Hello I’m wondering what people think of these beers as I only ever see them for trade, and never ISO. They’re are FT all over from BA to Facebook etc. And every post is “FT, would like to move as set”, often with huge asks such as hard to come by side project. Did anyone actually buy these and drink them? Are they solid? Untappd shows relatively high marks. I’m intrigued, but any time I see something from a brewery I haven’t heard of solely For Trade I’m obviously skeptical cheers Tom
Good question. Barclay brewing was a big hype brewery a few years ago and had a good buzz. That buzz has definitely died down. I've had many of the first series and they were pretty good. Not sure why folks want to keep the set together to trade. I know retail was hefty so assuming that's why the ask is high.
I've had them, don't own any more bottles- they're very good barrel-aged stouts, but in this day and age, "very good" doesn't stand out as much as it used to. These came as a set and most people could get two sets but these had to be prepaid for over a year in advance and most probably had to compensate proxies to get the bottles to them. So it's probably just a "return on investment/hassle" type thing. You're reading the tea leaves right- supply is higher than demand and you shouldn't need to overpay to land them. If you can get them at a reasonable price, I don't think you'll be disappointed, they're very good.
I've had the second set, 6-11. I wouldn't trade any big old whales for them, but they were all between good & excellent, but I'm the type of geek that finds different barrels/same beer intriguing. If you can land any or all of them for a price you're willing to pay I'd say they're worth it.
Also had 6-11, loved them. Some are better than others, but vanilla rye was fire. I think they're some of the better BA beers out there, but most of them aren't on the level of say BBT or something big like that. 6- I loved 7- was okay 8- was the best of the set and I recently bought more when they had a cellar sale 9- I also really liked this one 10- It's between this and 9 for the second best, and I don't like maple in my beers, but it's faint enough that it complements the beer and barrel nicely 11- the cognac was nice but I didn't get much coconut, and it's giving out some fruity notes now so it's certainly changed. Still good tho. Take that for what you will. If you have, for example, multiple BBTs it's worth trading a bottle for the set if you can get that still. 6 great bottles for 1, you can't go wrong with that.
