Bottle Logic Brewing (2019)

I’m actually in a similar boat. I have to be home by 2 pm for a wedding and on Sunday I leave for 2 weeks. So I also need to be gone by 12:30 at the latest. I plan on arriving early 11-1130 to avoid any issues.

 

I disagree, I would love to do a vert in a couple years as opposed to like 5 years.

 

Hoping FF lasts on tap for a bit. Waaaaay too packed in the tasting room today to stay and try it. Line was out the door to the sidewalk. Got my bottles and went to Brewery X to watch football.

 

I did the opposite yesterday, stood in line for pours and skipped on my bottles. Bottle line looked like it was moving slower than the taproom line.

 

8 in line for pours as of now

 

FF was fantastic today. Did a cuvee with stf. 60/40 stf and FF was the winner of the day

 

I opened my bottle of Number Crunch last night and to be honest, I have some concerns about this beer. Before I get into it (or mention the dreaded “i” word), I want to start by saying that it could just be my palate or my bottle, others will have to chime in with their experiences. Having said that, a few things seemed off.

The first problem was when I poured the beer it foamed up more than expected. I didn’t pour hard and still ended up with about 3 fingers of head in the glass. It dissipated pretty quickly, but was definitely more foam than expected for a ~14% beer.

Secondly, the nose was quite muted and almost tart in smell. I remember the beer being very chocolate forward when I tried it at the FO release party and this didn’t smell at all like I remembered.

The taste was mostly what I expected, but still a little muted with a sort of drying and slightly bitter finish. I did not taste any of the tartness I smelled in the nose, but it still seemed like something was just a bit off.

If anyone else has opened theirs recently, let me know what your experience was. Hopefully it was just my palate being off last night, or worse case just a bad bottle.

 

I wrote BL a note on Instagram last week about this, and they directed me to @bottlelogiclindsay's email address. I wrote her a note earlier this week but have not heard back yet. Here's the body of the letter I sent her:

I've had [Number Crunch 2019] twice since the release, the most recent being a bottle pour at home last night. On August 11th I opened a bottle at home and very much enjoyed it (4.50 on Untappd, for whatever that's worth). I opened my second bottle last night and had a very different experience. The carbonation was much livelier than I remembered. The aroma was close to what I remembered (fudge-y, vanilla, a touch of booze), but the taste was very much "off" to me. There was a pronounced tartness (enough to activate my salivary glands, which is highly unusual for a stout!). After a few sips, I decided to let the liquid warm up to room temperature to see if it made a difference. It did not.

I texted a friend in Seattle to say, "Hey. I don't want to be that guy -- but I think there's something off with this bottle of NC I just drank." He offered to throw one in the fridge and told me he'd write back once he opened it. His responses were "Interesting. Does taste different than last time. I almost get a bit of cherry. It's also more carbonated than I remember. Ugh. Why'd you have to tell me this? I have three bottles left."

Sorry for that long-winded intro! MY POINTS IS:

Has anyone else mentioned this to you guys? Am I crazy? I really, really don't want to be "that guy" but my trust my palate and this recent bottle was off. I checked Untappd and saw only two other check-ins mention off-flavors, so maybe it's just starting to present, and people aren't picking up on it yet? Maybe I'm batshit crazy insane? HALP! Seriously, let me know if you've encountered any issues, been alerted to any issues, or plan to check and see for yourselves. It'd certainly put my mind at ease.

***

You're not alone, @darkmoon66

 

Check your inbox, you've missed my response email!

Number Crunch passed all of its BrewPAL and BrewDEK testing at every stage of debarreling and cellaring, but we have received a couple of reports about peaky carbonation on a handful of bottles.

Since we know the liquid was clean at packaging, we're lead to believe that we might have a bad capper on a stream on our bottling line. The set we opened on a tasting panel last week each behaved (and tasted) as designed and expected, but we've gone on to initiate another full panel of lab testing on a set of archived control bottles. The brew team returns after the holidays, so I'll have complete results in early January.

If you've personally purchased and experienced an odd bottle, please shoot me an email at [email protected]. I'd love to learn everything we can about the bottle conditions!

 

Got the email this morning, thanks. Responding now.

 

I was debating on opening one this weekend. Now I want to try.

 

Sent you an email

 

I had NC on draft when I picked up my bottles. Had a bottle the next night. Then opened a bottle on Thanksgiving. I had zero issues. Actually the bottle on Thanksgiving was better than I remembered.

 

I had my last one in September and it was still amazing.

My bottles are kept cold at all times other than the drive home from picking them up. I didn't have any problems with that nut beer they had that soured a couple years back, either, but my friend who had hers sitting out did.

 

Does anyone have a direct contact to management at BL? I need to ask for some assistance in picking up my bottle.

I was able to snag one bottle of FF b2, and was planning to pick it up this past week, but one of my kids is having health issues and I won't have an opportunity to go.

I have wrote them multiple emails and left messages to no avail.

Any help out there?

 

Probably don’t want to hear this, but they have a pretty strict pick-up policy. If you can’t make the pick-up window, you aren’t picking up bottles. No exceptions, ever. Even says so in one of those boxes you have to check when completing your purchase.

 

I kind of figured, but I wanted to at least get confirmation. Hell, I rather be told to eat a dick, than not get any response from them.

 

Very Chronic of you