1986 Thomas Hardy's

I opened one of these this past weekend for a friend since it was his birth year beer. I also opened up a 91 jw lees, 96 thomas hardy and 01 jw lees. To the surprise of everyone involved the 86 was the best tasting of them all.

 

My 1987 TH (which had been properly cellared, I trust) was an oxidized mess. Soy sauce, sour, very salty (so strange) and bitter. Super intense flavors that I couldn't stomach, and had to give to my friend after my second sip, over the course of fifteen minutes.

Is that out of character? Or is that par for the course, and I'm just weak sauce on what I can handle? I love intense sour lambics and pungently bitter IPA and strong Barleywine...but this was something different than anything else I've tasted.

The 2001 JW Lees we enjoyed that same night was beautiful -- Madeira and toffee for days, sweet and complex. Would bang again.

 

Sounds like that bottle had already went downhill. Granted the earliest vintage I got to try was a 1994 but it was delicious. A little bit of oxidation can be found but it was not sour or salty. It was in fact a little sweet. Definitely all kinds of flavors going on but oh so delicate.

 

Since the guy I got it from loved the last two bottles he'd had, I think it was just an "off" bottle. Very off, haha. Still glad to have tried it, but made me want to never have another, although if I keep hearing good things I may be tempted again someday...

 

I had a bottle, around 10 years old, in the early 1980's. Very intense flavours. Think I would probably enjoy it more now than I did then.

 

I still have one or two 1986 Hardy's. I suppose I should pop them soon. Thirty years is probably old enough ; ) I've had several from 1987. A friend and I split a case of 16 at the time. Of the 1987s I drank, none had gone bad, so maybe yours was an anomaly.