Adam vertical results

when whole foods had the 20% off beer friday i picked up a case of adam, it is one of my favorite beers. plan on drinking them over time, really appreciate this post to feel out the peek. also have a batch 74 and 77 aging.

adam ftw is hands down one if the best beers ive had, wish i coulda picked up a case of that guy and do the same experiment haha.

ive had both the 2009 and 2011 of cherry adam and they were both great in their own right. i think a year on it is really does it for me. still the burst of cherry flavor from it fresh and still taking the edge of alchol of it fresh.

those magnums look awesome.

 

A 3L gusher sounds like quite a show. Nice notes. I like when people tell me it's oxidized and cardboardy instead of playing it up and saying it tastes like sherry. I had an old Fred that was a sherry bomb.

 

wow that's a hell of a report!

please expand on which batch # you have?

based on multiple bottles bought individually @ Whole Foods (Batch #83), all excellent, i snapped up a case from elsewhere & was delighted to find Batch 83 bottles inside. opened the first bottle - poured slow 94.375634% foam! second bottle poured super slow, 92.7 on the foam richter scale. third & fourth the same. ironically in the midst of my dilemma another BA out of Texas breached the subject before i - same batch. more on that, maybe a separate thread but i'd be most curious to hear your batch number & possibly which Whole Foods you got yours from. my good bottles came from SF's 17th & Rhode I' store.

p.s. sorry in advance for sidetracking the thread a bit, Arbitrator

 

I guessed Batch 70 would be the best, just based on the ages. 2-5 years is the sweet spot for nearly everything it seems.

 

I really wish HotD would trash their damn 1990's Geocities web page, make current one, and then start updating it regularly... I'd love to know the brew dates for any of their beers past 2005...

 

oh man that sucks to hear about that. sounds like i lucked out, i got a case of batch 82.
the 2 ive had so far have been good (although having it side by side with adamn ftw was a mistake)

thanks for the warning on batch 83. i think arbitrator is right about batch variation. these last few batches have been good but not as stellar as the 75-78s were that ive had (unless my palate has changed)

 

thanks for the info. and yes, lucky you!!

one thing that doesn't sit right is unless there are actually multiple runs with-in a listed #, batch variation can't explain this. remember, the excellent bottles i had earlier from WF were also batch #83, same # as the screwed up bottles.

the interesting thing is when i reached out to the BA member from Texas re: his concern & the same issue, i inquired if he was aware which distributor handled the bottles he was having problems with - his response was he had absolutely no idea who the distributor was because he bought the bottles via a shop in the City.

i happen to know the shop's owner - when i spoke to him, he indicated he was fed the fugg up & had since dropped all HotD products. i also notice the same Whole Foods (i only had good bottles from) has not restocked HotD since Adam & Fred sold out several months back as well. makes one wonder.

 

Nice recap. Adam is probably my favorite beer when it's "on". Bottle conditioning is a fickle bitch.

 

hmm that is strange, something up and its a real shame too. how far apart did u have the good against the bad bottles? maybe a progression of something wrong? my local spot finally got bottles in recently (this passed friday) after a very long time with out it as well.

 

picked up the case maybe 7-10 days after the last purchased (good) single.

 

i have always enjoyed adam the most when it is fresh but your post has me thinking that it would be nice to tuck away some bottles and forget about them for fun.

 

Two friends and I did a similar tasting in April, with batches 55, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 76, 80, and 81. We also threw in the new Adam from the Wood. Basically all the batches from about 70 and on were fantastic. I don't have notes but I think batch 73 or 72 was my favorite. One batch, maybe 69 or 71, was really crazy, it was more reddish than the others and had tons of sour cherry and herb flavors. Probably infected but didn't express it like normal dark beer infections, it was actually really good. These Hair of the Dog vertical tastings are the best.

Adam from the Wood was maybe my least favorite of the 12. Drinking it next to regular Adam highlighted how freakin sweet that beer is, the barrel is just massively sweet and frankly a bit annoying. It reminded me a bit of the newer Old Stock reserve (bourbon) in that way.

We also drank a Chocolate Rain that night, or at least drank 1/3 of the bottle, before drainpouring the rest. Horrible beer.

 

i've not had CR, but being familiar with black tuesday, i must say that it's kind of weird that CR retains the trade value it has. i understand that it's driven by rarity and the high demand for BT, and i'm sure i'd like CR... but i can't understand trading for it when you could get the current 100% BA anniversary beer for less, or 25% anniversary beers or white oak or melange #3 (nowadays) or even current-year BT for that matter.

[edit: in light of current trade forum threads though, note that i wouldn't try to argue down the value of CR either; it's ridiculous for it to trade under BT value, really, but i personally wouldn't trade more for CR than BT, except to compensate a trading partner i liked--ie i'd "overpay" relative to my preferences just b/c i'd want to not be swindling the person. that said, i rarely if ever trade BT-level anyway]

re: adam verticals, i've only had a couple vintages and i have a couple aging now. hard to find a better beer than adam, fresh or aged. also, in full agreement with arbitrator taste-wise; love the leather aspect.

 

ive got a batch 55 adam that I plan on opening in the next month, here's to hoping i didnt sit on it too long as some have implied in this thread.

and not to threadjack, but i drank a 1/2 a bottle of CR last night, that beer is amazing.

 

When a story begins like this...

...there has got to be a more funny/drunk/weird ending beyond drainpouring 2/3 of a bottle of your cocoa driveway tar.

 

Well, one of the other two guys was permanently banned from making forum posts as a result of a thread that went up that evening. We also have a video of the Chocolate Rain being disposed of.

 

Now that's what I'm talking about.

 

We need to see this video!

 

Somehow I have to think that the dislike of cr came from the fact that three guys had already consumed a 12 pack basically of Adam before trying to take on a nearly 20% beer. Seems to have less to do with the intrinsic quality of the product. Ps I have to see the video so that I can cry a bit and make sure never to trade bruery beers with you.