BCBS Sightings - Chicago

Wow with updated prices I would have asked for all 3 - 2012 coffees @ 35 per.....dirt cheap and one of my all-time favorites.

 

The Beehive in St. Charles has regular on tap for $15/10oz. So it should be there for a while.

 

Weird. That's the only way I could describe Prop.

 

Yeah, I would definitely think Prop was the sweeter one, which also seemed to be the consensus around me at FoBAB. But I guess that's the magic of different palates!

 

I thought Prop was not as sweet as regal because it had the chilis to balance it out more. Regal did not have anything to round it out except for the sea salt which did not help much. It will be good in a year or so.

 

That's been the case for every fruited BCS.

 

Coincidently, I was at the Emporium on Saturday night for a small party for a friend. I had no idea BC was there beforehand. We got pretty greased up, and decided to pull the trigger and split a bottle of 2015 barleywine (at that time, there were 4 of us). So I ordered it. And one of the bartenders forgot to ring it up. When we pointed it out when we trued up our tab a little later, another bartender said "looks like it's on the house."

Free barleywine!

 

Anywhere in the North Suburbs recently?

 

Blech. That's the right price for that beer!

 

Why does everyone say this? I always thought, traditionally, that any beer with fresh ingredients (notably coffee BCS) should not be aged. Why would a beer like Regal "do better in a couple years"?

 

The Cherry Rye that I tasted at Rare Day was by far the best fruited BCS I've ever had and that has a few years on it.

 

Yeah, it's weird. Normally, fresh ingredients = drink now. The fruit BCS's are... different somehow. Bramble, Backyard, and Cherry all had a somewhat medicinal thing right after release. Like, my first thoughts on Cherry were BCS Robitussin.

I don't understand what happens over time that changes things. But, I found that aging smoothed the edges. Cherry became more like a chocolate-covered cherry. Bramble/Backyard became nice and jammy.

This is certainly not the case with most adjunct stouts. I always drink Coffee ASAP. 14 Prop was OK when I had it the other night... but it was definitely less aggressive than last year. Same goes for things like Huna, Abraxas, or whatever other loaded up stout you can think of.

Vanilla Rye is in a weird spot with all this. I think they overdid the vanilla out the gate, so I sat on the bottle. It was on point at FOBAB this year, so now it's on my "drink soon" list.

 

I think Cherry Rye was amazing from day 1.

 

Vanilla Rye on tap vs bottle are two different animals imo...while I agree the FOBAB kegs were delicious, I've had several bottles over the last year that were off. A good majority, if not all, had a weird synthetic chemical vanilla taste to me...no where close to the marshmallow bomb that it is typical of the draft version. Just my opinion, but don't be surprised if your bottle tastes weird, especially if you've only had it on draft.

 

A lot of people liked it. I found it better after a year.

Thanks for the heads up. I've heard tell of the "artificial" tasting vanilla... which I've also heard chalked up to the vanilla blend they used, which was different than the "standard" vanilla flavor.

 

I always thought VR was a bit artificial tasting to me from the start. Certainly preferred the og BCBVS over VR. However our group opened 4 bottles of VR on Friday at Emporium, and they were all drinking awesomely. Much better than any previous times I've had it.

 

If anything I think VR is worse with a year on it then fresh. Fresh I thought it was a little too sweet and sort of artificial flavored. With a year on it I thought it tasted exactly like liquid marshmallows, now maybe some people think that is a good thing but it was full of that artificial vanilla sweetness and made it feel like my teeth were rotting on the spot.

 

Paddy Long's in Lakeview

https://m.facebook.com/events/1628242164106215

 

Goose Island taproom has had prop on and off since the release, i'd highly recommend a visit if you'll be in chicago @bassfishingguy

 

The odds of getting Prop are pretty low, though, as it'll go quickly. But, they have had BW and at least one variant or regular on tap each week since release.