Dark Lord Vertical Tasting Notes ('08-'12) - 5/5/12

Do you believe that a 3 is a proper score for a defective beer? Unless of course you thought it was slightly better than average for an imperial stout with the apple flavor.

 

So what's a boy to do with his 2012 bottles of Dark Lord?
Thanks for the write up, btw. I really do appreciate it. Sounds like a great weekend!
Cheers, bud.

 

Mark seems like a good guy - so this isnt a shot at him by any means.

To bears on acid - I am confident when BA reviewers score beers on a 1-5 scale, they do it to an average being a 4 rather a 3. I have no idea why this is (any psychology majors here on BA?), but it is what I have come to believe.

 

TBH... it has taken me a little longer to read each of your posts because i need to figure out the acronyms. IDK, maybe it's just me. LOL, K... TTYL.

 

For sure dude. I hear what you are saying, and I appreciate the the vertical review. Sure we disagree here and there, and now my expectations are for '12 are low, but in the end its helpful and enjoyable to hear what other people are thinking and tasting.

 

If you are rating based off how good/bad you think the beer is, then I would say yes.

 

If it's any consolation, I had a bottle of the 2012 Dark Lord the day after the release and really enjoyed it. I did not pick up any of the green apple issues people keep talking about, so this could be a bottle-to-bottle problem (even if it does affect many bottles).

 

If it's an acetaldehyde problem it should fade out completely in a bottle conditioned beer.

 

Good stuff, thanks for the insight on the vintages. We are doing this exact same line-up from my cellar for a friend's bachelor party in June.

 

I can't explain it on a scientific level but the healthy yeast used for bottle conditioning will eat it up. This originally may have been caused by under pitching yeast or maybe a sanitation problem. On the most extreme end, this could actually be a lacto contamination and not acetaldehyde, but I doubt that.

 

its a fermentation by product of yeast, and could hint towards multiple issues, one of them being a young beer. Bottle conditioning, the beer continues to develop, and the yeasties finish the clean up job in the bottle

 

I'm sure one of the advanced homebrew nerds shouldn't have a problem answering this question - how long are yeasts active in a bottle conditioned beer? When can we expect the apple flavors to go away? A month? 6 months?

 

A pretty new homebrew nerd here, but I read plenty. Generally, the "green apple" description in homebrewing is an indicator that you need a few more weeks in the bottle if you're bottle conditioning, or a few more weeks in secondary (or even just a longer sit in primary) to pull the beer together.

How long the yeasts are active depends on the type of yeast, the type of beer, gravity (sugar, effectively) and alcohol content... as well as how the beer is stored. But you should consider the yeast "finished with its job" in most beer (including DL) that is conventionally bottled. It's in bottle conditioned/bottle fermented/"ale on lees" types of beers that the yeast is an ongoing concern. Basically, the bottles that you have to leave the dregs in, or that you leave tilted after you open... and any bottled homebrew that didn't come out of a keg via a beer gun or something like that. A lot of sours are bottled and then cellared for a couple of years before they're even distributed.

With a high ABV stout, there is absolutely nothing to lose in sitting on these bottles for a couple of months. It's not like a DIPA where there are flavors that fade quickly, to the potential detriment of the beer.

I don't know that we should really consider Dark Lord a bottle conditioned beer, as I suspect they're not bottling it with priming sugars for the yeast to eat, etc... but certainly the green apple thing is generally an acetaldehyde description, and it's something that goes away with a little time. For all intents and purposes, to us, it means "young beer" and not "bad/infected/ruined beer." It's entirely possible that FFF could have used another month sitting on these bottles. But I had some 2012 from the bottle at DLD, and it tasted good to me... so it could just be that some of the bottles are tasting a little more ready than others. Or it could be that you're nuts. But either way, it's a good time to wait on this beer a little while, just in case what you were tasting is acetaldehyde.

 

Isn't it possible they brewed 2 or more batches on their system to get as many bottles together as they did? I know there were 3 batches of PtY this year, yet people judge is as the 2012 vintage. I had it at several locations and found 2 batches to be super consistent while on one them was really good (ironically the batch i tasted at the pub) but not the magic i tasted everywhere else (kegs in SF).

If there are multiple batches there could be a green apple batch out there. Also - I would be surprised if they bottle condition a beer like this. So many factors go into properly bottle conditioning a bottle of beer with a Final Gravity of 1.050 or whatever it is. That is a lot of remaining sugar in a beer to bottle condition it with. This would guarantee atleast some reports of bottle bombs in people's cellars.