Proprietor's Bourbon County Brand Stout Expectations?

contrary to what the bottle says "will develop for up to 5 years", the brewery is saying to drink this fresh, as not only will the coconut flavor diminish, they are thinking the oils and proteins from the coconut will start to develop a tartness...

 

Had the good fortune of scoring the flight to end all flights recently (all on tap, unless otherwise noted):
-Proprietor's
-Coffee 2012
-Vanilla (bottle)
-Cherry Rye (bottle)
-BCBS 2012
-Barleywine 2013

IMHO, Prop won the night in a landslide, and I say that as someone who's inclined to be extra critical of the (over)hyped stuff. Perfectly balanced flavor profile, with the coconut enhancing the wood/vanilla/caramel/dark chocolate goodness of the base beer. But, as we all know, palates are different and all that, and it's perfectly reasonable for folks to prefer BCBCS, etc. (though I thought the 2012, even with the toned down coffee, still had a streak of harsh acidity. Still a great brew, but didn't touch Proprietor's in my book.)

For what it's worth, Barleywine was probably my #2 of the night, further reinforcing my personal belief that aging is a dangerous game and that, if you try something and it's drinking well, you should go for broke and not sit on it.

Cherry Rye was interesting and well done, though I admit it reminded me why I don't prefer strong berry fruit flavors in my stouts.

Vanilla had gotten extra nutty, still tasty, though not as seamless as as Prop/Barleywine.

BCBS 2012 was good -- all the standard flavors still there, oak, vanilla, and without much booziness -- but not as good as a '13 I recently had.

At the end of the day, if you like to age, you should age. If you don't, you shouldn't. If you drink a hyped beer and it tickles your fancy, find more. If it doesn't, spend your hard-earned dollars elsewhere. Not worth worrying about what everyone else is doing, IMO.

 

You do know that you have increased the desirability of this beer with your statement because now you have all the sour beer lovers going, hmmm. cheers

 

Was very happy to get to try this beer. It was pretty damn tasty but didnt leave me with much of a wow like most other BC variants. You like BC in general? You like coconut. Try Randall'ing freshly toasted coconut into a reg bc. My experiment was much tastier than Prop. And for a non-ba version... did the same experiment with a GI Big John. It was delicious.

 

Yeah, I never got much coconut from it, although the finish was smooth as hell, creamy, and sweet, which I assume is the coconut's influence. I thought it was phenomenal, though.

 

Personally feel that BCBS are all over rated. I enjoy Central Waters barrel aged stuff just as much if not more and it is not a pain in the ass to get. And Toppling Goliath's barrel aged stuff is even better yet.

 

The bottles were really inconsistent. Some people's bottles actually had flakes of coconut floating at the top for all to see. I think the blending job this time around was a little iffy, with some bottles getting more of the tops of the barrels and some more of the bottom. I'm pretty sure coconut oil would float in beer, so if your Proprietor's was pulled more from the tops of the barrels it would have stronger coconut.


Err something like that. I neither tasted nor saw the beer anywhere.

 

I still have a bomber of the Proprietors laying around that I'm planning on cracking open in a few weeks after my fiance and I move. Interested to see if there's a noticeable difference for me between the bottle I had back in December, the one I had during the Super Bowl, and this one.

 

I had plenty of flecks in every pour of both bottles I had, but I didn't get any type of really distinct "coconut flavor" (outside the usual BA flavors). What I got was a creamy aftertaste.

With that being said, I didn't pair any food with either bottle, and I've had fruit flavors come out of other beers much more strongly with a correct food pairing, so who knows.