Aging potential of Black Tuesday?

I never knew it was pleasant to begin with. J/K, not really.

I have a few aging myself but I'll probably end up drinking them sooner than later. I can't imagine the sweetness will go away, it may even get worse. I suppose the alcohol may die down and it won't taste so "hot" but it's so hot to begin with I don't think it will improve that much.

Something else to keep in mind, the first year for BT was '09 which was quite different from all the other vintages (taste and recipe wise) so from '10 on is really all there is to compare with current releases.

Not much help but hopefully someone will chime in who has done a recent vert.

 

The '09 uses something like 17 different malts and everyone I've talked to says its pretty phenomenal and doesn't taste anything like any of the other BT's. I finally just landed a bottle. It used to be one of my long time "big" wants but I gave up on it because 1) its kinda hard to get (not sure about bottle numbers but I believe its significantly less than now) and 2) I was worried about oxidization.

I'll probably open it sooner than later and will pm you if your curious or if you ever make it to Dallas I'll open it with you.

 

As to the bottle count, 2009 was 1600 bottles. Concerning the recipe change, most people determined a long time ago that the "20 different malts" or whatever was pretty well blown out of proportion in terms of how it affected the flavor versus subsequent vintages. I would characterize it as a nuanced difference as opposed to not tasting anything like later vintages.

 

I've only ever had the 2009. I just checked my review to refresh my memory, since I remembered thinking it was good but also being slightly underwhelmed since at the time it was a VERY hyped beer. My major complaint with it was that it had a slight metallic aftertaste which I thought might be the alcohol.

In a lot of high ABV beers, they really are somewhat of a mess when fresh and need time in the bottle to mature. At the time I said I thought it would probably drink better in 2 or 3 years. I really am not sure if I think it would be a good candidate for aging decades. I do not think it would be bad with extended aging. I wouldn't hesitate to drink a bottle that was 10 or 20 years old. But I'm not positive that would improve it.

 

I have every vintage and to me so far the age has not hurt any of them. Surprisingly, when I had the 2011 vintage a few months ago I found the sweetness had subsided and the roast malts came through quite a bit more in the taste. For my tastes that was the sweetest of all the vintages fresh and I had fears that the sweetness would increase rather than subside. Being that the oldest vintage is only 5 years old at this point it remains to be seen if it could go for decades but so far so good. I should add that my bottles are really kept at 55F in the dark so I couldn't guess at what less than optimum cellaring will do.

 

No one really knows how this will hold up over decades because there's no bottles that old to sample, yet. I think it has long term potential but I wont know for sure until I drink one 10 years down the road, I'll keep you informed

 

The ABV is different each year. Here is the link to check it out:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16866/51257/

 

I've got BT '12 and BT '13, CR '12 and GM '12 sitting in the back of a 42 degree fridge and my thought is to drink all of them over the holidays this year so I don't 'lose' any flavor.

BA research indicates others have had mostly positive experiences letting these bottles sit, but I don't want to miss out.

Thoughts?

 

The BTs will be fantastic (I just had a 12 the other day). The CR and GM will be just as good, but the adjuncts will probably have faded significantly by now. I've never had a Chocolate Rain with more than a year on it, so I'd be interested to see how a nearly 3 year old one is doing, particularly in the vanilla bean aspect. The original release of Grey Monday ('12) was very light on hazelnut even when fresh, so I imagine it probably just tastes like BT at this point (though the wax probably still smells great).

 

I'm planning to do a vertical in like 5 or 6 years... maybe longer.

Expecting the flavors to hold up, with the booze to mellow out.

 

Plan on doing a 2010-2014 tasting in December. Hope the waiting will bee worth it

 

Opened the '12 Chocolate Rain tonight and the vanilla has fallen off almost completely. The wife insists there is a subtle vanilla extract flavor but neither of us get vanilla bean.

It's incredibly smooth for the ABV and the chocolate has melded into the base beer without much distinction but it's certainly present.

Overall I think the adjuncts are best enjoyed fresh but the nearly three years on this beer has created a smooth and complex profile that drinks remarkably well for 19.5%.

 

Opened a '12 Grey Monday over the weekend and it was a big disappointment. Unlike the '12 Chocolate Rain I talk about above this was a boozy, syrupy, sweet mess with no hazelnut at all except for the grey wax which smelled amazing and was the best thing about this beer.

This was nothing like the '14 Grey Monday I had on on draft a few months ago and was the worst Black Tuesday variant/vintage I've ever had.

Three of us did eventually finish it but one guy was shooting his towards the end.

Should have drank this one a long time ago.

 

Well, I just got to try a '10, '12, and '14 Black Tuesday recently. The heat on the '10 had mellowed a lot and it was very sweet. It was almost a coke syrup sweetness, or a very sweet dark fruits. Some people mentioned it had a bit of soy or umami taste, but I really just tasted the sweetness. The '12 was my favorite of the bunch. It was a bit sweeter than the '14, but still had just the right amount of bourbon and heat left to balance it out. Most of us there agreed, after tasting all of them, that the '10 was a bit too sweet for our tastes. I think 2-3 years is probably the best, unless you like really, really sweet beers.

 

had 2012 BT at the Extreme Beer Fest, tasted great. Convinced me to age my current 2014 bottles for 2 - 2.5 years.

 

Good to know. I was thinking about looking into acquiring a 2012 GM through trade. Will probably pass now.