Barrel Aged Old Rasputin

I know Eclipse is distributed, I was just making the case that Eclipse sells at roughly the same price point as BA Rasputin, but Eclipse sells out quickly, while BA Rasputin collects dust. Supply/demand is quite different at the same price.

I think you're giving Arbitrator shit for the same reason you and many of us go anonymous . . . you're both opinionated, tend to rate beers lower than the average BA, and would rather spend your time drinking beers and having other social interactions as opposed to getting shit from fanboys/brewers about what you post on the internet.

 

ah, gotcha. i've read about several stores where last year's eclipses are still on shelves, and prices have gone up this year, so i doubt they'll sell any faster. it's all anecdotal, but i suspect that, on average, many ba's find both lines to be equally 'overpriced.'

i don't rate beers, but otherwise spot on: yes, i'm opinionated, and i like to stir the pot, and i like to remain anonymous for that reason. i've found you can't really challenge people if you're too forward with your identity - probably why there was such a years-long frenzy to "figure out who levitation is," hoping it would get me to be stop being so brash.

 

You know, I dropped well over 20 bucks on a 500ml (again) and I think I have finally learned my lesson once and for all. BA Rasputin is a very solid beer, that regrettably is not nearly solid enough to charge its exorbitant price tag. Its simply not worth it...

 

I would rather buy any other BA imperial stout when i compare the price.

 

A years-long frenzy? Sounds pretty epic.

 

That and maybe a bit of inflated sense of self? Its the internet homies, pretty easy to be brash. Identifying yourself with a name and face and then saying your thang? Maybe a tad brash, otherwise, meh.

 

I was being unclear, but if you really want to get into it....

The gravity of BCBS (15%) is higher than BA Old Rasputin (12%), suggesting a much higher ingredient cost or fermentation time (correct me if I'm wrong). Chicago is also, on a square-foot basis, more expensive than Fort Bragg, so the space devoted to barrel-aging costs more for GI than for North Coast.

In other words, flavor being equal, BCBS should cost MORE than Old Rasputin XV, but it's the opposite -- by quite a large margin. Factor in flavor (I think my score for past vintages of BCBS was lower, but I thought the '11 and '12 are phenomenal, while BA Old Rasputin has never been that great), and the gap becomes even wider.

So no, I am not tacitly endorsing BA Old Rasputin at all, and I left flavor out as an unnecessary variable.

Again, I'm leaving Eclipse out of this; it's caused some BA drama and I'm tired of it.

One of the directors at my company connected me to my screen name; I take my career very seriously, so that wasn't a good day for me. And like you said, I don't enjoy having people come up to me and complain about x review or y post... Fuck off, that's annoying.

Sadly, my tasting group is a bunch of chatty cathies; nickd717 and westcoastbeerlvr have been obsessed with Levitation since early 2010, possibly 2009. Our tastings would pretty much be:

- Drink a beer
- Say what scores we'll give it
- I comment that largadeer overgrades; largadeer comments that I'm a godless lowgrader
- Insults are exchanged
- Drink another beer
- Discuss Levitation
- westcoastbeerlvr suggests we go to Toronado
- Everyone laughs, drinks more beer
- westcoastbeerlvr suggests we drive to Alpine
- Everyone laughs, drinks more beer
.
.
.
- A handful of us wind up at Toronado

 

^Awesome post.

 

Garrett Oliver has said that Black OPS is not simply barrel aged Black Chocolate Stout. Apparently the base beers are different.I agree that Black OPS is over priced at $25.00/750ml, though.

 

Black Op's is not just aged in Burbon barrels(Woolford Reserve btw).After it is aged it's refermented in the bottle with Champage yeast. It's my favorite BBAB but expensive. I was lucky and got 3 bottles for $17.99 this year, a good price. I saw it for$24.99 and passed on it at another store.

 

re: BA old rasputin,

you can get a lot of equal or better stuff for the price nowadays, but i love it. love BA old stock even more.

many many beers (almost all homebrew) is refermented in the bottle (ie carbonated via bottle conditioning).

as for champagne yeast, it sounds fancy, but it's just a clean fermenting yeast that works for high gravity beer. absolutely does not improve the taste or anything like that.

 

Saw a few bottles when I stopped by the Total Wine in Tampa. I think it was $29.99 or something like that, and well, I figured out it wasn't a 750ml and simply just couldn't justify it. Went with a couple bottles of Oak Aged Yeti and a 4-banger of DFH Burton Baton instead. Very pleased with them.

 

Garrett Oliver has commented (possibly on the old BA forums) that Black OPS was a completely different beer from BCS. Different mash bill, etc...

I'm aware it's finished with champagne yeast, but I don't think that's all that sets it apart. Either way, $25.00 is too much for a bottle. $18-20 is the top of the market for that beer IMO.

 

my problem with black OPS, ironically, is that it comes across as overcarbed... probably from the champagne yeast. great flavor though. brooklyn is great in general.

 

me??? egotistical???????????????

but... that's what i said: "i've found you can't really challenge people if you're too forward with your identity."

so ya, it's easy to be brash because i'm anonymous. look how many people, when they believed i was a woman, immediately started attacking that. i've received numerous physical threats and a couple of death threats on ba.

now, i internet pretty hard and don't afraid of anything, but some people are a little crazy. and there are two immutable rules about crazy: 1) you don't stick your dick in it, and 2) you don't tell it where you live. i don't take beer seriously enough to be a hero.

you think i could have called out half the people i have if they knew which events i was attending and what i looked like? even markintihar, who is nice as all hell, got threatened.

they're not the only ones....

 

BCS>Black Ops by a long shot IMO, particularly when BCS is aged.

 

I can't justify spending $19.99 on a bottle especially since I just spent a fair amount on BCBS. And since I'm also fairly new to the craft beer scene I figure it won't hurt to take my time anyways. But it does sound delicious.

 

If your new to this than get ready to see 20$ price tags pretty often for more rare beers. Not to say that there isnt world class beer for a good price.

 

I paid 27$ each for my couple of bottles of this one. 12th Anniversary was way better.

 

I feel like I have a good idea of what stuff costs...like I said I bought a few 4 packs of BCBS and cash isn't endless so it's kind of pick and choose...my local store probably had 20 bottles so maybe if it hangs around for a few weeks I'll pick a bottle up!