2023 Lagunitas Willettized

I picked up a 6er of this yesterday at $15, which is a pretty solid price point, IMHO. My completely amateur beer nerd palate wishes the barrel was more prominent and spicy (in the rye barrel spirit), and the mouthfeel was not quite so ….. watery. That surprised me.

It’s still very good, and I’ll enjoy the 6er, but that’s as far as it will go. I have a 2020 bottle that I’m gonna crack this coming week and do a side-by-side with a 2023 to see how they compare. Enjoy your weekend, my BA imperial stout friends.

 

I almost exclusive drink High Rye brown water and can attest to the significant lack of rye barrel presence.

Not a terrible beer, but it's not what it once was and it probably never will be.


Can anyone verify that they also used bourbon barrels?

 

Hate to say that the quality now matches the price, IMO. Ash tray, burned coffee, no barrel and a hint of stout is what I'm getting.

 

I had to make the comparison. I give the edge to Central Waters Brewing's Peruvian Morning.

 

Bourbon profile addition was probably enough to dampen the rye?

 

Been up here in humboldt County for a couple weeks now. Crazy you haven't seen it down there. Agreed in the shit distribution in CA.

Lagunitas is a Chicago based brewery owned by the Dutch these days

 

I've not seen anything definitive on Lagunitas packaging which indicates something brewed/packaged at Petaluma vs Chicago. The old date coding had a singular character for this - '1' for Petaluma and a '2' for Chicago but that code format is no longer the case these days.

For 2023 Willettized, I've only seen reference to a code like 'B3324840A1' where the 3324 corresponds to the Julian packaging date (Nov 21 2023 here). Not sure what the '840A1' bit means but in my experience, this same value has been on all recent Lagunitas bottle packaging. Not sure if anyone has seen anything different?

I might be misremembering but my recollection on past Willettized vintages under the old date coding mentioned above, it had always been a '2' for Chicago. If true, it could be all 2023 Willettized was brewed, barrel aged and packaged in Chicago. It would align with how folks in CA were having delays (or still having delays) if all the beer is coming from Chicago. Just a wild guess on my part.

 

its definitely what made this beer shit
why even call it Willettized?
why not even mention the bourbon addition?

i don't absolutely hate it now , but Sheesh!

its keeps getting worse.

still one of the bang for bucks ba stouts ever though

 

If anyone is looking for it in Central Massachusetts, Wegmans in Northborough has 3 or 4 cases displayed. $12/6 pack.

 

Right. Call it BourbRyetized. Ryebourbitized?

 

Doesn't willet make bourbon and rye?

 

they do


i just did a deep dive into Willettized and they've always used bourbin and rye barrels . Wonder why this years is lacking compared to other Years.

Maybe I'm just an idiot

 

Yeah it's weird. It almost tastes like it spent more time in drier barrels with less coffee. It wasn't uncommon for past vintages to be a little hot (before last year, where the bottles didn't hit distribution for 9 months) but this year feels much milder.

Did they respond to you about using bourbon? Is that where you got the info that it's always been both?

 

i got the info off of Untappd
Down to my last 2 from my case. 2nd one of the day.
Walking into Downtown LA after a short work day..

 

Still nothing here outside Philly. The TW site was saying January but now it only says out of stock.

I can’t find Bigfoot either.

Enjoy

 

Pro journalism.

Damn bro, I wish my wife loved me as much as you hate this years Willetized. A case lasted you 6 weeks?

 

Concerning the lack of barrel presence, in the scotch world it’s become a concern that ex-bourbon casks are generally ‘washed’ to be pretty spent by the time they end up at secondary.

Most scotch these days is barreled and matured in ex-bourbon casks. When the bourbon producers pour off the spirit, they add water to wash and pull as much bourbon remaining in the wood that they can. A lot of distillers have started using that yield to cut down their bourbon to bottling proof instead of plain Jane water. Cost-saving, higher proof for bonded or closer-to-cask strength releases etc.

By the time the scotch producer gets the ex-bourbon cask,it’s lacking in character. Your 10 year Glenmorangie of today doesn’t bare the same character it did 20 years ago. Maybe a bad example given how big a brand that is but one of the godfathers of exbourbon maturation.

Not improbable the same is true of barrel aged beer. The barrels could be ‘spent’ and a 6ish month maturation doesn’t impart the character it used to.

Or maybe it’s just poor QC, who knows!

 

less than a month.

I purchased this ( checks photos on phone) December 27th.
So just over 2 weeks.

 

Shittiest Version Ever

Proceeds to drink a case in 2 weeks

Gets criticized by some clown who has drank 3 6 packs since Jan 4th.

Fuck this brewery! The better not change the price or format next year and it better be back to form, quality wise