Firestone Walker XVIII

Just says "November" from what I've seen (though I'm sure someone else has more info). Will hope to just grab at Firestone when I head up there in a couple weeks.

 

Once it starts dropping, from past years experience at least, it sits on the shelves of most Bevmo due to the price of admission compared to the other big barrel beers from them.

 

^
He's right, I still see XVII around at some local shops.

 

so in other words it's "meh" due to price but for those who decide to purchase it's rather a "holy shit" self discovery?

 

I feel like some of the components alone ate better than the blend. Never understood the hard on for the anni beers at 24$ a pop. Abacus and parabola are prefect as is for me.

 

Love their anniversary brews. People are going gaga for BA Narwhal and that's $18.99 at total wine, which is the same price.

 

For me, I'm in the boat that I buy the hell out of Parabola and Sucaba (and the other perpetrators series stuff), but I seldom ever pick up an anniversary bottle because of the price tag.

And I agree, the sum of the pieces is far greater than the whole. I can't wait till a lot of the components are on tap at Barrelworks cause I'd rather get a pour of that then have it in a blend.

 

I mostly agree with this. The only exception I can think of is when I had XV that was nearly 2 years old. It was one of the best beers I've ever had. Way better than it was fresh. I think some of these anny blends are worth the price tag with the intent to age them.

 

I do a vertical every year and it is awesome last year did back 6 years and they hold up and age really well
Can't wait to do a vertical this year although will not be going quite so far back
totally worth the price of admission on these bottles

 

I believe locations are expecting them to arrive next week, but that won't stop me from checking in this week.

 

I don't know about other years yet, but I will say that, for me, of the 2013 releases: XVII > Parabola > Velvet Merkin = Double DBA > Sucaba. XVII killed it.

That said, I'm a cheapskate who rarely buys bombers, so I probably won't be buying XVIII. Usually just wait around for a nice little FW tap takeover and snag glasses of several of these for considerably less than the bomber price.

 

I consider myself a cheapskate who avoids bombers like the plague as well, but after I had the XVII that I saved till last month, I will definitely be willing to shell out 20+ for the XVIII. It was my favorite beer ever. Blew me away

 

XV is still my favorite (from XIV on)

 

We did a XIV- XVII vertical in Jan. and XIV was hands down the best. All great beers nonetheless.
Can't wait to try XVIII as Parabola is one of my favorites and it accounts for 38% of the blend.

 

Really looking forward to this year's, as XII and XIII were two of my favorites, and the last times they have done a Parabola forward blend.

 

I just saw around 10 cases hit Costco here in San Luis Obispo today. They were just putting them on the shelf so I didn't see a price tag nor did I bother getting any. With Costcos seemingly all getting different distribution and allocations I have no idea if this will make it further down south or if this is just a proximity thing here.

This Costco always has bombers of Wookie Jack and Double Jack for around $4 but they are almost always 3+ months old so I stay away. I was hoping by moving to the area that there would always be fresh FW beers here but it still seems spotty unless you buy it from the brewery where it is pricey.

 

Distro hit Bakersfield today.

 

Showed up at SB Costco today. Picked up a "sixer"; the cashier tried to charge me $17 total for all 6, but I did the right thing and told him that was the per-bottle price. Also, XVIII definitely doesn't need to be "fresh", so Costco is the way to go for this one (aside from the fact that it was just released a few weeks ago).

 

Does costco usually get their special releases?