February 2014 Cellar Reviews

Let the coffee die! Please don't waste that other bottle so soon!

 

I'll def let you know next year how the other bottle is doing. I've got a fellow BA that is saving up for a 10yr vert (just about done). Who knows, maybe some of the vintages will surprise me.

 

05 Celebration (celebrating my cat's b-day)

Deep copper, leaning to brown, particulate because of the inelegant pour.
Smell was dominated by a pleasant caramel, sweet aroma. Maybe a bit of brown bread. No hops, obv.
Flavor was burnt raisins, a bit woody, medium bitterness, a bit of burnt toast and sugar.
Body was a bit thin, medium-light. Carbonation was very diminished, low. Smooth low alcohol.

Not getting any better. A bit thin, not much depth of flavor and nothing really developing.

 

Funk Metal Batch 1 (6/12/12)- little to no change. Maybe slightly more funky, but still drinking great.

 

Rare- not as good as it was drinking last July. More notes of oxidation, though pleasant, I'd advise people to start drinking their Rares if they're sitting on them for some special occasion.

BCBVS- Still drinking fantastically well; the vanilla is all there and seamlessly integrated with the rest of the base Bourbon County Stout. Assuming your bottle is cellared properly, you can drink 'em, age 'em a bit longer, you can't go wrong.

Bramble- Also drinking great- very very fruit forward with a nice raspberry sweetness and tart blackberry blast up front with a bit of that trademark BCBS flavour following through without much booziness. More fruit-forward than I remember it last July. You can age it some more if you want, but I can't imagine it getting any better than it is now.

 

2013 Firestone Walker Abacus/Sucaba. No classic barleywine flavors, no barrel flavor, and no spirit flavor. Scandalously large amount of oxidation for a barleywine not even 18 months from release time. Good carbonation and cherry flavors. Less than ideal cellaring conditions for this particular bottle but still a disappointment. Will avoid in future.

I thought my last 2011 had fallen a little bit from what it was in 2012....still one of the best aged beers I've ever had (and by far the most fudge-like and marshmellowy). But yeah, this beer is great. I don't think it will age as well as it used to since they barrel it longer now, but we will see.

 

This is Central waters calling card on barreled aged stouts! They nail those fudgy marshmellow flavors like no other in barrel aged stouts! Expecially in 1414, 15, and 16!

 

Looks like I'm a little late on this, but I had an '08 DB mid-January. I'd consider it a pretty rough beer fresh, but it was really nice at that age - some really nice malts in there once the alcohols tone down.

 

Found a 2001 Gale's Prize Old Ale in my liquor store last week- they had no idea how old it was. So obviously the aging conditions were less than ideal being in the store for that long. But what the hell- I decided to buy one anyway (only one- they had at least 6) at $5.95. So if it sucked I would not waste a lot. And did it ever suck sorry to say. It probably turned some time ago. The color was fine. Poured thick into a Chimay goblet without any bubbles at all. Smelled a bit sour, but I took a sip anyway and promptly hit the drain. Well I knew gping in the this was a huge risk so I was not that surprised. But still it would have been nice if the beer was nice. Next!!

 

2012 Dark Lord - Did not notice a huge difference aged.. Still a solid stout. Have a few older vintages I'm holding onto.

King Henry vs Abacus (2011): Opened the 2 together w. a few friends... The King Henry pored and looked like a BA stout, very dark with a caramel head. Smelled strong, mainly of Pappy. Awesome BW! Abacus, always solid but was hard to stand up next to King Henry.