Refunds for 2015 Regular BCBS and 2015 Prop

Yes, you missed something. There are reports all over the interwebz.

And I am the furthest thing from a GI piler onner (it's a word, look it up) there could possibly be. I give zero fucks who owns the brewery or how big they are as long as they make good beer, which before 2015 they always had. But I care a great deal about a company with a recent history of massive infection issues not taking complaints of additional infection issues seriously.

 

10/21/2015 16:40 bottling - flat (quickly dissapating head, really never accumulated), slightly sour, and very little barrel taste.
Opened two, both with the same result. Have the other 10 in the case still. Case was purchased at Total Wine South Sarasota.
Stored in a dark walk-in closet in the original unopened case. Walk-in has an AC vent, and house is kept at 70-72 degrees constantly.

NOTE: This temperature, while not ideal "cellar" temperature, should not advance a beer's taste rapidly enough to account for what even 5 years of "cellar" conditions would. And if you believe it did, explain why I can go buy any other year old stout off the shelves (at a lesser ABV to boot) and not have a similar experience.

But I digress... I had this at Rare Day, on draft Black Friday locally, and out of the bottle the day after Black Friday. All of those experiences were similar and excellent. Rich chocolate notes, prominent boozy barrel flavors, and short light-to-medium-brown head (with decent retention).

These bottles most certainly are no where near the same experience I just described. Call it infection, call it "inconsistent flavor profile", call it whatever, but there are bottles out there that are off. Could be isolated to a bottling run... who knows.

Not refund seeking either. Just raising awareness, and reassessing my Black Friday mania this year.

Oh yeah... about Florida going hard in the paint. Anyone... not just the poster who said this, that would not advocate for themselves in this situation does not have my respect. It may not change what the brewery does about this, but it doesn't mean we can't voice our complaints.

 

Forever unclean!

 

I don't believe it is in the spirit of the site to leave negative reviews solely because you believe a beer to be infected.

It's punitive behavior...you are trying to punish the brewer for something that may have happened to this batch.

Also, the review would be reflective of the entire product line (not just this release/vintage). So you're not warning others about this batch, you're just trying to scare people off forever.

More than likely, you've enjoyed this beer in the past...which is why so many people in this thread stocked up with multiples/cases. One bad experience, and you're going to try and give a black eye for all releases?

As others have pointed out, it didn't taste this way at the brewery, potentially developed these off flavors over time, and may illustrating the inherent risk with a barrel aging program.

 

Your Avatar picture is a real gem!

 

As I promised yesterday, and again earlier today, I cracked my only bottle from this year AND...

It is perfect...no problem whatsoever...specifics...19SEPT15 0932 13.7% ALC. It has been stored in the fridge since purchased (Nov) at 33 degrees.

Complete with picture on WBAYDN.

 

I'm not saying you're wrong, I've just never seen anything outside of this thread (and can't find anything now), or heard anything from anyone at all about infection issues in regular BCBS in the 7 months since it was released. And I'm on BA at the office, so you can rest assured that I'm definitely working harder at researching that than actually doing work.

 

On the storage issue, I am enjoying 2013 BCBS and 2013 Expedition, both of which have been stored in the corner of a closet at room temperature, (68-75), since I bought them at their releases. Both are foot stomping great. Sure, 55 degrees would have been better. If it is said that I ruined this 2015 BCBS by doing the same thing, so be it. I don't know what to expect, but if the beer doesn't live up to my expectations, I'll find some that do.

 

My point was that a quick sample size calculation should not determine the choice to ignore or pursue these claims. Why do I need to provide a sample? Or was that just a personal remark?

So logical assumption = conclusion of non-issue?

A logical assumption could also be drawn that an infection is starting to develop in the 10/21 bottles sent to Florida based on limited reports. Given the infection of BW, Coffee, and maybe even Prop; regular may be as well. Assumption does not equal conclusion, but I would think that it should be monitored and not completely dismissed. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

I'm a kitten in wolf's clothing

 

Agree. It does seem to be a new issue, and very localized (at least so far), so I'm not surprised by their initial reaction. If this turns out to be a widespread issue, I'm sure they'll address it. We don't know how many people have complained to them, but it may be in the 10's at this point. Given the quantity distributed, I'd be skeptical if I was them too.

What will be interesting is to see how they react if this turns out to be a wider issue than it appears to be right now. It's strange that it seems to be primarily Florida. It would make sense if it were all 10/20 bottles or something. I know I'm going to go home and look at the date of mine. I have 5 bottles (4 from a pack and 1 from a vertical). I didn't even drink any fresh because I had it at several places when it came out and again drinking someone else's vertical over the holiday.

 

You pointed out the flaw in my argument, I pointed out that using the best data we have (what's here) it's reasonable to conclude there isn't a significant problem. Because you've failed to offer a better way for me to quantify my risk of continuing to cellar BCBS, I assume you don't have one.

As I thought about it more, it's probably safe to assume that BA's represent an outsized share of the population who bought BCBS bottles, so we should be seeing a higher number of complaints than in the rest of the BCBS buying population. So far, the only(?) complaints we've seen was from a very small geographical part of the market 200+ days after they've purchased it.

My point is simply that I'm not concerned and based on what I know now, there is no significant reason for anybody else to be. But we're seeing people concerned and popping open bottles (or saying they are) in fear they have some tainted product, which they (based on current available data) probably don't.

 

Good point on the wine analogy. I also feel it's reasonable that GI didn't release a beer knowing it would develop off flavors. However, how they react to the infection, if indeed there is one, will affect peoples' opinion of the company and therefore be a determining factor of whether they give the beer a bad review or not. And of course it would be kind of silly for a brewery to cellar their ageable bottled beer for 6-12 months before releasing...however, again, they do it with wine, so who knows? Maybe we'll start seeing breweries adopt that practice in the future. Seems like Cascade already does something like that since I rarely see "fresh" bottles.

 

That's an interesting idea. Goose could also say, "drink fresh" like they did with Prop '13.

 

It's mind boggling that some people here think:

1. FL people are making this up
2. That storage creates infection
3. That a beer can go from fine to infected and then back to fine
4. That it's impossible that bottles filled on a certain date and sent to a certain geographic area could have infection issues when other bottling dates do not.

 

Who said storage creates infection? It can speed it up but if a beer is infected, it will always end up infected.
If anything I think people are pointing out storage conditions as an additional point of information and not as a cause.

edit: I trust the people in here reporting the bad experiences.

 

I was never trying to tell you what to do with your BCBS. But since you're asking, maybe you should open one if it came from Florida and has a 10/21 date. (Both of those were mentioned in my other posts)

I agree with your point and am not worried either. I guess I misinterpreted your post as supplying data to say OP (and a few others here) is full of shit instead as opposed to tell people not to empty their cellar out of fear. I'm hoping he was just unlucky, but would not be surprised if this issue grew given the recent events with the variants.

 

Storage shouldn't even matter. If being in a warm climate accelerated the infection, then they're really doing us favors.... Are they not?

 

If the infected beers are simply bad/skunked then the storage would matter. If they're actually infected (from GI) then you're right, storage should be irrelevant.

 

I drank one two days ago and it was better than ever!! With that being said my brother called me last night and said he had bad news. Infected. Huge head, big bubbles, off metallic sour notes. I truly hoped it was all lies but can't deny facts. This is coming from a guy who bought 3 cases!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sad part is GI already gave me a refund for coffee and barleywine.