Bourbon County tasting

I wish you the best of luck finding a Bramble. I was told by a Goose rep that GI doesn't have any left in their own personal collection, so it'll be even harder to find one, or even try one.
On that note, they had a raffle at a tap takeover and were giving a couple out.

 

There are usually two coffees used each year. One goes into bottles and kegs while the other is draft only. This year, the bottled and kegged version was La Tortuga, and if I'm not mistaken, the draft only version is Redline Espresso. You'd have to check to see which draft version you got to know how to compare them. They might just be two different beers.

 

Great notes. A group of 6-7 of us are putting the exact tasting together in June. We're going back to '06, so based on your thoughts on 2007 I'm not expecting much with the earlier bottles.

 

We also have a keg of 2012 BCS, so we'll be drinking that as well.

 

I'm not too worried about it. It's just a matter of find the right person who wants to trade one away. Where's the tap takeover you speak of?

 

I did a Bourbon County vertical on New Years. '06-'12 with '12 and Baudoinia on tap. I was really impressed with how well the '06 and '07 were drinking. Lots of little differences in all of them, but all were pretty outstanding. I'm sure you won't be disappointed at your June tasting.

 

This picture is my new background.

 

you didn't mention how the cherry ry held up to the others? what gives? nobody liked it?

 

That was more BCBS in one sitting then I ever thought I’d have. Those palate cleansers weren’t too shabby either! Tasting order: Rare, Vanilla, (cantillion), BCBS 07,08,09,10,11,12, (cantillion), bramble coffee 10, 11, 12, 12 draft.

My ranking of all beers went this way: Rare, Vanilla, Coffee 2010, bcbs ‘09, Coffee 2012(draft), bcbs ‘10, Coffee 2012, bcbs ‘11, Cherry Rye, Bramble, bcbs ‘08, bcbs ‘12, Coffee 2011, bcbs ‘07.
Here are my personal notes on each one.

Rare – My first time trying this beer so I can’t say if it has fallen off. But for me it stole the show! Having just tried Pappy 12yr this weekend, I could really taste the barrel. The aroma just made you want to climb into the glass. Although you don’t want to drink this fast, warming up did not improve the aroma or taste. Pour this beer at the proper temp and enjoy it right away!
Vanilla – I think this was the case of a beer trying to live up to the hype, and just not doing it the way Rare did. The aroma of vanilla is outstanding, but it over powered the taste of the bcbs. I can’t imagine the vanilla when this beer was fresh. Although some in the group weren’t impressed, I thought this beer fell right where it should, below Rare yet above the rest.

Bramble – The blackberries in this beer are so strong it is hard to get past it. The aroma is sweet and wonderful, but the taste lacked for me. As this warmed up I enjoyed the flavor of the beer even more, but it did reach a point where it was to syrupy tasting.
Cherry Rye – Everyone agreed that CR was slightly better than bramble and should hold up to some aging.

Coffee 2010 – This beer might be better then vanilla but I gave vanilla the slight nod. By far my favorite of the coffees we tried. The roasted aroma and taste were a perfect complement to the bcbs. Who knows if this will hold up for more years, but if I had more I’d drink them now as I can’t see a bcbcs getting much better than this!
Coffee 2011 – Not sure if it was just the style of coffee used or this batch, but I was not overly impressed with this version of bcbs coffee. Very bitter, and I didn’t appreciate the strong aroma that it put out. Might have just been me not caring for the type of beans used.

Coffee 2012 – This year’s coffee is outstanding right now, and I really hope it holds up like the 2010 did. I’m gonna sit on a few bottles of this and see what happens in a year or two.
Coffee 2012 Draft – I was shocked at the difference between the draft and bottle. I loved the bottled version, but I think the draft was much better. The high carbonization really made a huge difference in both aroma and flavor.

BCBC 2007 12oz – Wow this really fell off hard, or there was something wrong with the bottle I got. Green peppercorn is all I could taste. It was hard to finish this beer.
BCBC 2008 12oz – Definitely starting to fall off, I have one more and I’m drinking it soon before it ends up like ’07.

BCBC 2009 22oz – Wow, 2009 was the first BCBS I’ve ever had, so it holds a spot in my taste buds forever. But this is drinking just as good as a year ago. Too me this is how bcbs should taste. The bourbon is forever there but it is not too strong. It has mellowed out perfectly.
BCBC 2010 12oz –It amazed me again that you could drink 6 years on BCBS and really tell the difference between each year. ’10 was a little stronger in bourbon and sweetness then ’09.

BCBC 2011 12oz – A year of aging bcbs and it is great, much better then fresh and a perfect time to drink it. Compared to ’09 & ’10 it was slightly hotter but not as hot as ’12. As this warmed up the flavor really came through.
BCBS 2012 12oz – What can I say, ’12 is great for a fresh bourbon stout. I love it and drink it all the time, but I will definitely let several of these sit for a few more years.

Thanks to everyone for helping bring this together! One of the most epic tasting I’m sure I’ll ever do…or not
In no way am I an expect in beers, so please respect that these were just my opinion and you are welcome to disagree.

 

It was at the south loop binnys in Chicago.

 

I recently (about 2 weeks ago), did an 06 - 12 vertical without the variants. The tasting group that I had rated the 06 the best overall. The heat was gone, and there was a lot of dark cherry, flavor with the bourbon. Definitely the easiest to drink, and dangerous at 13% or whatever it was that year. I would agree with you on the 09 coming in second overall, but our 07 tasted great. It still had a huge bourbon punch that was a little overbearing for me.

Keep in mind, you have to make your own judgement on a beer. I'm not sure what happened to your bottle of 07, but mine tasted great.

 

BCBS 2009 is my favorite out of all them. Rare disappointed me slightly. Bourbon was too hot for me, might have fared better with a more robust and fresh base beer or could still do with some age to mellow out the rest of that booze. Won't open my last until for at least another year.

Coffee didn't really click with me. Lots of candy sugar, not enough coffee.

 

Thanks for this input! I was afraid that it might have been the bottle, because it was so off from the 2008. I traded for the '07 so I have no idea what conditions it was stored in. Also of note both the 2007 & 2008 where screw tops.

 

I think you may have just had a bad bottle of 2007. I've drank a half dozen 2007s in the past handful of months, and got zero greenpepper. While not at its prime, it's still really damn good. Very chocolatey. Actually reminds me a lot of the flavor profile of a last year's CW Bourbon Barrel Stout, just a bit more complex and with better/thicker mouthfeel.

 

Umm isn't a keg a draft? How do you get draft without a keg?

 

Couldn't tell if you were serious, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

La Tortuga is the one in bottles, but it's also on draft.

Redline is draft only.

Two kegged versions floating around at bars. You have to ask to find out which one you're getting, and hopefully the server will know.

 

Just wondering how someone would know which version it is. I'm assuming Redline is only in the GI area and wasn't distributed. Also the taste of the draft was very similar to the bottle, if it had been a different coffee bean one of the 6 of us would have noticed and commented on a big taste difference.

 

Regarding 08...
Did an identical tasting here recently including all Coffees (less draft). I have a new thought on the 08. We've come to recognize and appreciate how wonderfully huge fresh and recent vintages are that 08 is just simply a different beer now (both in terms of its age as well as our collective palate). More balanced and mellow, but a phenomenal brew. Just way different, not the BCBS intensity we think of. It's as different in relation to 09-12 as 07 is in the other direction. I dislike 07 btw. Don't have enough memory to give a word on older vintages.

 

What order and how much of each did you drink (wondering how much being buzzed affected the tasting)?