that was bought in Brussels on a trip this past September.

[smokinjoe]

By the way, how is Westvleteren properly pronounced? Accent on the vlet? On the ter? Other?

[clingman71]

I got one locally via lottery and knew well in advance. I got lucky and got the second at TPS. They sold out in 3 minutes even with server issues. Many experienced locked up webpages while trying to purchase. I've heard/read a lot of grumbling about the beer not being as good as "regular" westvleteren 12. I pretty much call bullshit on this. I had some last summer, it was fantastic, BUT, the generous friend who shared it said he had experienced a lot of variance bottle to bottle in his case. They make 3 beers, does anyone think they,would have gone to the trouble of changing recipe or mashbill for the export batch? Remember, they are under 5K barrels per year output. I think similarly aged bottles of regular vs export will have little/no difference.

[tanstaafl2]

By the way, how is Westvleteren properly pronounced? Accent on the vlet? On the ter? Other?

What I heard locally in Brussels was "vest FLAY teren" with a long A sound. I had always pronounced it as "vest VLEH teren" but that wasn't how the locals said it.

[tanstaafl2]

I got one locally via lottery and knew well in advance. I got lucky and got the second at TPS. They sold out in 3 minutes even with server issues. Many experienced locked up webpages while trying to purchase. I've heard/read a lot of grumbling about the beer not being as good as "regular" westvleteren 12. I pretty much call bullshit on this. I had some last summer, it was fantastic, BUT, the generous friend who shared it said he had experienced a lot of variance bottle to bottle in his case. They make 3 beers, does anyone think they,would have gone to the trouble of changing recipe or mashbill for the export batch? Remember, they are under 5K barrels per year output. I think similarly aged bottles of regular vs export will have little/no difference.

I can't imagine they change the recipe but it is definitely small batch brewing and tends to vary some from batch to batch. That has been reported for a long time. They don't make a lot as you note and certainly don't try to blend for a particular taste profile. My understanding is there are only about 25 monks in the entire monastery and only about 5 of them do the brewing.

The recent increased output and availability I am told is to to try to repair the place as it is apparently in some need of fixing up. I didn't get to go there on my trip to Belgium so I don't know what it looks like in person. But maybe making more may put a strain on getting the ingredients they usually prefer?

In general, trying to ratchet things up for increased output could certainly have an impact on overall taste and not usually for the better.