What’s the Difference? Share your Side-by-Side (2022)

Hello, BAs. Last year, @jonphisher decided to go ahead and start a thread encouraging us post about any side-by-side comparisons we do. There was some question as to whether there would be much interest in the thread to keep it alive, but there were fourteen pages of responses. Thanks to everyone who joined in with their own comparison or discussion about someone else's post.

This is an attempt to continue that thread in this new year (again, many thanks to 1026359[/URL]]@jonphisher for starting it last year). The guidelines are the same, and there aren't that many of them.

The basics: post about what you found out when having one beer next to another (or multiple others).

On top of that, I'll reiterate the bulleted suggestions from the inaugural thread:

• the name and brewer of both beers (makes this thread more searchable)
• why did you decide to try these two beers together?
• what did you find out, i.e. What's the Difference?
• if you had expectations or guesses were you surprised by the results

Please join in with your own thoughts at any time.

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We were instructed to "lead by example" in starting these new threads. I can tend to be wordy in my review posts, and tried to not clutter up this first post with too much beyond the introduction, though I probably failed at that. Anyone can delve into last year's thread to get more (and shorter) examples than this one.

Thanks to the Scottish / Scotch Ale tasting thread, I found Belhaven's Scottish Ale. I saw a slightly newer 4pk than I reviewed in that thread, and grabbed it. Right next to it was Belhaven's 90 Shilling offering - a wee heavy that has 2% more ABV than the nitro (draft) can. What am I getting as the difference?


Well, it starts with color (will ignore head given the nitro vs not), where the 90/~ wee heavy is a darker, rusty medium brown while the Scottish Ale is more coppery. The ingredients in the wee heavy bring a richer, sweeter, and more dark fruit aroma than the lighter beer, but there is a definite familiarity as I shift from glass to glass. It's as much that the aroma intensity is turned up in the darker beer than it is a difference in make up.

I don't think the draft can influence is the entire reason that the Scottish Ale is smoother, easier, and more enjoyable to my palate, but I can't say how much it helps. Might it also be affecting the flavors?

Again, I cannot say, but I enjoyed the Scottish Ale flavors enough to buy more. However, there is more to digest in the 90 Shilling. The higher ABV beer has a bit more toast and fruit jam than the lighter one, but they seem to start with fairly similar sweetness levels. The Scottish Ale seems more balanced from start to finish, where the 90/~ has a little transition from opening to close, ending up a tad more bitter - or at least more distinctly bitter to my palate.

In the end, the components of the beers' tastes were a bit more different than their noses. I definitely notice a few similarities, but I'm pretty sure if randomly handed them out of the blue that my brain would not jump to tying them together in any way.

 

Ok, a slight follow on to my original post, where I mentioned the Belhaven was a little newer than my previous purchase. I had one left from that first purchase, so I wanted to check if three months (best bys June and September, 2022) on the shelf produced a noticeable difference in this draft (nitro) Scottish Ale.

I didn't expect to notice a difference in the looks, but the older beer seemed slightly darker in color. It's possible this is due to a larger insignia on the glass, but I tried from various angles and couldn't shake the impression. Heads retained almost exactly the same, although the newer foam appeared slightly stickier.


I might have been trying too hard, but there was a little bit more bread-like aromas in the older beer, although they both smelled much like dried out spent grain the day after brew day. Midway through, there also appeared a hint of diacetyl in the older I wasn't getting in the newer.

Feel and taste-wise, there's a bit more difference, with the newer beer being a bit brighter. There's a little more sweet malt in the newer beer, making the older beer seem a tad more bitter in a bland way, comparatively. The newer also beer has a hint of citrus peel that the other is missing, which perhaps aids the brightness I mentioned.

So, if I weren't putting some effort into finding differences, I think about the only difference I might notice is the new beer has more of a fresh vibe in general. I actually didn't expect to notice even this; if I didn't make it clear above, it wasn't a major difference but it was there.

 

Yes, that definitely makes sense and could be. I've noticed the discoloration in significantly older beers and in my own home brews from back in the day (which had less QC than a normal brewery, I am sure). Right or wrong, I can't say I expected it it in this case with a 3 month difference in the cans.

 

Of course. Although obviously there's only so many variables one can know of when doing these comparisons.

 

As a matter of fact, that was the older one.

 

All right, you mfBA's - I'm gonna carry this thread until one of you ponies up in dry January to have two beers together. I have broad shoulders (and gut). Today, I decided to have a RIS I posted in the previous thread, though I wanted to pair it with a different beer. This can is from the same 4pack, so it has a couple extra months on it. It's comparison in this post is itself, aged in rye whiskey barrels. So, here is my comparison of North Coast's Old Rasputin, regular and rye barrel aged.

I gave half of each to the GF, and she knew one was a can of Old Rasputin, but couldn't see the bottle was. She found the barrel-aged version thicker and more chocolately, and said easily that it was her more favorite of the two.


Ok, on looks, the can of regular Old Rasputin has its creamy tan head build a little wall atop the glass surface as I go through setting up this post. That said, the barrel aged version has a decent amount of tan bubbles atop it, still. The nose of the regular RIS brought a big whallop of roasted malts, while the BA version seemed tame. Asking the GF, she said the BA version stood out more, and since she had sipped down her glass more, I tried to equalize and retry.

The standard Old Rasputin still stood out to me, but the BA version wasn't as bland after giving it some headspace in, perhaps, less-than-ideal glasses. What I did find is that the BA RIS was more complex in aromas, as one might expect.

Onto the taste in real time...
The rye barrel has a sweet, lightly whiskey-soaked edge to it. The barrel and its previous inhabitant definitely share the stage with the base beer. Having the regular alongside it right after, I might argue the barrel aging seems to dominate the original beer. It's definitely a significant change. Can I see aspects of the base in the BA version? Sure, but they are generic in nature.

Ok, so the base is a classic, roasty bitter stout. In my mind, there's not a lot to distinguish it beyond its total buy-in to the roasted malt and bitterness (which I'm sure is aided by hops, but in a neutral way or in a way I cannot distinguish). The barrel aging seems to dampen this bitterness, but the whiskey and woods notes it add seem a fair compensation for this.

As I am typing this up, I am starting to appreciate the base more and more. I still think I agree with the GF about enjoying the rye barrel version a bit more. However, I think I appreciate the base beer a bit more. I'm not sure I can explain how liking one beer more than another can make one appreciate "the lesser" of the two. But it's what I get from this comparison.

Cheers!!

pre-edit: I see the venerable @beergoot chimed in with an unread post, but I sneak-peaked the photo and am truly interested in his thoughts. Cheers, all!!

 

Haven't had Blind Pig but once, but I was interested to read how similar you found these. We've done a few Lunch vs Another One a few times and the GF and I disagree on who wins. Since we get MBC around here, I might be on the lookout to do a new east coast vs west coast comparison myself.

 

Oh, nice to see the 2022 are available so I can add it to my own verticals. I'm curious if I'll notice as big a difference as you noted when comparing against the 2021s I have.

Cheers!

 

That's an awesome year spread, even if the comparison ended up with little to dissect at a nuanced level. I think 10 years is the largest year differential I've had (thanks to Sierra Nevada). I do have a 2012 Old Stock in my cellar (it's been in my cellar for a large portion of its age, but not all), and plan on opening it sometime in 2022, hopefully after finding some of this year's vintage. Maybe I'll hop over to the cellar thread for that one.