Chicago/South Loop tasting group

Oh ok. Just wanted to be sure. I definitely didn't want to bring the group down! So much great stuff on this list!

 

Guys, FYI, I got a room at the Marriott Chicago at Medical District/UIC less than a mile away since I'm coming all the way from Plainfield and don't wanna take any unnecessary risks. I found out upon booking it that you can park at the hospital garage across the street from it for $13 or so, if anyone needs parking in a pinch. Also, if anyone else needs to book, it was less that $150 after all the fees on hotels.com.

 

@Billy_Bars Let me echo what these guys said, I'm all about trying that W00tstout!

 

Please don't hesitate to let me know if my offerings (2013 Darkness / 2014 Bell's BA Cherry) aren't up to par. The cherry isn't a top 250 per se, but it was a pretty damned small bottle count.

 

Also, I live about a block away from this place. I dont have a whole lot, but I do have "permit 5" parking stickers which is what you'll need if you don't want to pay by the hour on Taylor St. Let me know if anyone is interested.

 

Thanks @Canada_Dan. And @Makubex- please don't change those brews! (At least that's how I feel.)

 

I've never heard much about the argument for/against waxing. I'll have to research that a little bit. It will be interesting to get a group consensus from a blind tasting. I bet if it wasn't blind, everyone would prefer the waxed just from a placebo effect seeing the wax.

Looking forward to the mini vertical of Darkness and I didn't even realize Bell's had a BA Cherry until I saw it on the list so I vote YES!

 

Sorry i haven't been on in so long. I may just have to bow out of this as my only "rare" bottles are darklord and darkness. I mean if we stick to the 250, I can bring speedway stout, '14 eclipse-elijah 12 year for stouts, or New Glarus Wis. Belg Red, Raspberry Tart, and Serendipity. I'm a grad student, and I don't have an expansive cellar or a large budget. I understand if you guys want to just stick to people with the more rarer beers.

 

Also someone mentioned the 4-Hands Madagascar, I don't have that, but i do have the Vol. 1.

 

@AaronPaddock I can only speak for myself, but I've actually never had Dark Lord or Darkness, as I'm relatively new to the area. As for me, I was really looking forward to trying them, but I'm probably in the minority. If you wanna bow out, I'm all for meeting up at another date and sharing more common bottles that aren't such whales. Just a thought.

 

@AaronPaddock and @Billy_Bars, we have a Dark Lord 2014 and 2013-2014 Darkness being brought to the share already. What year are yours?

 

@ulucphoenix I'm out. Sounds fun though. Cheers.

 

Hey @Billy_Bars email me at [email protected] to meet up some other time. I was trying to get some bottles that would hold up to these guys but I'm not sure I'll be able to in time. Was looking to grab Hill Farmstead Anna and Arthur, as well as a BA Imperial Biscotti. I don't wanna thread jack this, so email me and we can set up a low key thing for a later date.

 

@AaronPaddock Let's start bouncing around ideas for the next bottle share so we can find a date that works for everyone and a good theme/level of bottles so that everyone can participate. I by no means have an extensive cellar and could not support this level of rarity every month but would love to make this a semi-regular thing.

 

I think someone threw out the idea of a vertical tasting. It doesn't mean that one person has to bring them all. Piecing it together various verticals from different people might be fun. Other ideas?

 

Having verticals would again require people to keep cellars though and naturally excludes some folks. Maybe something more simple like a Winter themed tasting with stouts, barley wines and other styles we associate with the colder months?

 

Very true. Another thing we could do is bring in a certain style and do a blind tasting...

 

I really like the blind tasting idea.

 

Agree. I've always wanted to do that with IPAs. We would have to make sure they are bottled/canned around the same date. Have you guys seen this thread?

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/2015-blind-i-ipa-taste-testing.253075/#post-3233689

Pretty ambitious and detailed with the seeding and different rounds but we could model it based off that. We do have some of the best distro in the country so we should be able to find 30+ IPAs that are fresh

EDIT- I'm open to other styles too. Some people feel that tasting a ton of IPAs would wreck your pallet and it would be tough to discern after the first round... I think that freshness and hype/perception comes into play the most with IPAs which would make it interesting blind