Aslin Beer Co. (2020)

Not sure I understand what they are saying here. The only ingredient listed is vanilla??? Gonna guess the ABV is quite a bit less than 16% as well.

"A Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout selected from our favorite single Apple Brandy and Bourbon Barrel-Aged Stouts blended together & conditioned on four blends of four different ingredients.

Firstly, the vanillas.....
A rich blend of Ugandan, Mexican, Tahitian & Madagascar vanilla beans lends notes of crème brûlé, rich vanilla ice cream, milk chocolate, caramel & licorice."

 

There are more ingredients to be named later. Have to stretch the announcement out to justify that $40 price tag.

 

Line's wrapped around the building already.

 

They seem to be hinting more than one bottle will be released on Saturday...

 

I’m so glad I have not the interest nor time to line up for hours on end to buy a $40 stout loaded with 4 different adjuncts. People are nuts.

As to the discussion above, I’ve been buying these guys since they first opened. I was there for the bottle release fiasco that got the Herndon tap room shut down permanently. They used to be the best ipa producers in the region. I drive by there on the way home from work every night and haven’t stopped by to grab cans in months. Combo of complete decline in product and too much competition (OH @ DTC, random dominion drops). Hope they get back up to the top of their game but done wasting money waiting for it.

 

I have been drinking random Aslin beers for the last 6 months. My cousin has been sending me their sour IPAs, fruited sours, and random pastry stouts when they are released. For the most part I have enjoyed everything he has sent. My favorites have been Signature Move and Purple Banana, the latter I regrettably only ordered a single can...

But anyways, my post right now is actually about Signature Move. This new batch is a total disappointment. It was one of my favorite beers last summer and this new batch just isn't the same. It tastes almost like an IPA or lager, rather than a sour/sour hazy.

 

I have no doubt people will line up super early and it will sell out asap. The same FOMO will happen a little later down the road when they have a $50 stout, etc.

 

Still no ABV mentioned, it appears to blurred in the photo, so it's on the label.

No doubt it will sell out and I can't really blame them for increased price, people couldn't get enough of the $30 bottles. Wonder how long the beers were in barrels, maybe that's (part of) the reason for the higher price but you'd think they'd have mentioned it if so.

 

As someone who's been frequenting Aslin since the old Herndon taproom days, this has long been one of my chief complaints about them. It's exceedingly rare for their beers to taste the same batch-to-batch. On the one hand, I understand why that's happening--outside the last six months, they've struggled to keep up with demand, and they've been constantly scaling up and tweaking recipes (with limited success) to new batch sizes. On the other hand, I don't think I would put up with that kind of inconsistency from any other brewery, and I don't want to give the local brewery a pass on quality issues I wouldn't overlook with non-locals.

The label they filed with VA ABC said 16%, but they filed that before some started submitting local beers for independent ABV lab testing. I've got to imagine that's why they're delaying the announcement with Leapling.

 

Customers submitted Aslin and/or other local beers for testing? Or other breweries submitted their own beers (450 North)?

 

Someone submitted fruit-added sours from Burley Oak, The Answer, and Imprint for independent lab testing and posted the results online, showing 450N-levels of embarrassing ABV exaggerations. Probably not a coincidence that, later that same day, Aslin made an IG post showing off the new ABV testing device they just bought and plan to use going forward.

 

Aslin is releasing some cellared barrel aged stouts this weekend, but with an adjusted ABV after testing on their new equipment. For example, Boston previously listed as 16.5% is now 12%.

 

Wonder if they tested the other recent releases such as Rich Girl, MTH, Stripes, Nuances. They are all being listed with the original ABV.

 

Curious about this too. I feel like beers such as Stripes are likely around 9.5%, not 15%.

 

I tried leapling and OS on Saturday. I thought leapling was good, coffee forward, and very smooth. I couldn't tell you which type of coffee or vanilla was more present.
Imo it does not merit the $40/bottle or $13/6 oz but others may disagree. OS tasted more like the previous iterations but some minor hop burn still remains.

 

I also had leapling on draft, and while it was good, I've liked most of their recent non barrel aged stouts better. Not worth the price in my opinion or the whole waiting in line bit.

Also had a nuances of meaning which was quite good along with Mind the hop that was decent but not as good as I remembered. The IPAs seem to be trending in the right direction. Here's to hoping they keep getting better.

 

That's disappointing, I've always thought OS and DOS were their best beers and could have done very well if they made them flagships and distributed around the DMV to bars/restaurants (kind of like what Solace has been doing, I see their beers everywhere now). The only Aslin beers I ever see on tap are the slower selling one and that's not too often.

 

It is disappointing but it appears to be trending in the right direction, at least for OS. I wouldn’t be surprised if another year goes by before they are dialed in on their current equipment.

 

Glenn's has started having aslin on tap for $18 growler fills. Had DOS on the other day and You Call that a Knife is on rn.

 

So these guys bought, what I assume is, an expensive piece of equipment to use in testing the ABV on their beers but they only used it on the BA beers they released a couple weeks ago and a stout (all came in well under listed/expected ABVs). All the other beers they've released since buying the lab equipment do not have updated ABVs or data showing that the ABVs listed on the cans are accurate.