ADWTD for Mocha Wednesday

Batch numbers matter for the most part in my opinion.

Darkness, dark lord, beat, WA, framboos, black tuesday, etc., are all great examples of batch 1 trading way higher then there subsequent batches.

Batch 1 mw and batch 1 adwtd both trade higher than their b2 counter parts, imo.

 

Based on what? I'd love to hear any kind of reasoning or examples you can bring to this idea.

 

It's not a rule or anything, and it has nothing to do with rarity, it just seems to be a pattern I've found. Saison du fermier b1 vs b2 is one example that comes to mind.

 

Ample Drama With Regard to Dealings.

It's a way to refer to hyped up beer negotiations.

 

This is what I take issue with. There is no pattern. I mentioned several examples above that buck the "trend" which makes any reference to it as a pattern ... meaningless. For example:

I think most people agree that the 2014 batch of Darkness is superior due to partial barrel aging. So this is an example of tweaking a recipe batch to batch to improve it. I'm sure you can say "well, that's different because they partially barrel aged it" but now we've gotten away from a "pattern" to looking case by case. Hence, no pattern

No one is complaining that batch 6 Flora is inferior in any way to earlier batches. Batch 3 Art, from what I can tell, seems to be considered superior. So maybe HF is immune to the pattern?

Artrial b1 was superb, b2 not quite as good, b3 back to excellence. Batch 2 of Aurelian Lure was widely considered superior to Batch 1. Maybe JK is immune as well? Or maybe the pattern doesn't apply to wilds?

Were KBBS and Assassin inferior in 2014 batches? I'm sure folks will debate this but looking at ratings, that doesn't seem supported. I guess these batches are still small enough and whaley enough to avoid "the pattern."

Hope I'm not coming off as too agro / arguementative on this, but it's one of those pieces of "common sense" or oft repeated "wisdom" that doesn't seem to hold up under scrutiny.

Cheers!

 

Err, damn capitalization ruining my joke: supposed to be Ample Drama With regard To Dealings.

 

Hunahpu is another beer where the last batch was way better than the previous batches.

I agree with you for the most part, But I think is unfair to judge a beer in a new batch that has had it's recipe altered substantially to the previous batches. Darkness and art are essentially completly different beers than their previous batches (and I personally prefer non BA darkness to this year's).

Maybe I'm misinterpreting your argument though?

 

Darkness was barrel aged this year due to the original brewery not having tank space to bulk age. I will be curious to see what they do next year now that the new brewery is operational, I hope it is not barrel aged.

The general consensus around here is that the original non BA Darkness was preferred. Fresh I think it lost a lot of its hop punch from the barrels.

 

As someone who has both batches, it matters to me. One was extremely limited and already has a year in the cellar. The second batch although now drinking about the same as batch 1 is very easy for me to get. I've been trading batch 2 pretty much $4$, whereas I really can't think of anything I would trade my batch 1 bottles for.

 

I don't think you're misinterpreting. I chose those examples intentionally. My point is really just that there is no pattern of peaking at batch 1 and going down hill. I'd guess it's probably the opposite; brewers, like most craftsman, refine their work! But take your point about saying "well, if they really change the recipe we shouldn't compare batches." How about if they tweak it a little bit? Is it fair then?

I just suggest not harboring some prejudice that batch 1 rare stuff is automatically better because when you're prejudiced to tend to find what you set out looking for. The more we can remove expectation from the equation and taste with our mouths rather than our prejudices about batch, rarity, hype, etc, the better off we are.

Cheers!