Side Project (2018)

B1 is a 4.75 from the 2,256 people that have tried it, vs. B2 being a 4.9 from the 467 people, most of whom have obtained a bottle. I'm not into conspiracy theories, but take the inflated rating with a grain of salt. There's a whole number of reasons why it might be better rated better, but you should not discount the fact that shit lords absolutely play into that incredibly small sample size, as do their friends, family, etc. Also pretty important: I bet a substantial number of people that have rated B2 had a wrecked palate by the time they tried it, which would certainly inflate the rating.

There's a very small difference between a "4.75" and a "4.9". I'd be shocked if most people could pick the higher rated beer out of a lineup 90% of the time.

 

Agreed. A good beer, is a good beer, is a good beer.

With all that said....b2 was better barrel smoothness is the deciding factor between the two. B1 was a little "hot" out the gate. B2 was like mothers milk. Both spectacular.

 

BBT b2>b1. Both BBT batches are better than either Maman. Maman 17=18. Imo 18 is just hotter. So if your prefer your ba stouts a little hotter I’d say 18. If you like them with a little age, 17.

 

I’ll chime in about BBT. Having had batch 1 onsite last year, I felt it needed time. Flavors didn’t quite meld but had a strong suspicion it would morph into something lovely. Having tried it a few times since birth and fairly recently having a bottle at the cellar, it did morph into that chocolate, fudgy stout I knew it would. 8 months it hit its sweet spot and may continue to get better in time.

Batch 2 fresh is what batch 1 wanted to be out of the gate. It’s a silky, decadent, chocolate lovers dream of a straight up BA stout. My only fear is that I don’t see how batch 2 can get any better then what it is right now.

 

Best description of BBT so far. It was nice meeting you at the brewery and thanks for sharing your D9 with me. It was awesome experience drinking BBT and D9 side by side.

Cheers!

 

Nice meeting you as well! It was a blast.

 

Just curious....which year of Maman is generally regarded as the best year? I’ve only had Maman 15 and till this day that is still the best non adjunct BA Stout I’ve ever had.

 

Your palate must be different from mine. When I have a "wrecked" palate from drinking too many stouts it hurts their score.....not help it. Especially when going from heavy adjunct to no adjunct. So much so that non adjunct stouts are always drank first at my shares.

 

I made sure to drink BBT and Anabasis first for this very reason this past weekend.

 

In my experience (both personal and with others): If someone has already been drinking, then tend to rate beers higher when they are lit. So, if there were shares in line leading up to open, or if people were sharing before going, or if people were sharing while waiting to get in due to the '1 out, 1 in' over-crowdedness, then I have no doubt that impacted people's rating. After having consumed other beers, seems like people seem to pick up on fewer of the nuances (which includes imperfections).

Perhaps palate fatigue wasn't the correct phrasing, but the above is what I was referring to.

 

Last year I drank BBT alongside D8 and I think that contributed to my being underwhelmed. It was great, but D8 was so over the top with flavor and mouthfeel. Drinking B2 this year, I felt like it had a lot of smoothness I associated with D8, without the over the top adjuncts. Bourbon soaked brownie, heavy viscous feeling, but not cloying at all.

 

I don't understand why you think this? I'm guessing BBT was the first beer anyone ordered when they got to SP on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

 

I'll have a coke! ☝️

 

I'd be shocked if everyone that tried BBT was stone-cold sober.

 

Stone cold Steve Austin sober for all 3 bottles.

 

My first beer of the day was BBT b2, followed by Anabasis b3. I usually have the non-adjunct beers first before diving into the pastry stuff. I do have a bottle of BBT b2, but regardless of that that beer exceeded all expectations for me. At 4.90 score on Untappd, it may actually be underrated. I don't know how that beer can be improved on. But again, this is just me and I love non-adjunct stouts.

 

For the record, I'm not inherently talking about the people that are on this board. The majority of reviewers aren't.

Untappd isn't exactly known for it's accuracy, and we've all read about people hyping beers by inflating untappd review scores. I'm not saying that's explicitely what happened here - that would not be the same as something like the FAHA situation. I'm just saying that it makes sense that there's going to be some inflation for BBT B2 that wasn't there for B1 for a whole number of reasons. Shit lording and "I've already drank something today" or "I'm lit" rankings increase this.

I believe this is an amazing beer, and I do wish that I had the ability to try it.

 

I think the ratings are valid, and I doubt palates being off from significant alcohol consumption has much impact, if any, in this case at all.

 

I don’t really buy your argument.

Case in point:
Why is Fdf b2 rated .14 lower on untappd than FdF b1 and trading for about 1/3 the value? Zwanze attendees should have been rating it to 11 to hype the trade value.

 

Weren’t your exact words some deep shit like "The beer is a monumental achievement in brewing. Paradigm changing.”?