What beers outshine their variants?

It was a real close call taste wise with Grand Teton Ivan the Terrible vs the barrel aged version but price wised, there was no competition.

 

Agree. The variants are a nice change and explores just what can be done with the right adjuncts with BCBS. Almost all of them are exceptional.

That said, at the end of the day, seems like the original remains the best.

 

Followed VERY closely by the Barleywine. On any given day, one or the other could be my favourite.

 

Mango even keel is by far the worst craft beer I have ever had.

My vote for this goes to Gulden Draak, I still can’t believe how bad 9000 is by comparison.

 

Sumatra Mountain Brown>Underground Mountain Brown.

 

I'd have to disagree, at least in the case of Vanilla and 2018 Prop. They are clearly better IMHO, unless you just don't like add-junks. I'd also add Midnight Orange when fresh, though the orange seems to be fading already.

 

I agree on the deconstructed Bomb, but wonder if anyone has recombined the four and then compared it to regular Bomb. I'm betting the sum of the parts doesn't equal the whole either.

 

Bomb!

 

I actually am not much of a fan of barrel aging either. I think it tends to dominate the flavor. I wasn’t a fan of the base Victory at Sea, though. I’m more of an old-school straight Stout guy.

 

That would be me.

 

Not really a big fan of the variants, they were good beers I’m just not sure they’re worth the premium price. The one exception for me was the Coffee when it was still in 12 oz bottles, the subtle touch of coffee imo was terrific.

 

FW Parabola. Although I’ve not tried the maple version yet.

 

Speedway

Enjoy

 

Founders Double Trouble better than Doom. Not by much though. Both are great, but I love Double Trouble.

 

Might be controversial, but Dragon's Milk.

 

M43.

 

How are the beers from Grand Teton? Just wondering since I used to know the brewer there. He worked at the local brewpub.

 

You should check out the Great Lakes Bourbon County thread. Fresh Vanilla was a drain pour for me.

 

2015 Parabajava still makes my panties wet.

 

Yoh beat me to this one. Nice try on the variants but I would rather have the regular.