Bourbon County Brand Stout 2013 ABV?

First, I'm moving this to Beer Talk...
Second, here's a recent thread: http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/question-about-array-of-bourbon-county-abvs.135468/

 

Either way how do you in NC end up with a case and me in IL end up empty handed

 

If you look at the bottling dates between the 2 versions, they are months apart. I have a feeling that not all of the recently released BCBS came from the same barrels or batches.

 

I bought some 4-packs at one store when they sold their allocation; a few days later my local Whole Foods started selling theirs (apparently they STILL have cases on the floor, heh) including the variants, picked up the allotted one bottle per person of coffee, barleywine, and Backyard, picked up a single BCBS because why not and noticed theirs was a 14.2% batch that was bottled around a month or so before the other BCBS I bought.

 

Score if so

 

Sounds like you got a counterfeit!

 

I know of a shop in Elgin that has at least 10 cases of regular with no limits. PM me if you want more info

 

On the back.

 

Does that mean we should have them listed separately for proper reviewing (BCBS14.2% and BCBS14.9%)? I would think .7% is enough of a difference to affect a change in the beer...

 

Goose has confirmed that the reason for different caps is because they ran out of one kind. Ever notice all the different bottle caps on Stone products? Breweries just use whatever is on hand as long as it doesn't have the wrong beer on it.

No two batches of beer are the same and that is especially true for a beer this big, as well as for any beer aged in freshly spent bourbon barrels. Yeast loses fermentation efficiency the higher the beer's gravity, so any estimate is going to be off. Add in the fact that not every barrel Goose gets has the same amount of residual whiskey left in the barrel and you can have significant variation between batches. The simple fact that of the matter is that every previous batch of BCBS probably had the wrong ABV listed. For this year's two batches, Goose briefly shipped samples off to ABINBEV's plant in St. Louis to get more accurate post-fermentation estimates for the two batches, which is why they have different alcohol contents listed. In general though, Goose usually relies on estimates.




Besides BCBS, I hate to break the news to the unaware but there's a pretty good chance that half of all the big imperial beers you buy have an incorrect ABV listed. Most do it on pre-fermentation estimates, not exact measurements right before bottling. They might not be off by a lot, but they certainly can be.

 

Has anyone checked the locations on the labels yet? Was BCBS processed at multiple locations this year?

 

Different bottling date=different blend of barrels. Each barrel attenuates to a different FG... Therefore the variation in ABV???

I was told that the brewers like the 14.2% ABV bottling the best, and there is a 3rd bottling date that has a different ABV.

 

GI bombed Florida with BCBS this year and it was a good thing After chasing trucks on Black Friday I also ended up with two different batch's one at 14.2 abv , the other at 14.9 abv and yes the caps were colored different on each.

 

My brewing partner and friend purchased our allotments in different states. I've noticed date and alcohol differences weeks ago. 14.2 (August) is far more balanced and smooth while holding back on booze whereas 14.9 (November) seems like it had a higher steeping temperature and really comes through on the bourbon much more as the body didn't gain as much consistency in malt from an effected grain bill. Had plenty of both...

 

You should be a beer judge.
This is most likely not a fermentation nor mash temp issue but simply different blends. Only so many barrels can fit in a brite tank. Goose Island likely (and rightly so) blends to taste, not a precise alcohol target. As such it might be impossible to create such a beer at that scale that is always exactly the same. Regardless, a higher mash temp ought to increase body and decrease fermentability if anything.