Most Satisfying Vertical Tasting?

None ready yet, but a few I have piling up in my cellar, Expedition, Plead the 5th, Deth's Tar, Bean Gene, Bigfoot, BCBS, KBS, Founders Imperial Stout, and Backwoods Bastard. The next couple of years are going to be delicious.

 

KBS from 2008-2014

Bigfoot from 2009-2014

 

YMMV, but 2010 and 2013 were not good. I didn't rate 2014 so I can't say much about it. 2013 was awful and 2010 was going south too. The other years were holding up nicely. I think the reason we were so disappointed was that the two bad years were so bad they somewhat ruined the vertical.

 

I was fortunate enough to participate in an 11-year vertical of Dark Lord. Much gracias to mi amigo Bert, who shared his bounty. This was held in the red room at FFFs, and it was just a great day with friends.

2004 through 2014...at cellar temp,

I think the general consensus was that the 2004 and 2006 bottles were stellar, followed closely by the 2010. After the 2010, the DL was "immature". Cellar them...they get better and better with age.

At the end of the tasting, there was a finger or two left in each bottle, so someone had the great idea to do a "horizontal" - we poured all the dregs into a pitcher, and then drank the blend.

Memorable day, to say the least.

 

Damn. Just broke down and finally picked up a bottle of Black Ops for the first time the other day despite my concerns that it was over priced. Now I guess I should lower my expectations and possibly age it?

 

Same here dude. I can't seem to age any beer over a year or so. Maybe that'll change now that my "cellar" is bigger than it's ever been.

 

If it's your first bottle ever I say drink it. I always try to have one fresh as a "control" if you will. I had a 2012 (I think) fresh and really liked it. I've got a few older years in my cellar and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them now after doing this vertical.

 

I have several vintages going currently but have never broke into any big verticals yet, so I have little personal experience. But I will say that I've heard people rave about chile stout verts, particularly Huna, even though it is often recommended to drink these fresh. Since hearing that I started a Mexican Cake vertical that I plan to try after several more years. Makes sense, as one would expect there would be big changes in the intensity of the adjuncts as they age. Along those lines I've done a few small verts (2 or 3 years) or various coffee stouts including KBS, FBS, and WnB. I pretty much always prefer the aged coffee stouts to the fresh, which may be counterintuitive, but to me as the coffee fades the other wonderful stout flavors come out. Particularly WnB which is just fantastic with 2 years on it. So I'd say pick a fairly easy to get coffee stout and try that.

 

I got a couple verts going, abyss, abacus, chocolate rain, event horizon, Xmas bruery beers, parabola, parabola, Black Tuesday, and ba plead the fifth. It's time to clear some of these guys out soon tho

That can't be dl in that glass, that stuff is motor oil

 

You're correct - that glass wasn't filled with DL....

 

I've done a trader joes vertical of 2008-13. I think 2009 and 2010 were my favorite. I think after 3-4 years it starts to drop off.

 

Well that's another Christmas day over
Everyone else tucked up in bed
Me
I've inheritd a second wind and am about to watch doctor who
Merry Christmas to all my ba buddies

 

Bigfoot back to 2006. Would say 8 years was too old but up to say 5-6 years is about right.

 

Did Bigfoot 10-14. Amazing the difference between each year.

 

The KBS vertical I mentioned above was blinded. Again, 1 year aged was the winner.

 

Ive done a Hopslam vertical 11, 12, 13 and it was crazy how different they each tasted! The 11 almost tasted more like a barleywine.

 

Some years back I set up a tasting for some friends where we had two side by side vertical tastings going on. Weyerbacher makes an English style Barleywine called Blithering Idiot. When they age that same beer in Bourbon barrels its called Insanity. So we first had samples of the most recent year of each beer, then moved to samples of the two beers with 1 year of bottle age, then moved to samples of the two beers with 2 years of bottle age. It was very helpful for all of us at learning to sort out how a beer changes both with age and with Bourbon barrel aging, especially since none of us had any firm preconceived notions about what to expect from each of the six beers except the two from the most recent year but none of those ideas were based on a direct side-by-side comparison.