CO Barrel Aged Stouts

I loved the story of the guys who drove from Texas and slept in their car to be first in line.
After trying the Mocha, I won't be going to any more of their releases. This was like 3 or 4 BA TenFIDY releases in a row I've barely liked.

 

Reviving this thread:
Don't sleep on Finkel & Garf BA Oatmeal Milk Stout. Great on tap.
What I will say of the cans from previous years experience: drink them now, by month 3 they start to drop off
But fresh it's great

 

Following up: apparently what I'm drinking now is a first: they went 12.1 abv. Next week they're releasing their standard 10.0 abv
What I can say is this 12.1 is a bit stickier and sweeter than the 10.0. Both are great.
But if you want the 12.1 you might have to hustle

 

Bought a 4-pack of this year's 12.1 ABV version and I agree. It's pretty damn good! It's definitely a big BA milk stout but it has a refreshingly un-pastry character.

 

Love that Finkel & Gaft BA stout, especially with the 12 oz format. Hope to see cans at my local.

Came here to say River North Double Avarice is mind blowing. Wish I had another bottle to sit on... Saw some comments saying it's hot, needs time etc. It's nearly 20% abv?! All things considered, I don't know how they could possibly get better barrel characteristic into a beer this big while still keeping it totally drinkable.

 

Any thoughts on Bull Proof yet?

 

Haven’t had this years, but have loved it before.. the weldwerks/beanie baby crowd won’t like that distinct hint of ubiquity that really throws off the flavor.. great barrel flavor and bawd.. quite rich.

great price point too!

 

"Distinct Hit of Ubiquity" would be a great band name!

 

*** Hint?

 

Yep. That too...I'll blame autocorrect, but it was probably just me mis-typying.

Anyway, ISO Bull Proof.

 

Well hold on a minute. Mocha was in fact a mediocre release. But I would really really really take umberance with your statement that all the cans are "mediocre at best".

In fact, Java TenFidy was good, even over a year later (2017 was last batch), it's still good. JAHvanilla was subtle on the coffee, but a fantastic beer at a good price. And the regular releases of BATF have also been really good, while also having great shelf life. And the price is reasonable compared to many other BA stouts available. It's consistently better than many other BA stouts produced locally.

Even the last batch, the flavored variants. I've only extensively tried 3 of the 5 flavors, but 2 of them were good (Santa's beer breath not good, but then again they acknowledged this and are giving some away for free).

To say that all the BATF canned releases have been mediocre, I don't agree with. You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but you'll find in a sample group you'd be in the minority.

 

You're literally the first person I've heard defending releases other than reg and BATF in the past year.

 

You of course realize that BA is just a small subset of craft beer drinkers, right?

 

I'm still puzzled by the love of barrel aged stouts in general.

 

Agreed- seems like people almost literally think that if its been BA’d, no matter how, it’ll be waaaaaay better than the original.

IMO most of them exhibit a subtle hint of infection... ie weird, sour cherry flavor

 

I'm not referring to BA.

 

I'm of the opinion that a splash of bourbon does nothing for most stouts. If anything, it mutes some nuances and covers up other things, too. There are exceptions, but they're usually brewed with barrel aging in mind. BCBS and Liquid Brain being prime examples. They were brewed with bourbon barrel notes in mind. There's a reason non-BA versions don't exist. Tossing {insert random stout} in a barrel isn't half as good as people want to think it is. It does increase the cost and time to produce while making quantities lower though. Hmmm...

As far as infection goes, I'm guessing that could be from the wood combined with oxidation. That often comes across as sherry-like. Some legitimately do have a little bit of wildness to them as well. Especially the small batch stuff.

 

Okay. Go to Oskar blues at a release. People show up for it. Obviously they like it.

Check Beer Advocate Ratings. Check Untappd ratings. Check Ratebeer ratings.
Talk to people? I don't know what to tell you. I'm part of a beer group outside of BA and up until recently (when it became more available in NC) people traded for and clamored to get it.

 

Here's what prompted my less than stellar comment of a brewery I really like and a beer I love:
I found Mocha overall bland, not mocha enough, not TenFIDY enough. Before that I thought the same of Java, boost the coffee or don't bother. Then JahVanilla, I thought plain sucked, it's the only TenFIDY I have come close to hating. So that made at least 3 in a row I was at best indifferent to.
To update, the several they just released, I really liked all of them, even Santa's Breath, so they have me enthused again
And your point about the pricing is 100%, whether it's 12.50 or 14, it's a fair price for 16.9oz

 

The last few releases have been dead. Literally like 10-15 people.

People use ratebeer and beeradvocate to rate beers still?

The people @tylerstravis is referencing are larger in number these days than you think. I know people who used to line up to buy cases that now really could care less. There is a good reason majority of those stove pipes are readily available months later. Most of them are adjuncted with extracts and the flavor clearly represents it. They haven't explained how Hot Buttered Rum ended up at a whopping 16.7%, and to me it tasted as if a literal rum cocktail was blended into the barrel (I found it highly unenjoyable and overtly booze forward, and I ENJOY big boozy over-barreled stouts). Most of the releases (outside of Port and Double Barrel) I have found to be rushed.

Due to my job, I'm over at the Weasel a fair amount love those folks but the quantity increase has definitely taken a toll on the program (and I say that having worked with their head of their barrel program in my past brewing life).