Barrel aged Old Rasputin XIV infection?

I've had 3 separate bottles over the last 4 months, and I'm going to completely disagree. It's been good every time I've opened one.

And a lacto infection will show vinegary, sour, acidic, etc.

 

I had this for the first time recently, as part of a tasting, and definitely picked up a hint of sourness. I want to the mini-vert I have ASAP, just in case it's an actual infection, and not an off bottle, off palate, or something else.

 

Well guess I should open my bottle tonight then.

Cheers!

 

I had a bottle back in January and had an experience similar to what the OP described. I enjoyed the previous years release very much.

 

I've had one recently and was pleased! This beer IS highly carbonated for a barrel aged stout. Perhaps the combination of high carbonation and roastiness could be to blame for the hint of sourness!

 

Had one about 3 weeks ago and it was phenomanol! Have one more. Maybe I'll open it for the tasting. Thanks for the heads up.

 

I've had this a few times since it was released and not once did I taste an infection. Could be a trace infection from the barrels that only appears after a long time or under certain storage conditions.

My advice? Keep it in the fridge if you're worried about it. It really doesn't need to be aged any more than it already has been.

 

this is my guess. i'm very skeptical of any infection. also, the taste descriptors in the OP don't sound like lacto (or brett, or anything else) infection. the beer is highly (if not over-) carbonated, just like BA old stock, and some of the bourbon and malt flavors might be perceived as "lightly sour".

the "nut" would just be roasted malt, the "cardboard" is oxidation (nothing to do with infection), and the toast would just be malt i think... unless you mean like buttered toast, which would just be weird (a barrel aged beer isn't going to be "infected" with something that produces perceptible amounts of butter-tasting compounds).

 

Is XIV much different than XII?(I haven't had XIV).

I thought XII was best about six months ago. In my opinion, age REALLY helped it.

 

XIV is hot, and it has strong barrel-aged flavors, and sitting on it will mellow everything out. But it will also mellow the flavor of the beer out (as most people well know). If that's what you prefer, that's cool, but it's not worth risking development of the infection to those worried about it (if there is, in fact, any risk of infection).

I don't know if there's any difference between the two, but the XIV I had was awesome (the few times I tried it.)

 

I've opened three bottles and all of them have been fine. I have one left.

 

I was there with the OP for this opening, this was my third of this release(I also had 2 from the previous release) and this was the first strange one I have had. I have some previous experience differentiating infected/non infected early on (was one of the first if not the first to check on 09 Abyss here on BA ) and there was definitely something off here. While definitely not a Brett infection and honestly if it was Lacto it was early stages which makes little sense considering the aging, it had a distinct acidic change to the flavor. I think the bourbon flavor played off the taste as I was still able to pick up the bourbon but it was modified with a more sour note from what I knew it should be. The carbonation was still definitely there along with the flavors of the base stout, but the addition of a nuttiness was also there which I do not remember being in the previous bottles. We will see how things develop in the coming months, I know this beer was kept upright at around 56 degrees so maybe as others in the same temp conditions start popping we might be able to determine if this was an effect of infection or something else. It may have just been heat exposure post bottling or something else.

 

do you happen to know where the bottle was originally purchased from or the distributor?

 

it's possible the acidic character you mention is the carbonic acid... XIV is a very highly carbonated brew.
we just opened another one a few weeks ago and it tasted fine.

 

northern or southern cali?

 

Would have been Northern CA, this would be the oldest of the set of 3, the other two again were fine but had a lot less age on them.

 

Had both bottles. I think that the Raspy anniversary beers taste much better fresh. Had the XII with a year on it. While it was tasty, it got kind of bland and it had lost alot of carbonation compared to a fresh bottle. The XIV I drank fresh was wonderful. I have one more bottle that I am wanted to try soon. Will report with more info when XIV is revisited. My preference at this point is Old Raspy Anniversary is a drink fresh BA stout.

 

i'm still cracking one of these occasionally, i haven't noticed much if any carbonation loss? i would guess if you saw a significant drop in carb, that could be an indication a decent amount of air exchange took place, which, if so, "bland" does not sound that surprising.

not to steer too far off the range & maybe it's just me, but personally, it seems like the number of complaints of this nature & the OP often show a relation to the amount of miles traveled & number of hands a beer has changed to it's final destination. it seems like more complaints about west coast beers come from folks east of the Rockies & visa-versa. i know some of that is regional "haterism" but there does seem to be a correlation in what i believe are legit complaints.