Lagunitas High West-ified returning?

Some still on shelves in nyc

 

Some kegs recently appeared in Seattle (though weren't around for long). If they follow the roll-out pattern of last year, the bottles should be just around the corner...

 

In Chicago, kegs have been appearing steadily for about the last six weeks, so I assumed it would be coming soon.

I spoke with the Petaluma and Chicago breweries both, who reported High-Westified would be released in bottles in December of this year.

Longer off than I thought, but at least we have a relative release date.

 

I just had a 2015 bottle last night. It's aging really really well. The coffee has unsurprisingly faded, but what's left is a super-balanced bourbon aged stout. I'm looking forward to doing a fresh/aged vertical

 

Can't wait to see this in my area!

 

Gotta agree. I still get some coffee but more importantly I DONT get awkward coffee transitional flavors like I do out of year old KBS and a few others. Which is a huge relief since I am still sitting on cases of these bad boys.

I also heard about 12oz bottles from employees in Petaluma but im talking bartenders, waiters etc... great people but obviously they aren't back there on the bottling line so take it with a grain of salt I guess. I would flip out over 12 oz bottles for sure. One of the reasons I have so much of this left is a bomber is just a touch more than I want to solo of this beer if it's a worknight. Would buy mountains in 12oz format if I could get it.

 

Looking forward to the return. There's a spot I know that had this on shelves until a few months ago, from the previous release. Kept going back and buying them 2-3 at a time. I'm not sure I agree with the assessment that the coffee fading never went through an awkward phase - I think it definitely diminished the beer to some extent (to my palate of course), but it was still pretty enjoyable.

Also - big fan of High West, y'all should buy some of them bottles too!

 

That's interesting! Curious what flavors you found that were unpleasant? Maybe I shouldn't ask, lest I start noticing them myself...

I have no super palate, that's for certain... but what I meant was that I find something like KBS (in my admittedly limited experience) to have a phase of heavy green pepper flavors at about a year out and takes another 1-2 years beyond that before that falls of the map. Had a similar but less pronounced experience/timeline with BCBCS. I didn't get the dreaded green pepper with HW.

I really only drank HW fresh and then again cracked a few bottles last month so my only data points are fresh and one year later.

 

Get some of these. Works great on bombers: http://www.amazon.com/Rabbit-Beverage-Bottle-Stoppers-Assorted/dp/B005N0WCE4

 

Not really sure I can pinpoint it from memory, I would say that it just had a semi-stale kind of taste; I'm a big time coffee/espresso lover and dug the intense coffee flavor this beer had fresh and over the next 6 months or so before it started to fade out. Nothing unpleasant at all, just not as nice as it was at first. Would still purchase and enjoy a year old bottle if I came across it!

 

I agree, these work pretty well for overnight (and maybe even 2 days if carbonation isn't an issue).

The only issue I've had is seeing a bottle in the fridge in the morning and thinking 'Well, its already open, might as well...'

 

Yeah.. have a few and then certainly use them but I gotta admit... having a newborn in the house has transitioned me out of daily drinking so its more like 2 or 3 days in between beers at the moment and when I do get to have one I often prerer something different to what I had a few days earlier. I dont even want to admit some of the beers I gave up on and poured out a week later due to my low intake and desire for variety...

....and, back on topic, a slightly more reliable source from Lagunitas is telling me 2-3 months from now. Doesn't seem like a perfect summer release but ill take it!

 

Looking forward to grabbing some more of this. Great beer!

 

Hope not it was not very good IMO, the price was outstanding for the style and description was outstanding the bomber was a complete let down.

 

I got some good info the other day when talking with some of the staff at Lagunitas Chicago. While sitting at the bar inside the tasting room a few of the employees all stated that in their staff meeting High-West-ified was discussed and should be coming out in 6 packs this year. They said the release time also should be around Thanksgiving time this year.

You could also see all of the whiskey barrels sitting in the brewery, which they pointed out to me. So it looks like the bad boys are aging and looking to come at the beginning of stout season this year.

 

This is specifically what three different people said between tap-room, tasting room, and schwag shop. Although the guy in the schwag shop said 4 packs, but a 4 pack is definitely not very Lagunitas like. They were all pretty cool and excited about talking about it as well.

 

Good....something else to chase instead of BCBS that time of year!