Bottleworks 17th Anniversary

Bellingham-only, right? ;-)

 

Do they ever distribute these?

 

The Stone beer saw distribution, but the rest (at least recently) were Bottleworks only.

 

Even in the old days they weren't distributed.

 

Best thing about "that magical time of year" is they usually have had BW XII on tap.

 

Did you know that the recipe is now part of the regular Terreux lineup? (Beret, I believe).

 

That gin barrel aged Baltic Porter was one of the best things I had last year. Gonna be hard to top it.

 

Probably thousands of bottles still available. Personal opinions aside, it did not sell well.

 

I like it a lot, would be up for buying another if the markup isn't stupid.

 

I read that more as more of a sign of how fickle people can be. If that same beer had a label that read "Tree House" instead of "The Ram" it would have sold out and been talked up much more.

 

No doubt that brand names carry major weight, 'usually' which is earned. I had it on draft - just a meh for me. If it's back on tap around the 17 release, I'll get a pour.

The Crooked Stave 17 description is pretty vague - I typically like their dry hopped golden 'sourz' more than their abrasive fruited stuff, though

 

Well then, I'll have to see if I can score a couple!

 

this seems especially true with barrel aged stouts. so many breweries are trying put one out and at least 75% are "meh" when compared to the better options that are out there

 

The problem with that line of thinking is you're assuming people were even familiar with the quality of beer being brewed by some of those brewers. The underwhelmed reaction was one born out of ignorance instead of firsthand knowledge. You're wrong, people (BA folks, not the general public) weren't stopping in at Northgate and saying, "wow this beer is mediocre/sucks." By and large they weren't stopping in period. And for many it wasn't that they ever had a bad experience there.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/bottleworks-anniversary-beer.254833/
Consider the following sentence from dirtylou himself in the thread where that beer was announced. He wrote them off before he had even tried a single beer from The Ram:
"How on earth could they land on Ram? I've never been to a Ram, had a Ram beer, and that doesn't appear to be changing. Could there have been a worse 'local' brewery to choose?"
Granted, he said he didn't like it once he tried it, but again his initial reaction (which was similar to a lot of people unfamiliar with The Ram) was not a favorable one and it was not based on first hand knowledge.

In that same thread you mentioned you'd not been to the Northgate location in 7-8 years. A lot can change in that amount of time (about 3 changes at the brewer position as a matter of fact). If people had looked at two of the guys designing the recipe and focused on that (Bill Jenkins and Kevin Forhan) instead of being let down that it wasn't some a massively hyped brewery like Alpine or something, definitely would have sold better.

 

did the Ram serve this at their brew pubs? i've got this awful image of a gin-barrel aged baltic porter in a frosty pint glass.

 

It was a love or hate beer. I definitely loved it.

 

Looks like a riff on Bottleworks 12; but the ABV is different so it can't be the "same" beer. It strikes me as a drier beer. But damned delicious. One more bullet point in my case that the Bruery regular lineup of beers is criminally neglected and under rated.

 

For selfish reasons, I love it when a brewer/brewery flying under the radar puts out something great. Getting a hyped beer from a vaunted brewery can be exciting, but finding quality beer that was under everyone's nose and ignored because it didn't come from a household name is where I find the most enjoyment. I love that people in this forum are usually quick to speak up when they find one of those sleeper beers.