2010 Bourbon County Coffee

I recently had them side by side.....the 2010 BCBCS just tastes like a regular BCBS. Which still means its an amazing beer

 

In my experience, the coffee just becomes stale... then bitter... then it pretty much vanishes completely. Sounds like raymo55 had it at that final stage. I'm guessing your 2010 is right about at that point now. Let us know!

 

Yea, I'd have to agree: It's hard to separate the two at this point IMO.

 

Like hoppy beers, coffee beers are not meant to be aged.

 

Amen brother.

 

But BCBCS isn't exactly a coffee beer, a lot more going on than a simple coffee stout. From what I understand the coffee is added at bottling. Also from what I've been told it was the 2008 version but aged twice as long (18 months) than normal BCS, which is aged for 9 months. I agree with raymo55 that it still tastes amazing, just not as amazing as it did fresh

 

Look at it this way...

BCBS Coffee can be aged just fine and still tastes fantastic. But in the process of aging it you completely lose out on what makes it unique. Net-net, if you're going to age a bomber of BCBS Coffee, just trade it for 3 bottles of regular BCBS and age those. You get more beer to age, and your trading partner gets something more rare to drink right away - it's a win-win.

That said, I kept one to see what happens to it out of pure curiosity. In retrospect I should have just drank it, because when fresh I think it is probably Goose Island's best beer. But at this point I'll probably just give it 4-5 years...

 

Had one a couple months ago and thought it was amazing. Still tasted coffee compared to BCBS, but probably not as much as I would've 2 years ago. I was sad when the bottle was gone b/c I knew then I'd never have it again.

 

Here's where I wish I had another bottle as I only have one, and don't really feel like hunting down an expendable semi-whale to trade for another. I was lucky enough to grab this one fairly easily and inexpensively, and I don't know when to crack it dammit.

 

Uhhh, I think you may have got some misinformation. As far as I know, its normal BCBS with coffee added at bottling. So it doesn't have any additional aging. Its definitely still a great beer, but its not anywhere as good as it was fresh. It surely isn't BCBCS anymore. Its BCBS with some bitter coffee ground notes, and minor espresso acidity. Its definitely something that is subdued and hard to pick up on now.

Sure, you can argue that because its still good that coffee beers are cool to age. However, by aging it you took it from an AMAZING beer to a great beer.

 

I opened a bottle in the last month or two, and thought there was still plenty of coffee flavor and that it was drinking pretty nicely.

 

Axe: a bottle of 2010?

I have a few bottles of 2011, and am on the fence about aging them. Thinking about trying one per year and taking notes.

 

Sorry, yeah, from the first batch released.

 

I have one of the originals too Bill. I had it fresh and actually found the coffee to be a little subdued even then. Maybe I expected a bigger coffee flavor but it really just came at me in the aftertaste. I'm not too heart broken about having an aged one since I tried a fresh one, plus I really love BCBS, so if that's what I have now, I'm still very happy.

 

Opened a regular 2009, Coffee 2010, and Vanilla 2010 about 2-3 weeks ago and they were definately all distinct, different beers. The Vanilla had tons of vanilla flavours left, and the coffee still had a coffee kick, moreso on the end. I agree that fresh it was probably more of a blast of coffee than it is now. However, the coffee is hardly completely gone or anything.

 

I agree - I had an 750ml of peche mortel recently that must be 7 years old or so. It was from the first bottling and it still had a huge coffee presence. So coffee does not completely fade. Boubon county coffee just didnt have a huge coffee presence to start with. It was subtle which many seem to appreciate.

 

In my opinion the fading of the coffee from the original bottling is a little overblown. I don't think it's "turned into" the original at all.