BCBS 09 Bombers

It's unique - only time they ever bottled the regular in bombers

I remember back when it first came out... that shit was everywhere. If only I held on to a few

 

To add to what Brez07 said, general consensus seems to be that the '09 is the best drinking vintage at the moment. There are lots of reports of '07 and even some '08 starting to fall off, and the '10 is too recent (plus '10 seems to be considered the most subpar vintage of all).

So, stir in the rarity of the bomber, the mythical/unproveable concept of a larger format bottle being better for aging, and the fact that this is the best BCBS bottle you may get for at least 2 more years...

BCBS with a few years is about as good as a BA stout gets, so people probably should be going after '09 bottles right now over most of the hot release insta-whales out there today.

 

There are lots of things people should be chasing rather than the flavor of the month. Thank fucking god that they don't know any better, makes things way better for the rest of us.

 

I had an 09 Bomber around Christmas time and it was fantastic, I just traded a 4 pack of Heady for another with a friend.

 

I agree w/ you Julian. '09 was a little disappointing after hearing about how great it was. I think '12 has been great from the start.

 

I think the majority will agree that '12 was by far the best vintage when fresh. To be honest, it's the first time I've ever felt BCBS was really even worth drinking fresh... I don't think it's as good as a well-aged bottle, but it's quite tasty.

Another thing to take into consideration though is the variability of aging. Storage conditions in particular become very important when dealing with a 4 year old beer. A beer might tolerate a 70 degree closet for a year, but it probably won't for 4. And even when stored perfectly, it's never a guarantee.

 

I'm actually becoming less convinced of this. There's just so little data out there... Though you're right that there's no guarantee in anything.

 

So why aren't people trading for the '09 12oz bottles? Were the bombers in pappy -bals?

 

Pappy bombers, bro.

 

I traded an '09 12oz for a Mexican Cake (regular) straight up. Thought it was fair.

 

So a bomber would land two Mexycakes?

 

Yes it would, but for some reason I don't think FT: Mexi Cake x 2; ISO: '09 BCBS bomber would happen.

 

I really like the 12 fresh, I liked 11 fresh too, this is a big beer and aged too long IMO doesn't help it. But I like it a little rough, unruly and over the the top, just like I like my Bourbon.

 

I opened an 09 bomber a few weeks back. And while I think the flavor was very good, the lack of carbonation almost ruined the experience. I have one left and thinking it needs to be opened soon.

 

I've said this before, but will repeat it here- there is some serious batch variation with BCBS. For '12 it's easy as the dates are on the bottles. For '09 it's a bit harder, there are at least two camps, first being "OMG VANILLA NEED MOAR!!!1!" and the second being "Hmm...a bit boozy, but not bad. Middle of the pack BCBS". I've opened a bunch of '09 bombers and about 2/3rd's thankfully fall into the first camp. I'm assuming there are multiple bottlings/batches, but I guess it could just be how the bottles were stored (however, what I've seen with '12 batches contradicts this).

 

Larger formats typically age better and more evenly for both wine and beer

 

Not me, thought '11 was the best drinking out of the gate, but never had '07.

 

From my experience the 12oz bottles age just fine. How many bombers are being properly aged in the first place?

Also, beer is not wine and probably shouldn't be treated so similarly to it.

 

Do you have a source for this? I've tried in vain to find corroborating evidence for these things (even going so far as to e-mail a beer chemist to see if he knew about it) and I can't find anything. The idea that the surface area ratio makes a difference just doesn't really make sense, as that may change the rate of oxidation but it won't change the total amount, and it's been shown that not all stalling comes from elemental oxygen anyway, so that would only be a part of the aging process (how big a part would depend on a lot of things, but even if you knew the ppm O2 in your headspace I still don't think you'd be able to say how much that would affect the stalling process because there are too many other variables).