2013 BCBBW

I cracked a 2013 BCBBW a month ago. Tons of dark fruits and little to nothing for barrel notes. The beer is holding carbonation nicely and it is pretty smooth drinking. Dark fruits are not muted, they have gotten to be much more prominent over time.

Drink it based on what you like for flavors of a barrel aged barleywine, not what other prefer.

 

Barrel notes were always lower in this beer. I think it stems from it being aged in barrels after BCBS.

Had one in November and I thought it was still delicious!

 

Interested to see what people feel of this beer moving forward. I got a four pack this year and have consumed one and thought it delicious, one of my favorites. I could easily drink the rest soon and be very happy but I'd be interested in what others have seen on this beer with a year or two or longer on it. As this is a beer I've never cellared

 

Haven't noticed to much of a "fall off" in flavors had one last week... I would say 5 years is definitely safe after that they tend to start teetering and fall completely after 7 years (based on doing 05-13 BCBS last year)

 

Did a 2013/14 side-by-side and honestly had a hard time discerning much difference. The 2013 may have been a little rounder, the flavors' edges very slightly smoothed out. Whether that was a good thing or a not-so-good thing, I'm not sure. Either way, I thought they were mostly alike. I say that if you enjoy it now, and want to drink it now, do so. I have some that I'll probably end up "cellaring" just because I don't find myself wanting to drink BA stuff often enough to move through a couple four packs very quickly (i.e., a pack each of BCBCS/BCBS/BCBBW).