Bourbon County 2017

The brewpub should be required to have BCBS and BCBS Barleywine on draft 365 days a year with a different randall option each week....

 

During this time last year, before and after Black Friday they usually had bottles or on draft available, and variants as well.

 

The Wine and Cheese Place down in STL does this well for their system. Now they're much smaller so maybe it's not something that would scale up, but i believe they just track your total dollars spent on each type of alcohol.

 

Anyone want to speculate on how Northwoods will age?

 

Well some were bottled August, could probably open those right now and find out without speculating

 

Ha ha, thinking more along the lines of a year or two out.

 

Northwoods is the best of the bunch this year. Although I think Prop will come in, Northwoods will age well. If it had come in a box, everybody would want it!

 

I found it cloying. Not fooled by the box, as I think Reserve is no better than regular.

My hope is that it gets less sweet, so I'm HOPING it ages into a more balanced flavor.

 

Do you think the almond flavor will fade over time?

 

It's always interesting to see how people pick up flavors differently and how it affects their opinion/ preference. For me the Reserve was the 2nd best and I thought it was really different from the regular.

My preference for this year: Prop > Reserve > Reg > Northwoods > Barleywine >>>>>>>> Green Pepper

Regular was my favorite for '16. I love the regular.

 

With oxidation, you can never tell.

My hope: the blueberry syrup/extract sweetness fades & the almond doesn't.

Worst case: everything BUT that syrup-y sweetness fades.

 

I find for me it is about expectations. I expected to be blown away by Reserve and expected to think Northwoods sucked as I'm not a big fan of berry stouts. The final result, Northwoods>Reserve IMHO as neither met expectations. I even gave Reserve another shot last weekend, but nah, still not top two to me.

 

Its not Cthulhu, but it should make @SeanBond happy:

 

Uh yeah, I just got done texting my siblings about it. They know that I'm always unavailable (unless they're there) the moment a candy cane stout goes on tap at Clybourn!

I'm curious whether the change to BCBS vs. Cthulhu (or Impervious or whatever the hell it was last year) will be a positive one.

 

Drank one last week and immediately thought, “Good. This is not one to age.”

YMMV

 

It was awesome! A tad sweet but worth the trip. Great event plus great to donate a toy for underprivileged kids. Chill atmosphere and was still flowing after 2 pours.

 

Did it kick tonight?

 

No, I was busy with work and didn’t get there until around 9:15. I closed the place down and it had not kicked yet. It’s pretty sweet, about 1 1/2 pours is more than enough. Given the lack of good beer there right now, I had a second ($8 per full pour) and then turned to the sours. It’s a once a year thing. I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way to have it again, well until next Christmas/Toy Drive.

 

Yeah, this is how I feel about it, too. I look forward to it every year, but two pours was enough for me.

It's a fun way to celebrate the holidays, and get people into to Clybourn to donate toys.