Other Half Brewing

Confused. $20 for 12oz is surprising, but $20 for 12.6oz isn't as bad?

$20 for a 375mL from a brewery that has no cache in (BA)-Imperial Stouts is pretty steep. You can "justify" it to yourselves however you want.

"investing in their future"
"help get them up and running"
"prices will go down in the future"

I wouldn't spend $20 on a bottle of BCBS, which is probably better than this beer, whatever it's called.

 

I'm going to blame the beer I was drinking which was OH by the way! Maybe I was thinking 750 but yes that is expensive for a 12oz or 375ml bottle. That being said I did just pay $110 for four bottles this morning so to each their own.

 

I think I saw you leaving as we were still on line outside. Said to the wife "see, we're not the only parents corrupting our baby".

 

Judging by the line down the block - they don't need your support. Move along.

 

So can anyone say with any certainty that it is sold out or if there are bottles left?

 

I was there shortly before closing, seems like there were plenty of bottles left.

 

Oh snap, do not talk bad about other half! Don't you dare!

 

care to elaborate? i'm not expecting bcbs here but just wondering if it's simply not good or not $20-good. i plan to try mine in a few days but if people think it may be better to give it some time, i would wait

 

there wasnt anything contradictory in what you said. keep drinkin

 

Ha! Not all their beers are winners. I would like to see any fellow BA'er drink an entire pint of Lembeek 86 without making a face.

I was at a beer tasting back in the Spring and the bartender said I was the only person to finish the 5 oz tasting of the Lembeek. My Untappd notes: "Wow holy funk. Stinky feet aroma with a fungus toe flavor."


As for the BA Imperial Stout - I will be drinking mine later today.

 

Sounds like there are still probably 100 bottles left. If you missed out this weekend, show up first thing thurs and you will still get some.

 

Any more peeps try their bottles yet? Interested to hear if the 'save your money' opinion is a general one. Was away this weekend and missed the new release date (at HF though, so don't cry for me). Good to know there might be some bottles left on Thursday.

 

I just popped one. Poured into a hf stem and still waiting for the 3 inch head to settle. It has a light but pleasant wine barrel smell and isn't very roasty. The mouthfeel is on the lighter side for a large stout. High carb and dry. The taste has the wine flavor carrying through nicely with some chocolate notes and a very clean and crisp finish. The flavors are all nice but very light and muted in a large stout. The $20 price tag is a little steep but, I sure the price of those barrels had something to do with that.

 

I'm excited to try - I think myself and others have grown so accustomed to bourbon barrels, and their overwhelming flavor profile, with imperial stouts, the idea of trying an impy aged in something with much more subtlety and nuance of flavors is a challenging and interesting one. If anything, from what you describe, a less viscous body might actually serve to accentuate the red wine characteristics, wherein a super-roasty russian impy would totally overwhelm the subtleties from the barrel.

All that, or I just want to have really positive expectations for the most I've ever spent per liquid ounce of beer (including Westy 12).

 

My thought is this beer will be better beer with age. It was decent but seemed like it was a little too early to release from taste and will get better with age.

 

OK seems the consensus is we need to have the last couple of pages in this thread removed, then someone needs to start another thread about how this beer blows RW cake out the water.

I don't have a bottle - just looking out for the people that do and who want to trade them.

(tongue in cheek in case it's not clear)

 

Bottles will still be available on Thursday.

 

Picked up my bottles on Sunday and will likely be opening 1 this week.

I was talking to Anthony since it was pretty chill after opening. The barrels aren't Opus One - they're simply red wine barrels. They were actually acquired before the tasting room was open since the guys wanted to snatch it up in case procuring some after construction/permits were filed was difficult. He didn't remember offhand what type of red wine it housed, but it possibly was a blend.

The wood itself is New American Oak which, if you're familiar with it's composition, imparts a very strong, piney/tangy and sometimes aggressive wood flavor on it's liquid contents. Because of that, the beer itself spent ~8 months and not a full year in those barrels to keep it from completely drying out the other wonderful components of the Impy Stout.

It carbed up super quick, which was why this was released before V-Love despite being bottled afterwards. It's meant to be more earthy and dry version of an otherwise super roasted and rich brew. Bottle count is somewhere in the area of 400-450 in addition to a few kegs which will be used for special events and rarely will be seen outside the tasting room.

Now - those Opus One barrels (about 4 or 5 I think I heard him say) are being used for a Dark Belgian Strong Ale. Yea it's a catch-all style because it doesn't fit into a tripel/quad category and I believe also because of the yeast that was used.

Hope I rehashed that correctly...and I hope I did the description justice.

 

@Hirshi - i think you might be the guy that shared that HF Florence with me in the tasting room sunday afternoon? good looking out, made my day! one more reason these weekly trips to other half aren't getting old...

 

Yezzir, that was me! Nice to meet ya man! Bringing bottles to share with OH staff and cool drinkers in the tasting room is my favorite. Gotta spread the love, yknow?