4 Hands Madagascar

I'm just speculating here, but I think it might be on draft at the open bottle in Tinley Park. According to their Instagram special trappings posts, this week on Friday 4 Hands is up. The timing just seems perfect for Madagascar to go on, anything else would be a bit of a let down (for me)

 

Left-leaning political ideology and capitalism are not mutually exclusive. I'm always loathe to get into political discussions on a beer site (well, political discussions that aren't related to the politics of the beer industry, anyway), but I also don't like seeing misinformation.

You can have a liberal political ideology and still believe in the basic concept behind capitalism of charging a price for your product that is commensurate with its worth.

If the posts and comments from friends of mine who went to the release are any indication, there are not. But I don't remember hearing anything about Madagascar II last year until it arrived, so could be a similar situation.

 

IMO, vanilla is an adjunct that needs to be used quite sparingly (a la VaS, Bomb, etc.). Way too often it is used to mask a mediocre base that people will go crazy for because its a hot trend. And for me, most BA beers need to have a much thicker body to hold up to the barrel aging. That's where this beer falls for me in both cases. I enjoy a lot of 4 Hands stuff, so not knocking them. And I don't think its a bad beer by any means, I'm just more along the lines of Lansman that its not a beer worth standing in a long line in the cold for.

EDIT: the hypocrisy with my first statement is that I feel the opposite with coffee. I love coffee bombs. but again, with any adjunct, the base needs to be good before the variant can be any good.

 

Yeah, I'd agree with this. I really liked Madagascar when I first tried it, but that was partially because it was a vanilla bomb. Upon re-trying the beer, I was a little more let down; the beer wasn't as vanilla forward as I remembered, and the base stout wasn't particularly interesting (not saying this is always the case; I'd had it on tap a couple times, and the only time it let me down was, of course, when I got a bottle).

 

I’ve heard this before about madagascar. The first time I had it my buddy cracked one for us and was really excited to share it because he also said the first time he had it there was so much vanilla. He said he was kinda let down it didn’t live up to the vanilla bomb he experienced before. I still thought it was very good, thus I will be searching one out if/when it becomes available hoping it will be the vanilla bomb my friend initially experienced.

 

Oh yeah, it's definitely still good. Hell, my favorite non-BA stout (Darkness) disappointed me this year, because it wasn't as thick as I remembered.

Memory is a tricky thing, especially with stuff like craft beer. The more beers you taste, the more your expectations subtly shift, so when you return to an older beer, it's hard to tell whether the beer itself has changed, your memory is bad/inaccurate, or you've just had a bunch of other good beers. I would imagine some of all 3 played into my last experience with Madagascar, so I'm not writing it off just yet.

 

On the shelves here in central Illinois. 24.99/bottle.

 

$24.99/bottle? sheeit, I'd be passing it up every time. funny how much vanilla can can add to the hype train.

 

Total crap! Can someone please explain why Madagascar is $24.99 at all Binnys today? I'm told it was $16.99 yesterday in their system and at locations that had it, but the price changed early today in their system. And wasn't it $16.99 last year?

 

I had a pour of Madagascar tonight (shoutout to @beerbelly_mike for saving me from being shut out!!!), and I have to say, I'm not seeing it. It's less thin than it was last year (based purely on memory), but I didn't get the super vanilla bean-forward flavor that blew me away when I first had it a couple years back. It was definitely very tasty, but not "Camp outside the shop and spend $25 for a bomber"-good.

 

I can answer, the sku they use for Madagascar is shared with another 4 Hands bottle, I saw when they scanned my bottle I bought today Madagascar popped up 24.99 and the other bottle with same sku was 16.99(I don't remember what it was), the Binny's associate has to verify and choose the correct one. Also as of yesterday It was not in the system, I watched my Binny's guy check the system. He had no idea it was coming today till it arrived. Some other Binny's may have been more in the know in the city.

 

I'm remembering the same thing when it 1st hit Chicago. I bought one on a whim,drank it a few days later and was blown away. Last year I had it on draft and it was muted in comparison. Just not worth the trouble obtaining a bottle IMO. I haven't had this years yet but based on reviews and last year I'm not even going to go slightly out of my way for a pour on draft. Then again I'm not saying I wouldn't pick up a bottle if I stumble across it in hopes of flipping it for something good. Sweet home Chicago.

 

Yep. Went and ahead and paid the piper for one. Equally excited (and caffeinated) for Devil's Invention too. Just had one. Great coffee stout.

Yep. Saw that with my own eyes today. I don't remember it either.

 

That doesn't explain why it increased from 16.99 last year (unless last year they incorrectly chose the other bottle with that same SKU), does it? The same SKU thing happens all the time at Binny's, especially with wine, so they should easily know how to check which bottle it is.

 

Woodman's had it for 17.99. 24.99 seems ridiculous.

 

My guess is honestly that the market/taste buds/expectations for what a "vanilla forward stout" is have changed. When I first had Blackout Stout years ago it blew me away with how robust all of the flavors were. I had it again this winter and the flavors are still great but compared to everything else on the market the flavors seem "muted."

That said, there's variance in every batch of beer that gets released, especially these huge stouts that are barrel aged for months at a time and it is also possible they are tweaking the recipe.

 

It had a higher price tag this year in general. $15.99 or $16.99 last year but it was $23/bottle at the 4 Hands release, so...

 

Thanks - I didn't know about the price hike directly from the brewery. A 35% increase is pretty substantial...but they're moving the product, so can't really disagree with it. And there are plenty of other BA stouts selling for mid-$20's and up (Prop, BA Darkness, etc.), so I suppose we shouldn't be surprised.

Sounds like you got lucky with $17.99.

 

Very lucky @ $17.99.

 

I sent a friendly e-mail to Binny's asking about the huge price increase, and the timing of it. I received a quick response from the corporate beer buyer that stated:

"We inquired about the last minute price increase, because like yourself, we were surprised. We were told that the price of Madagascar vanilla beans went up and a considerable amount more were used this year when compared to last year.
If you have any further questions about why the cost of 4 Hands Madagascar went up, I would advise you to direct them to 4 Hands."