Proprietor's Bourbon County Brand Stout Expectations?

People are nuts for "aging" any BCBS variant. Coffee, backyard, or proprietors will all fall off drastically. If you don't like how "hot" it is then maybe you should find a new beer style.

Not sure how many people have had a bramble in the past year but it tasted like an absolute mess to me with age. Horrible cough syrup aftertaste in my opinion.

 

Not sure if you've ever had the Coffee one aged, but it's excellent with one or two years on it.

 

I'm a "midwesterner."

No... I don't think proprietor's will get better with age. Its delicious right now. Drink'em if you got'em.

I have one rule when it comes to aging beer: (assuming I have at least 2) If I open a beer and it tastes amazing... I drink the rest ASAP. If I open a beer and its a boozy mess, I'll sit on one to open at a later date. Or give it away to someone I think may enjoy it. What I don't do is invest a ton of cash into a consumable just to take up otherwise functional space in my house.

You know what else I don't get? The people that age a beer having never tried a fresh one. That's just ridiculous.

As for BCS Coffee, age does NOT make it better. It tones down the coffee flavor significantly. Of course its still excellent with some time on it... because it was 100% perfect out of the gates. I drink mine fresh because, with time, the flavors just mellow out until you have yourself a slightly more roasty regular bcs.

 

Yep, stout day this year I drank a 2012 coffee I received in my first trade. Paled in comparison to the ones I've had fresh this year. Such a big rich beer goes so well with the fresh coffee I think. It cuts the richness just enough and makes the beer a lot more drinkable. There are beers with coffee I have aged and I'm not against aging by any means, just my preference with these beers is all.

 

This is my input, I was able t get 2 bottles at the store I go to. I got everything besides backyard at that store. I drank a coconut, it was good yes but not crazy good, people are basically trading everything in their cellar and their first born for one and honestly its not all that, I traded my second one for a back yard, coffee and some heady topper as a bonus. I enjoyed the Backyard more then the coconut but that is my opinion.

 

I went to the release in Chicago and a Co-worker spoke to some of the brewers at GI and was informed not to age Proprietors because the coconut will fade quickly. So do what will you will, but on this variant i think sooner is better than later

 

I like that the coffee flavor mellows, but if you think I should drink the beer I purchased with my own money fresh because you like it more fresh, then I'll just go ahead and pull them out from the basement.

 

You, sir, are a delight.

 

I *might* disagree with you. I understand the coffee flavor will fade, but I thought this years was an absolute coffee bomb which, while good, masked alot of the BCS flavor. Felt like I was drinking coffee more than BCBCS. I think a little bit of mellowing could do it well

 

There's the difference...I love coffee bombs

See, but the coffee doesn't just slowly fade... it disappears almost entirely. So, now my 2012 bomber of coffee that I thought would age and get "better," ends up tasting exactly like a regular bourbon county. Plus, I paid a premium for it! (the bombers cost more per ounce than the 4pack is what I'm saying) That bothers me, a lot.

 

Then re-word what you are saying. Just because it doesn't age to your liking doesn't mean that it does NOT get better with age.

 

Oh I do too, but I also love BCS and I feel like I missed some of it. I don't think I'll hold onto the rest of mine for a year, but I'm hoping a little bit of time works well

 

Hey I don't even like coconut but I love this beer. Just let it warm up a bit.

 

Personally, I think some people go overboard with the whole "aging" thing. I mean, in another thread someone was talking about doing a multiple year vertical tasting of SN Celebration... I mean, come on! On a side note, I loved the Backyard Rye, but thought it was a bit cough syrupy sweet. However, if I were to age it, I think it would just make those luscious berry flavors disappear...

 

I've had Proprietor's on three separate occasions: once on tap, two times out of a bomber. When I had it on tap, the keg had just started pouring and I didn't get any coconut really. The bottles, however, were exploding with coconut (the most recent bottle opened was this past Saturday). I talked about this with someone and it was brought to my attention that it might have to do with the coconut oils separating to the top. Seeing as kegs draw from the bottom, if you get a pour of Proprietor soon after it's been tapped, you won't get much coconut. If you get it towards the end of the keg, it might be a coconut bomb. I didn't get to have it towards the end of the keg to see the difference, but all I can say is that there was a drastic difference in my experiences. It seems like a plausible scenario.

Anyway, I have a feeling the pour I had from the keg is exactly what Prop will taste like aged: smoother than normal BCBS, with a hint of coconut. My friend and I kept saying that Prop from the keg tasted like aged BCBS.

 

I have no real experience with aging beers (I still have a bottle of 2012 BCBS, and I recently drank a bottle of 2012 120 Min. IPA, but that's about it), but I'm planning on aging one. However, I'm just doing it because 1) it's one of the hardest to get bottles I've had, so it seems a shame to drink it NOW, and 2) I only had 3 bottles total--1 I've already drank, 1 I'm going to share with my father, and the third is the one I'm considering aging.

For me, the thing that made Proprietor's so great wasn't that it tasted strongly of coconut; admittedly I didn't get a whole lot of coconut from mine (although I'd probably have gotten more had I paired it with some type of food, as opposed to drinking most of the bottle myself in one sitting), but the finish was really smooth and creamy. If that holds up over the next year, I'll be pretty happy.

 

And just because you don't like it fresh from the brewery, as it is meant to be... doesn't mean that its worse without age.

Look, I hate hoppy stouts. I purchased two bottles of Half Acre's Big Hugs last year. Tried a taste at the taproom and it was syrupy/sweet. However, the beer in the bottles was extremely hoppy. So, I sat on my second one for 6-8 months until the hop profile dissipated. I would not sit here and tell you that aging that beer made it "better." Aging it made it better for ME. But, it muted the profile that Half Acre was going for. And I'm not about to go on a thread about Big Hugs to tell everyone that it HAS to be aged in order to be fully appreciated.

With age, bcs coffee quickly loses the primary feature that sets it apart from regular bourbon county bottles.
Time is turning it into regular. Your money/beer, etc. Whatever!

But, why would you want to eliminate the intended flavor of something??? That would be like me going into a store, buying a Hershey's bar w/ almonds, taking it home and removing all of the almonds from it before eating just the chocolate. There was a regular herseys bar right next to it! For LESS money! Meanwhile, that was the last Hersey's w/ almonds on the shelf and now there's someone else who actually loves almonds with their chocolate that has to try to randall together something just to get their chocolate/almond fix. But, its never the same.

TL;DR: Drink your beer, man. I just wish I had more fresh bcs coffee. Let us know how it tastes at the 5 year mark.

 

You are correct sir ^^^

I don't see how BCBS '13 can get any better, it is perfection. The only reason to age it would be if you had an entire case and have had more than you can handle.

To get back on topic though, at the Black Friday brewpub tasting one of the brewers from Fulton and Wood (I forget his name) did say the Proprietor's and Coffee should be consumed sooner rather than later and that it will fade in 6-9 months. Not that it will be a drain pour after 9 months but it won't taste as the brewer intended it to.

 

There is no way it could get better than it is right now.

 

I never said I didn't like it fresh.

After one year, which is how long I intend on aging it, the coffee is not eliminated. It tones down the coffee and heat, and it feels velvety smooth.

Costs the same as regular BCBS

Not aging it that long.