BCS variants tasting help!

We did an 09-2013 tasting with a few variants and about 4 people. It was wayyy too much and I felt each would have been better appreciated individually. I'm very glad we did it and it was a great experience, but it was overwhelming for sure.

With that said I think your order is fine. I would just go for it with some water and non salted crackers. If you want beer in-between go for a light Blond or something.

 

Serving a King Henry would be reckless after all those stouts. Send it to me and I'll hang onto it for you.

 

Toss in some of the sisters( to keep with GI theme) to help break it up and to clean your palettes. I agree with Erik though, we did 7-12 with every variant ( including multiple years of the sisters) in my tasting group and while fun, I learned I could give 2 shits about a vert anymore. Would have been better in smaller groups.

Edit: KH was the last thing we drank and I don't even remember it. So don't feel like you need to kill them all.

 

Sounds like an awesome tasting! The only thing I would possibly change is to pair up Bramble and Backyard. Only reason being that I keep hearing so many people comparing the 2 it would be nice to do given that you have both available.

Regardless, can't go wrong with all those great beers.

Cheers!

 

shitshow @tenchar

 

Did a similar but wayyy more substantial (complete horizontal and vertical BCS and variants 07-present) tasting a couple months back and what you've got going on sounds good with just a couple personal preference notes.

-I'd do rare, vanilla, prop side by side. We did this. It seemed to work really nicely. It's an easy way to evaluate and destinfuish the more subtle variants. And you're right, start off with the best on a fresh palate.

-I'd do 2009 bomber solo next. This was everyone's favorite of the regulars. Huge vanilla notes. Right in its prime. Doing it vs coffee will hide alk the nicely balanced flavors and make it seem a lit like "here's regular vs coffee"

-Bramble vs backyard for sure if you're looking for a pair. Those are the most similar, as far as evaluation goes. And it's interesting to see just how ready-to-drink backyard is vs bramble being still just a tad aggressive even after a couple years. Throw in cherry as a 3rd option if you like, or do it by itself. We personally poured all 3 together. Most people left cherry til the end (after an initial taste with the group) because it was so different. But that allowed the cherry pie filling a dconnamon to really shine. -drinking it solo, that is.

-then coffee

-then Barleywine.

Sane your KH and lead with it at the next tasting.

-get extra plastic cups. One if my buddies wanted to let all his hit room temp, and had like 17 cups. Glad he did, Vanilla and prop were hands-down winners at room temp.

-food sounds good

Skip the other "palate cleansing beers" or save them til the end. Water and pretzels cleanse the palate just fine; and you're only wasting good beers if you add any more in-between. But if you have them and people are still interested, you can break them out at the end. I just knew that by the time we even got halfway through our set some of us were regretting opening everything together. You know what they say: serve the good wine first, and when everyone's drunk break out the two buck chuck...

 

-typos courtesy of a tiny screen...

 

@zrab11 We just did an IPA tasting and unsalted saltines really did the trick. They provide a substantive but not overwhelming amount of carbs to help with the alcohol and they seem to wipe the palate better than anything else I've tried.

I wouldn't want any other beers interrupting such a godmode lineup.

 

i suggest not doing any palate cleansing beers. ive done this with a couple of the sisters and it was a mistake. the tartness from those beers make it difficult to taste anything. like people have said id go with water and crackers. another tip id say is to take it slow. its easy to get anxious and want to try the next beer but i say take it slow and also allow some time in between each beer. have fun, sounds like a good time.

 

we did 05-13 standard and all of the variants....in total it was like 45 bottles because we had multiples of everything except 05-06 and KH, between 14-16 people. Highly recommend taking your time, no palate cleansing beers, have a lot of crackers and snacks on hand, and drink plenty of water. Also would def recommend having multiple cups for people who want to save sips and see how things taste as they warm up. we had 3 bottles of Rare and it was cool to pop one at the beginning, save a few sips and open another bottle an hour later and see the differences. As long as you take your time going through these bottles, the order shouldn't matter a whole lot. I liked doing the standard vertical and the Rare together, but if you aren't doing standard BCS then I like the idea of doing Rare with Vanilla, but i might also put the 09 bomber in that group. After those I would go Prop and only prop. then do the Cherry, Bramble, and Backyard. Finish with Coffee.

I agree on saving the King Henry and BW for a separate tasting. Do an all BW tasting sometime.

Sounds like fun man!! Interested to hear how it goes!

 

I really liked doing the Cherry, Bramble, and Backyard all at the same time.

 

I'd do Rare, '09 and '13 side=by-side-by-side to start out. Then the variants. See how an aged version stacks up to rare, and then all of them vs the fresh. It also sets a good baseline for the beer. Then you can explore how adding things to that beer affects it. My 2¢

 

make sure you take a family photo afterwards.....this was ours

 

I'd agree with most everything said here, especially skipping "palate cleansing" beers. Its going to be a waste of great beer and won't have your desired affect. I'd also add that when I've done these extensive tastings, it is super duper helpful to have a recent non-variant actually throughout the entire tasting. With so much flavor your palate is going to get really desensitized. Always having that regular BCS to compare really helps you pull out the differences between the variants and regular.

 

Interesting info...looking to do a 2013 horizontal along with a few randoms from previous years pretty soon. My main question was weather or not to open with Proprietors, but based on the above, I would say yes.

 

Meh, open with the base. Compare variants from there.

 

Dont be this guy

 

This was at my tasting @zrab11. I can agree with @rxeight; don't be that guy. Nobody likes that guy. Nobody.