07-12 BCBS

So me and 3 friends did a 07-12 BCBS tasting and here are the Notes and Results.

Ranking From Favorite to Least Favorite

2011 (Unanimous Favorite)- Aroma was Nice and sweet with a vanilla/carmel flavor coming through. Also caught a little bourbon but not too much. Medium Carbonation. Had a nice up front smooth carmel flavor with just a little vanilla flavor than the middle brought the nice bourbon heat and the end finished with a little bit of bittersweet chocolate and roastyness. You could pick out each unique flavor in this but it also melded so well to create one great beer.

2010(Unanimous 2nd Favorite)- Aroma was Strong Bourbon and alittle vanilla. Def. The strongest aroma of any of the beers but wasn't my favorite aroma either. The carbonation was just OK ,almost non existent. It had a nice Vanilla flavor up front then followed by a hit of bourbon then ends with a nice roasty flavor. Def. a little lighter mouthfeel but very tasty. This one lost a little chocolate and bourbon(not in the nose though) but added a little more vanilla flavor.

2007(Only 2 of us had this as #3. Other 2 had the next one as their #3) Aroma was bitter chocolate and dry fruits(raison) no bourbon aroma at all. Carbonation was high(the highest of them all). It had a nice Chocolate flavor up front followed by that nice dried fruit flavors of raison and dates then ends with a tiny bit of roastyness. This beer Def. isn't what you want in a BCBS(if you want Bourbon and chocolate and who doesn't : ) ) b/c it basically tastes like a thinning Imperial stout with awesome dark fruit flavors. No Bourbon or vanilla/carmel flavors at all but it was unique in its own way and i loved it. That why it was my number 3.

2012(As said above this was 2 of our #4's and two of the Guys number #3's but this is my post so its #4) Aroma was really muted. Caught a little chocolate/roasty but not much aroma. Good Carbonation. The Flavor was Bitter chocolate up front followed by some bourbon and ends with some more bitter Chocolate. This one felt like it was in the middle of developing into something good but hadn't found its identity. No vanilla at all and the chocolate was still overpowered by the roastyness.

2008 (Was Unanimous #5) Aroma was musty with a little dry fruit smell. But mostly musty. (worst aroma of all of them) Very Little Carbonation. Creamy mouthfeel. The flavor was like Musty dried fruit dipped in stale chocolate. No roasty coffee or bourbon to be found. Looks like its on its way to becoming that unique flavor that 2007 had but isn't there yet so it is basically 1 note and not a very good one but still drinkable in its own right.

2009(Unanimous #6 LAST PLACE) Aroma was strong Bourbon and a little bitter smell.Medium Carbonation. The beer started off with a creamy mouthfeel with a little vanilla then the middle and end it turned into a tangy weird alcohol taste. It was really weird as it started off good with vanilla and a little chocolate and then straight to tangy alcohol flavor. Really funky. I don't think it was infected because i had popped a 2009 From the same 4 pack as the one used in the tasting about 8 months before and it tasted sublime and blew me away at its dept of flavor. But you never can tell.

All of these beers have been cellared at 52-55 degrees since i got them. Now there is no way to know how they were treated before i got them except for 2012(straight off truck to cellar) and 2007 Straight off truck to friends cellar, then to my cellar).

So this was a Real Eye opening Experience and a great example of exactly what Cellaring beer can do.

Going into this i thought my favorite would be 2009 or 2010 but come to find out 2009 was everyones least favorite but i think its just in a weird middle flavor and will turn into a nice Dark Fruit BCS in two years. Also I was really sure I would be able to tell which is the 2012 as i have had 3 in the past 2 weeks as well as one of the other guys having had a 2012 on christmas. But we both guessed the 2010 beer to be the 2012 as it had the most hoppy chocolate flavor and tasted like it wasn't 100% developed yet. But we were of course wrong.

So obviously everyones taste buds are different and i can't be 100% that all the bottle were taken care of before i got them but I can say for the time being it looks like i like my BCBS with 1,2 or 5 years on it best.

BTW the CBS glass is full of the 4 oz of each bottle left over. We decided to mix them all together and try them and it was actually a very creamy mellow flavored BCBS that we all loved and prob would put as our #3!!

 

This is exactly why I love beer and Love having tastings as EVERYONES taste buds are different and one persons favorite beer can be another persons least favorite beer. Just go's to show ya don't take someone else's word for how GOOD or BAD a beer is. Try it yourself. And as i said above. 2009 was drinking GREAT 8 months ago for me so it is possible our bottle was infected or something but kinda surprising as it came from the same 4 pack but of course that doesn't mean a thing really . But either way 2011 is drinking great right now by both our accounts.

 

BTW.. this was Done Blindly as well. So we had no idea which beer was which.. I alluded that we did it blindly but didn't exactly say it.. Yeah.. 09 was just a Hot mess with a little weird tang. So it might have been a bad bottle and would usually be higher on the list or it really might just be falling off.. But 08 def. just didn't taste as good as the others and think it deserved its place down low on the list. Look forward to hearing your results though!

 

Yeah I'm excited to see what "fortsambo" fidings are in a couple weeks to see if me and my friends have extremely weird taste buds or the bottle was infected.. Or if 09 just fell down the hill fast..