Bourbon County 2018

It's not even close to any of the others, at least on draft. The least balanced BCS I've ever had. May age well, and someone posted that the pour from a bottle was much better than the draft version they had.People were saying it tasted like vanilla rye when it first came out, I've only had vanilla rye this year and it is excellent.

I've yet to have Reserve (which will hopefully be #1 or 2) or regular.

My current full pour BCS rankings:

Prop 4.50 4.50 4.75 4.75 4.75
Bramble 4.50 4.50 4.75 4.50 4.50
Coffee 4.50 4.25 4.75 4.25 4.50
Wheatwine 4.25 4.00 4.75 4.25 4.50
Orange 4.25 4.00 4.25 4.25 4.25
Vanilla 4.50 3.75 3.00 4.00 3.75

 

Here are my thoughts:

Vanilla>Prop>Bramble>Reserve>Reg>Wheatwine>Orange

-Orange sucks badly. Literally the worst BCBS variant ever. Tastes like an orange jolly rancher.

-Vanilla is fantastic. I don’t understand how anyone could say it’s the worst in the lineup this year. It’s a vanilla bomb, which I dig, but it doesn’t taste like imitation extract...very natural vanilla.

-Prop smells/tastes like a Hershey’s bar.

-Wheatwine is grossly overrated on these pages for my palate. After several FT/ISO posts, I finally was able to pre-trade my allotment for more Reg 4:4.

-Bramble is a little over the top. A bit like Jam the Radar with the fruit forwardness of it. I liked it though.

-Reserve is just a little better than Reg. Not worth chasing IMO.

-Reg is a bit down this year, like others have said. But the difference is marginal.

 

Bourbon County is the only family I have left...

 

Soooo... from what I gather: Vanilla sucks balls and is best variant ever. Midnight orange also sucks balls and is best variant ever. Bramble is as good as it's going to get and it will get better with time. Reserve is both a huge improvement over regular and same as regular. Wheatwhine coffee is the hidden gem and an abomination. Prop is chocolate dominant. Regular is both high quality as every year and worst it's ever been. Got it.

 

At this rate 1000 will be by 2am

 

Seems like a lot of people’s rankings have to do with how much they like/don’t like very sweet stouts. Vanilla, Prop, Bramble are all sugar bombs right now while Original, Reserve, wheatwhine are more balanced out of the gate. As others have mentioned, there’s something for everyone this year.

 

Thanks for correcting my post. I will talk to the distributor who told me. I reviewed Illinois state law, and the one passage on retail licensee clubs was listed as repealed.

I also came up with this link listing the states membership is not required (Indiana being the closest):

https://chicagoonthecheap.com/things-you-can-do-at-costco-without-a-membership/

This article also stated you can purchase anything with a Costco Cash Card, the store will issue a 1 day pass. Is this pass also honored in the alcohol section?

 

You've cracked the code. You will now take over Josh Noel's career.

 

I said to some friends the other night that you probably needed to be in line at 3am this year, maybe even 2am to be safe. I won't be proud if this prediction comes true.

 

Sounds about right for the season. Happy Thanksgiving

 

You may not be proud, but you will be correct. My prediction is that moving the start of sale time to 7 A.M. is going to do nothing but get people to line up even earlier in order to ensure full allotment.

 

Yeah the 2018 vanilla is nothing like VR when it first came out

 

Gotta be near the front of the pack bro so you can bounce to a 9am release with your full allotment in tow!

 

I will drink all the variants in the shower tonight and post my results on WBAYDN. Regular was covered last night. Carry on...

 

Of the 2154 replies to this thread, this reply might be the strangest

 

Dibs on your vanilla.

 

You saying you don't drink beers in the shower? If so you are missing out on one of the joys of life.

 

I know one man who is known around these parts who can fix this...

 

Let's get weird!

@Quilentro

Staying on topic, I'm gladly going to Goose tomorrow for the tasting and will not be chasing bottles this year. For those that will be running around, good luck...unless you're a flipper. For them, I hope you get stuck...drinking it?

 

Would you want to spend time with these people?

They’re doing their families a favor.