2014 Darkness bottle question

In 2014 they were all BA with red wax, 2015 they had BA and regular, with Gold wax on the BA.

 

Yes, 2014 was all BA. 2015 is where the gold wax indicated the BA variant.

 

2015 BA label also clearly indicates it is barrel aged

 

Just an fyi though, the 2014 version used recycled barrels (I believe first stored Surly 8 in them), so the ba characters were a lot less prominent than the 2015 version.

 

Yup. Whiskey, then Surly 8, then '14 Darkness was in those barrels.

 

If someone was ISO BA Darkness they probably meant 2015....

 

I've seen a lot of traders list 14 as "2014 BA Darkness", which I assume is to try to play up the value of the beer or catch people who don't know that all the bottles were "BA"

 

2014 Darkness - ALL bottles are barrel aged. Red wax dipped after bottling.

 

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but 2014 Darkness was the first BA version of Darkness, hence the BA Darkness labeling by the traders.
And yes, all 2014 bottles were barrel aged even though the bottle made no direct mention. All bottles were red wax dipped.

 

I believe it was the first "BA" release of Darkness into bottles and to retail.

 

Well if you're going to get all technical about it!

 

I think that's a legit thing to do. In case someone doesn't know that single year was entirely barrel-aged (not unreasonable for people outside of MN). If someone just wants to try regular Darkness & they receive a 2014 barrel-aged bottle - well, they could be happy, but they could also be irritated or confused. More info never hurts!

 

As long as you advertised 2014 you are good...if you just said barrel aged darkness I would have assumed 2015

 

Good work! Im impressed!

 

To sum it all up yeah they were all barrel-aged in 2014.. and if you listed the year in your trade you don't need to send him anything else.. or owe him anything period... it's his responsibility to know what he is trading for... as long as you described it properly.. now if there wasn't a misunderstanding you could certainly work with him in order to be nice.. as that is the Beer Advocate way imo.


that being said 2015 barrel aged is much better than 2014. Because virgin barrels were used in also the trade value is much higher because of a more limited quantity actually a very limited quantity .2014 was kind of an off year for most Minnesotians imo.

 

Apparently we're going to rehash this again here...2014 was barrel aged as a means to an end. Surly was in the middle of making the transition from the old brewery to the new palace and didn't have the time or space to brew Darkness on their usual schedule. They brewed it earlier than normal and then put a bunch in barrels to store until it was time to bottle.

All 2014 bottles were barrel aged (blend if you really want to get technical...I'm too lazy to find the info...I believe Todd posted something to that effect on their Facebook page back at the time). Most kegs weren't barrel aged. Starting in 2015 was the much "truer" barrel aged that all good stout lovers are more used to knowing and tasting when it comes to adding goodness.