Black Note 4 Packs - Chicagoland?

You're effin awesome man. I called mr A's bout 3 hours ago and he said he had 3-4 packs left with 2 pack limit. Reserved 2 of them for myself. I gotta say it is definitely worth the hype, probably even better. Freaking amazing. It's so much different than BCBS and so much better than hopslam (probably cuz I'm biased towards RIS'). So well balanced. I thought for sure I wasn't gonna score any for myself. Especially when I went to armanettis in Aurora and the guy in front of me bought the last 4 pack. Cheers!

 

Rumor has it that Black Note is only Expedition stout barrel aged for about a year, and then blended with the Double Cream Stout to taste. There's your "balance", it's a blend.

I don't know about off flavors, but Black Note has always been thin to medium bodied. A good beer for sure, but I prefer BCBS and won't be chasing any BN in the future. Same opinion on BA Blackout, HF Damon, Hunahpu, etc good enough beers, but if it's not better than something readily available (BCBS, Abraxas) then why bother seeking it out?

 

Anything I can do to help a fellow local BA! I'm glad you're enjoying it. Next time I score some hyped allocated beers i'll BM you the location. Cheers!

 

And yet another thread about awesome beer becomes a comparison to BCBS.... Completely different beers!

 

BA can't have Chicago folk feeling bad about themselves now....

 

You bought a lotto ticket on the spot, right? Lucky you.

 

So let me get this right, cuz I'm a little confused. BCBS is a Bourbon barrel aged Imperial stout. Black note is a bourbon barrel aged imperial stout. I mean i might be a little new to craft beers. but they seem to be the SAME exact type of beer to me. Yet they're different beers?

 

One clerk told me 30 cases for the whole city.

Another guy told me 35.

Somebody else said 20.

And one dude in the far northern suburbs told me there are no bottles, it's only on draft in Chicago.

I've become less interested in shelf whale hunting, and more interested in tale spinners.

 

And that's the problem. Why release a beer for distribution if you can't put an even slightly respectable amount out. Just sell it out of the General Store and be done with it. You'll never satisfy the demand, but this is fairly ridiculous. And, no, I didn't get a bottle, but it didn't matter all that much to me. I've had Black Note on tap a few times and it's a solid brew that I wouldn't turn down. Is it a brew that I would consider to be in the exceptional range? Without a doubt, absolutely not.

What is important, however, is that I successfully conquered Vav's Hopslam challenge earlier today. I didn't even have to taste it, I could tell the difference by the nose. So could a couple of others including Vav.

 

Black Note is blend of Expedition Stout (a Russian Imperial Stout) and Double Cream Stout (a lower abv. American Stout) that has been aged in bourbon barrels. However, it also has added hype and rarity that drives up the ratings and demand among those that frequent this site.

 

I've got a bottle for you if you tell me about this "Hopslam challenge".

 

like taking candy from a baby.
https://twitter.com/beeradam/status/292321590606168064

 

Vav cellared a six pack of last years Hopslam. Between 2:00 and 2:30 today he pulled it out and started pouring a side by side of this years Hopslam and last years Hopslam for anyone who stopped in the store and wanted to participate. The challenge was to identify the fresh from the aged Hopslam. A couple of us were able to distinguish last years Hopslam from the fresh Hopslam solely by the nose without even tasting it. The early results were fairly mixed, however the number of those that were successful in correctly identifying the aged Hopslam from the fresh Hopslam were growing when I left this afternoon. I don't want to threadjack here, however there were some other interesting things were noticed. Vav pointed out the head of the aged Hopslam was much more pronounced and the aged Hopslam actually had more lively carbonation (due the fact that its bottle-conditioned and the yeast has had longer to work.)

 

Both of you fellas can have a 12oz'er of the 'Note if you want. I don't do the whole Twitter thing very actively...I made mine 3 years ago when I found out "that's what you need to get tickets for Dark Lord Day".

A hat-tip and bow to chanokokoro for the lengthy explanation! Sounds neat-o.

 

The final tally was 15 were able to correctly identify the aged hopslam, 8 were not.

 

After reading this, I'm so glad I made the trip to Bell's last weekend and bought it there.

 

Taste wise, how was the aged hopslam? I've got a 6 pack somewhere in the basement that never got consumed last year...is it worth drinking?

 

Think of it as a honey pale and yes, its very drinkable.

 

exactly.
i found a couple in the fridge last year that were a year old. extra honey. bonus good.

 

But I thought that Hopslam was supposed to turn into a Barleywine after aging?