Barrel Aged Beer Sampling

[hectic1]

Picking up where Winston left off back in the winter with his massive beer tasting I'm going to host one tonight but on a smaller scale. My cousin and

neighbor are huge barrel aged stout fans so we're going to drink some of the ones that I have in the bunker tonight. On the schedule to be sampled

are:

2008 GI BCS

2010 GI BCS

2012 GI BCS

2012 Founders KBS

2013 Founders KBS

2013 Bell's Black Note

2012 FW Parabola

I've never had any of these other then the 2012 GI BCS and the Bell's Black Note so I'm excited to see the difference between the vintages and

the brewery offerings.

Here's to what I hope is a great night of sampling!:toast::drink:

[stevegoz]

Nice lineup -- pretty much the "big 4" of semi-widely available BBA stouts! The fresh KBS will be the outlier due to the coffee; the 2012's coffee had faded a fair bit on the last one I drank in January.

Will you be declaring a "best in show"?

[hectic1]

I plan on tasting them blind so we'll each get about 4oz's to drink through and we do plan on providing a top 3.

[MyOldKyDram]

What a fun and tasty treat for you guys. Sounds great.

[Beer&Bourbon]

IMHO the most recent BCS crushes Black Note. BCS only gets better with time from what I've seen. I'm going to a buddy's for a tasting tonight. I'm taking rabbit stew and a slew of cheeses to offset the huge list of items we'll be sampling:

Bourbon County 2006

Bourbon County 2007

Bourbon County 2008

Bourbon County 2009

Bourbon County 2010

Bourbon County 2011

Bourbon County 2012

Bourbon County Coffee 2010

Bourbon County Coffee 2011

Bourbon County Coffee 2012

Bourbon County Vanilla

Bourbon County RARE

Bourbon County Cherry Rye

Bourbon County Bramble

Looking at beeradvocate, it looks like the first bottle release was 2003 so we'll be able to sample most of what has been bottled. I'm stoked for this evening!

[AaronWF]

I'm going to a buddy's for a tasting tonight. I'm taking rabbit stew and a slew of cheeses to offset the huge list of items we'll be sampling:

Bourbon County Vanilla

Bourbon County Bramble

I'm particularly interested in hearing about the vanilla at 2.5 years and bramble rye at 1.5 years. I didn't get to taste them when they were released, but I've been holding on to one of each, trying to let them age as long as I can resist opening.

[Tico]

Sounds like a killer tasting.

Make sure to serve some small bites, sparkling water and maybe some cheeses. I attended a stout tasting recently and with only water to drink it was tough to discern between the beers after a few of them. Palate fatigue seems to set in pretty quick with high octane stouts IMO.

[BradleyC]

Both tastings sound like fun. I look forward to hearing impressions later.

[Beer&Bourbon]

I'm particularly interested in hearing about the vanilla at 2.5 years and bramble rye at 1.5 years. I didn't get to taste them when they were released, but I've been holding on to one of each, trying to let them age as long as I can resist opening.

I'm interested in the vanilla as well. I thought it was overpowering fresh and even with a bit over a year on it. I really like the Cherry Rye and am excited to try the Bramble. The coffee (fresh and aged) is my least favorite of the bunch. I'll try to jot down general impressions while we're going through.

[P&MLiquorsEric]

IMHO the most recent BCS crushes Black Note. BCS only gets better with time from what I've seen. I'm going to a buddy's for a tasting tonight. I'm taking rabbit stew and a slew of cheeses to offset the huge list of items we'll be sampling:

Bourbon County 2006

Bourbon County 2007

Bourbon County 2008

Bourbon County 2009

Bourbon County 2010

Bourbon County 2011

Bourbon County 2012

Bourbon County Coffee 2010

Bourbon County Coffee 2011

Bourbon County Coffee 2012

Bourbon County Vanilla

Bourbon County RARE

Bourbon County Cherry Rye

Bourbon County Bramble

Looking at beeradvocate, it looks like the first bottle release was 2003 so we'll be able to sample most of what has been bottled. I'm stoked for this evening!

wow. After the first couple samples, im not sure you will be able to tell the subtle differences from aging.

And Bourbon county is a giant bourbon bomb from day one. I would expect the fading of the hops to only make it more prevalent. I have tried some vintages of BCS but never in a side by side with fresh. BCS isnt bottle conditioned so I wouldnt expect it to change greatly over time.

KBS and coffee stouts are a different story.

[brettckeen]

4/21 noon till 5 we are doing a Whiskey Barrel Beer fest. Here's the info:

We are

hosting our second annual Tasting of Whiskey Barrel Aged Beers! There will be

beers from over 50 breweries, many of them in multiple vintages. We will

be looking at beers aged in Bourbon barrels - Bourbon County Stout, Central

Waters Bourbon Barrel Stout, Founder’s KBS... and Scotch barrels - JW Lees

Lagavulin Finished Harvest Ale, Brewdog Storm aged in Islay casks, etc.

Free to attend - $20 for 20 sample tickets.

[AaronWF]

BCS isnt bottle conditioned so I wouldnt expect it to change greatly over time.

KBS and coffee stouts are a different story.

Are you saying that KBS is bottle conditioned or that the coffee element in a beer will always change over time?

[barturtle]

BCS isnt bottle conditioned so I wouldnt expect it to change greatly over time.

.

All beers are going to change over time. Bottle conditioned or not. Otherwise you could drink 5 year old Budweiser...oh well never mind...probably tastes just as bad as it did to begin with...

[Beer&Bourbon]

There were definitely differences between the vintages, but I'm not sure how much that had to do with aging vs. batch variation. In the first comparison we tried 4 mystery beers from the list only knowing that we had a 2006 and 2012 in the mix (oldest and youngest). Everyone ranked all of them and then attempted to guess which was which. One of them had a distinctly different nose with lots of vanilla and caramel where the other ones were just flat in comparison; this one was by far the favorite of the group, which was not surprising when it was revealed to be Rare. 2006 had clear oxidation, but still finished ahead of the 2009. It's interesting to note that Rare was made with the same base as 2009. For our tasting group the 2009 has always been ranked last among different vintages. It was no different here with Rare > 2012 > 2006 > 2009.

Later on we tried Rare vs. Vanilla. We generally agreed that Rare was released at its peak; if you have a bottle and didn't try it fresh, you should have. We clearly still found it to be better than other vintages, but it's not as much better as it used to be. I (and a few others) did not like the vanilla fresh. It was a vanilla bomb with no subtlety. That has changed. The vanilla has faded (but is still definitely there). The mouthfeel on the vanilla is great - thick and luxurious. The majority of us liked the vanilla today better than the rare.

The bramble was by far the worst variant. The fruit is way too forward making it hard to even compare to the other bourbon counties. Mixing it 50:50 with 2010 made it much better. The cherry rye has a nice dose of cherry in the mix and was generally enjoyed more than it was fresh.

The 2010 coffee had a ton of coffee roast and bitterness on the nose - it smelled like burnt coffee to me. It was still there in the taste as well. We never got to the 2011. The 2012 had a ton of coffee (on both the nose and palate). The nose was nice roast coffee with some creaminess. This was a good coffee stout, but I generally don't care much for the style.

Quick run down of the rest of the vintages. We had 2 bottles of 2007 that were both plain bad. They were waxed (unlike the 2006) - we assume this was mostly batch variation since age made the 2006 worse, but not bad. The 2008 was deemed past its prime. The 2010 and 2011 were enjoyed by all. The 2011 has definitely changed since its release. It was definitely hot when released. That booziness has settled down and now it's all dark chocolate and dark roast notes. The 2012 is sweeter with vanilla and caramel in the mix. We didn't do an overall vintage ranking, but mine would go as follows:

2011=2012 >2010>2009>>2008>>2006>>>>>2007

I like the 2011 and 12 about equally. It seems like this shouldn't be aged more than about 5 years with a sweet spot at 1-2 years out. However, the early bottles were also screw top bottles, which should be taken into consideration when making this assessment since the use pry off tops now.

[P&MLiquorsEric]

Are you saying that KBS is bottle conditioned or that the coffee element in a beer will always change over time?

no but coffee fades noticeably over time. The vintage kbs i have tasted have lacked the strong coffee presence they do when fresh. The bourbon is more prevalent.

KBS is not bottle conditioned but definitely changes over time due to the coffee element. 2 or 3 year old kbs is very good. get past that and I bet it is not as good.

[P&MLiquorsEric]

All beers are going to change over time. Bottle conditioned or not. Otherwise you could drink 5 year old Budweiser...oh well never mind...probably tastes just as bad as it did to begin with...

agreed. But people go crazy over vintages when most of those beers are excellent when fresh. Ive yet to have a vintage barrel aged stout that I thought was drastically better than when fresh. Compared to premium wines which are almost undrinkable when fresh.

[Tico]

I also came to the conclusion that I'm just not a huge barrel aged fan...I'm a hop head! The weight of these beers it too much for me to drink more then a couple ounces of over the course of an evening.