Cellar Reviews (2019)

2015 Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Stout

Poured into a snifter with minimal head, no lacing. Slightly boozy faint chocolate aroma. Thinner body than I recall; chocolatey and some acidic aftertaste, dry finish. Overall it held up better than expected.

 

2016 Temperance Might Meets Right - Double Rye - bottle numbered 2327

Poured from the bomber into a snifter - no lacing or head to speak of. Aroma of rye and dark malt/chocolate. Taste is out of this world! Chocolate, vanilla, faint coconut, rye finish, sweet but not cloying. Can still taste the barrel which is nice. Smooth finish. Lighter body than I would expect from 11.1%. Enjoyed very much - wish I had another.

 

2016 Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Stout

Poured into the same snifter mentioned above - no head or lacing. Barrel/bourbon aroma, chocolate and figs. Taste is a great blend of bourbon and chocolate/roasty malt. Better mouthfeel than the 2015. Overall really good! Have one bottle left.

 

Who is up for a group review of 2019 Bigfoot soon? We can do fresh as a baseline and build up from there.

 

I'm in Santa Cruz now, where it's abundantly available, but as of a couple days ago I couldn't find it at my usual haunts in NE Ohio. I didn't try that hard because I know it's coming, but I won't be back for two weeks when I'm sure it's going to be there.

But a couple points: I know based on comments previously that fresh will probably be waaaaay too hoppy for my tastes and even a year old, which I have, might be early. I can be flexible for the sake of the group tasting but just wanted to weigh in on that. Second, will we report these in these monthly threads or have one specifically for this?

 

Completely forgot about this. Will hunt for a sixer.

 

2017 Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Stout

Poured into a snifter with some head and residual lacing. Chocolate and bourbon/alcohol aroma. Chocolate taste and slight burn on the back end...slight bitter aftertaste. Thinner mouthfeel than 2016. Overall still very good but of the three in this thread, I prefer 2016.

 

Fair point and good question. I have some older Bigfeet too (14 and 17 I believe). If anyone else has some available we could start there too.

At first I was hoping to get a head count to determine if its better to submit here if its a small group or start a new thread with a larger group. Though now that I think of it, having an ongoing dedicated thread makes the most sense. Who all is in?

 

2015 8 Maids a Milking - The Bruery

4.02/5 rDev +5.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Picked up a 750 ml bottle at Lupulo's in Santa Cruz and split with my son in law. Poured dark brown with an average sized tan head into an oversized wine glass. Aroma was nicely sweet with milk chocolate having an undefined spice tinge. Flavor was chocolate cream with the alcohol well hidden. Mouthfeel retained the flavors nicely while still being light and refreshing. An exemplary milk stout that is right in the Bruery's wheelhouse and an excellent addition to their Christmas series.

 

Bigfoot is pretty much the only beer I cellar anymore. I have around 6 cases worth going back to 2011, I drank all the older ones.

I too don't care for it fresh, 5-8 years is my sweet spot. But I think it would be fun to have a thread dedicated to the evolution of the 2019 batch over the years. I'll take some for the team and drink them fresh! Perhaps we could also chime with our impressions of other vintages?

I will happily participate no matter what happens, love this beer!

 

New thread titled “Bigfoot Experiment” or something without “2019” in the title since mods will lock it at the end of the year. Explanation and maybe give people a week or so to find Bigfoot if they’re interested (i.e., myself). I didn’t want to steal your thunder since you proposed it in the December thread.

 

Great ideas! I'll start a thread shortly. Feel free to tag anyone that I missed or who you might think is interested.

 

I'm definitely down for a Bigfoot thread... Heading to visit my brother in a month and he's got a 2013-2019 lined up for us- can't wait - will report back!

 

I think this is a great idea. It would be nice to have a clean start to the thread for those of us who don't have our lives together (no bigfoot in our cellar). I think it would also be interesting for folks just getting interested in aging beer to see reviews of fresh, followed by various vintages, with the original fresh version being revisited every 6 months or so. Just my two cents and I will seek out some bigfoot in the interest of becoming a responsible adult

 

2015 Greenbush Dystopia - Mfg 1.20.15

Poured into a snifter with 1/2 inch of head and some lacing. Licorice aromas, faint chocolate, leather maybe. Blend of licorice and mild chocolate with dry finish. Smooth coating mouthfeel. Overall very good. I disliked this beer fresh but it improved.

 

2015 Stickee Monkee

Been aging this at about ~47F for about three years now which is 2F higher than FW recommends. Pours with a small, but fairly decent amount of head for an old quad.

First sip is plums and grapes and delightful. Surprised as its still very cold. This is going to be a real treat! Candied sugar and some toffee, tobacco,and vanilla notes.

Haven't had a fresh one of these in a while to compare but this is excellent!

 

2015 Stone Double Bastard
Dark copper amber color. Poured with little to no head. Malt bomb, dried fig and fruit flavors. Faint hops in the background. Little carbonation. Held up pretty well.