Beatification...

100% Rye/Bourbon/Brandy Papier = 150-200 each

100% BA Coton, IIRC, was 3 bottles per person per Reserve Society member in 2010, and it was RS exclusive. I believe there were between 200 and 250 RS members that year, so they probably made about 1000 bottles, assuming they held some cases behind as they tend to do.

100% BA Cuir was probably in the 4000 to 5000 bottle range. 4 bottles per RS member, 750ish RS members last year, and bottles were sold out of the brewery too.

Fruet has to be at least 10k bottles, probably closer to 15k.

 

It's crazy how much 100% BA Fruet is out there when you consider that blended Papier was less than 5,000 bottles.

 

Supposedly another batch was brewed after the bottling run.

 

Not how solera works (your percentage), its really mathy for here, but believe it or not, wikipedia does an alright job. At 10 years, less than 1% would be Papier.

 

Yes, brewed for next year, thats how solera works, you have to have beer available to replace the beer you are about to take out.

 

Thanks for explaining to me how solera works.

 

letspour.com seems to disagree with you and your fancy wikipedia
http://www.letspour.com/deals/632-2012-The-Bruery-Fruet-4th-Anniversary-Old-Ale-

 

That's hilarious, I wonder who wrote that description. It must be a joke, right?

...Right?

 

"Good Grief, hang onto somethin'! The uber-high octane of this superb ale is perfectly masked by a tsunami of flavors from the bourbon-barrel aging, the solera process (barrels exposed to direct sunshine), and just plain tons of lovely fruit infusion. This is a literal symphony in a bottle and deserves to rank right up there with the most creative ales ever brewed in the US!"

 

Yes, its a joke. Trust wikipedia and the vinegar makers that started the solera method. I like the joke, but thats a good way to spread misinformation, and I dont like that, hmmmm...

Edit: also trust the Bruery who sent out an email explaining how it works to everybody.

 

What is interesting is that there is an accurate description of the beer and the process if you scroll down.

 

it's copied almost verbatim from the bruery's description of the beer, with "we" replaced with "them":

"Fruet is our fourth anniversary ale. It is the same recipe as Papier and our other anniversary ales, and again was created using the Solera method. Each year we will continue to blend old barrels of anniversary ale with a new batch of the same beer, adding an additional layer of complexity that will grow over time as we continue to age and blend with each anniversary, creating an older average age to the ale. This year, for the first time, we are ONLY offering the 100% bourbon barrel aged version of our anniversary ale. It has taken us four years to work up our capacity enough to do this and we are extremely happy about this offering." - bruery

vs

"Fruet is their fourth anniversary ale. It is the same recipe as Papier and their other anniversary ales, and again was created using the Solera method. Each year they will continue to blend old barrels of anniversary ale with a new batch of the same beer, adding an additional layer of complexity that will grow over time as they continue to age and blend with each anniversary, creating an older average age to the ale. This year, for the first time, they are ONLY offering the 100% bourbon barrel aged version of their anniversary ale. It has taken them four years to work up their capacity enough to do this and they are extremely happy about this offering." - letspour

 

Understood, it just seems strange that if you are going to copy and paste the info from the Bruery why the need for the over the top, totally inaccurate language on the exact same page. Although perhaps the copy and paste from the Bruery's language indicates that they really are putting the minimal effort into the information portion of the website.

 

glad you emboldened "literal symphony in a bottle." i sometimes wonder if people are trying to do some sort of hyper metaphorical thing when they stress that something is "literally" something (something that it could only be figuratively, at best). is it a new, ill-advised way of writing, or a simple misunderstanding of what 'literally' means?

 

Has this hit distribution yet? I'd love to get a bottle of this.