Blind Barrel Aged Stout Tasting

Really cool! I would love to do something similar. Uncle Jacob's is in my all time top 5 beers but it'd be interesting to see if that stood up in a blind tasting. Might have to collect some bottles and set it up.

 

@Psychmusic what was your results?

 

Very cool, I also love seeing the results of these. I did a 20 bottle pumpkin beer blind tasting last October and was pretty suprised with the results.

Just don't let the "BUT Y DIDN'T U INCLUDE BLAHBLAHBLAH.." people get you down

 

Very nice method. The more you randomize the better the data. Not giving everyone the same beer in the same order is very smart in so many ways. If every one tasted in order do you have the data to see if people preferred their earlier samples over their later samples or vice versa?

 

Interesting. I wonder how I would have done on this. I actually prefer my stouts to be a little less sweet, so I think BA Siberian Night would be pretty high up for me, and I absolutely love Dragon's Milk.

 

That's a fun family event. Way cool. I'm usually the only one in my family that's really into beer. Dad enjoys beer but always just defers to my judgment on what to order when we are out somewhere for dinner.

 

awesome fun! I just got some vintage BCBS, so I'm doing a mini vertical for '12-'15 . Trying to get '11 bottles are not easy.

 

SOunds like a fun tasting. Can't go wrong with any of these beers.

 

'11 seems to be the line - getting '12 is still not too bad, but earlier than that is really hard work to trade for.

If it helps, a bar in Chicago had 10, 11, 12 and 13 in bottles, so we did a vertical (wasn't cheap, but was fun!) and we decided that 10 and 12 were the best, but it was extremely close and we couldn't really pick a favorite except that 13 wasn't as good as the others - a few of us preferred 11.

It wasn't blinded (so not scientific) but we all went through the line, tried them, pounded the '13 to get it out of the way and pretty much to a man, ended up dumping all three of 10, 11 and 12 into the same glass - there just wasn't enough of a difference. We did this about 6 months ago, so the takeaway for all of us was that the ideal aging for BCBS is ~2.5-3 years, and after that there isn't much improvement, but it does maintain rather well.

 

Nice job! We did something similar over Christmas with just BCBS 12 through 15 and got similar results.

The 15 was least enjoyed, with a harsh espresso quality. The 14 was rich and fudgy. The 13 was supremely balanced. And the 12 had the best vanilla /coconut barrel qualities.

In terms of votes, there was no clear winner among 12 to 14, that came down to personalpreference. If I had to I would pick the 14 this time around.

 

That sounds like alot of fun! Also appreciate the observation . I'll look for more '12 when possible.

 

Cool stuff. I agree with your statement about Dragons Milk and BA Siberian being a little unfair. So that begs the question, fill in those two spots with that beers??

 

Interesting test, and the results are pretty much what I'd expect. I happen to prefer BCBS to UJ, but I know of several people who go the other way. The one surprise to me is that 15 BCBS was the least favorite. I thought it was light years better than 2014, and I know many others who felt the same.

 

I love reading about these verticals! I actually created a post in the cellaring forum to have people post some of their best verticals for 2015. If anyone has any good examples feel free to post them there as well. I think information like this is not only fun to read, but it can be very informative about how long certain beers should be aged for! Nice post again!

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/best-vertical-tasting-of-2015.369220/

 

I've heard from a ton of people that '12 BCBS is incredible right now. I think it's won in every vertical I've seen people do.

 

'12 BCBS is absolutely insane, and my favorite year I've had. It's just so big, and decadent, and glorious, with so much coconut and chocolate. We need another year where the base is 15% ABV, like '12 was.

 

I have a 2012 BCBS I'd be willing to part with for some N.E. freshy hop bombs. We can set it up the right way on a trade forum. I know this isn't the right place, but figured I'd throw it out there.
ISO Sip of Sun, Double Sun, King Julius, FFF, Heady. . . you get the idea. PM me so we don't hijack the thread. if this post is out of line, let me know and I'll delete it