Hess releasing "Torulus," their first barrel-aged beer.

For what, 20 bottles. Gee, that's so tough.

 

Wasn't Hess going to start canning too? I was onboard in the beginning, but sick of supporting a brewery who only wants to sell their beer from one place for a rediculous price. I'm over the boutique breweries. Growlers ( especially $24 ones ) only I am over with.

 

They will be canning Ex Umbris first, and the expected release date is October.

 

Nothing like tipping back a few cans of Imperial Stout on a warm summer day at the lake, desert, beach, stone quarry.

 

lol

 

They should have charged more if it sold out that quickly.

 

-bals come hard and go fast at any $ figure in CA.

 

I'm hoping the blended version is good... At nearly 27 dollars one would hope its not just a 50-50 blend, I got two blended to try one now, and pair in a year with the straight... Really hoping the straight isnt infected by then.

 

But wait! I thought the price points amounted to highway robbery!

 

On twitter they said "~1:1.75". Not sure which part is higher, but I'd assume that would be the barrel aged portion of the blend.

 

The fact that you just spent $1.46/oz on a beer you have so little confidence in is stunning.

 

Haha well I bought one didn't I... But thanks for your positivity and superb mathematics... I guess we will see in a year... Or I will see... So there should be confidence with that

 

TEN FIDY USES KILL SARCASM

TEN FIDY IS SUPER EFFECTIVE

 

Why not drink the straight now so you don't risk it being infected? It's not like you'll have a baseline of now to compare it to next year anyway.

 

Very good point

 

Definitely ISO one of these.

 

That's true as far as batches being infected during brewing, but not true as far as barreling goes. It's possible for bugs to hide in barrels and infect the beer during the aging process which is probably what most people are fearing here. Not saying it's true though. Also, I don't know how easy or hard it is to properly clean a barrel before using it.

 

Because Barrel Aged Imp stouts have a high infection rate and they don't HAVE a track record of non-infected bottles either.

 

Correct.

There was a long debate in the Infected BA Yeti thread in the Beer Talk forum about whether brewers should be expected to keep a more or less perfect record on preventing infections, or whether the occasional infection should be excused because barrels can be a complex process. Some people are fine with gambling and are comfortable that X% of the BA beers they buy are going to be infected. Personally, I point to Goose Island's BCS program - I've never heard of an infected batch, and they have one of the largest barrel programs (if not the largest) for non-sour beers.

I'm well aware that barrel aging beers is an inexact process and that shit happens, but if you're going to charge a premium for a product that you're not experienced in producing (and let's be honest, the majority of craft brewers are pretty inexperienced in barrel aging, let alone newer/smaller ones), I would hope that you're willing to stand behind it and offer refunds if you don't deliver.

 

Totally agreed. And I think it's all about cleaning the barrels to prevent infection and small breweries don't have the equipment to do so properly. You should see the equipment Cantillon has to clean their barrels and they make sours! It looks like a torture device.