I had a Bière De Mars Grand Reserve by Jolly Pumpkin recently. It was a 12 ounce bottle with a gold sticker. The sticker was blank. Either I received it that way or I accidentally wiped it off while rinsing out the bottle. It's bothering me now that I can't determine the batch info. I also noticed bottle size is blacked out with a permanent marker on the label. I'm hoping that is a clue. I would really appreciate it if someone could provide some information about the different batches and how to tell them apart.
My bottles from this year are already gone, so I can't give you batch #'s or info, but they were 11.2 oz bottles this year.
Definately an older batch than this year. I *think* this one had not been brewed for a while, so yours is probably over a year old at least. Their gold labels and the ink they use are shit. You do not have to do much to wipe the information off.
Here's this year's batch from the bottle in my cellar. Other batches were 2/19/10 (batch 346/348) and 3/22/11 (batch 472/473). These were also 330ml Lots of edits to this! The 12 oz bottle was batch #65 and bottled in 2008. Oak aged 27 months. 2009 release (I think 12 oz) was Bourbon aged for 16 months.
I think there's been 6 batches of BdM GR. Batch 1 - oval label and aged 14 months - looks to be around March 2006 Batch 2 - square label and aged 27 months - best JP to date IMO - March/April 2008 Batch 3 - square label and aged 16 months - last BdM GR batch sold at JP Dexter - March 2009 Batch 4 - first GR batch in newer stubby 11.2oz belgian bottles - can check later to see if my bottles are dated - looks to be 2/19/10 bottling Batch 5 - believe this came in stubby bottles and in a few 750's - bottled 3/22/11 Batch 6 - bottle posted above mine dated 3/4/13 Would be curious the ages of batches 4 - 6 if anyone knows
Guessing you have either batch 2 or 3. I can check my bottles to see if the bottle size on mine are blacked out. I vaguely recall them doing this on the 27 month bottles so they didn't need to print seperate 12oz labels but not 100% sure.
Based on your description it sounds like it should be a batch 2 or batch 3. I would appreciate it if you could check them both and let me know. Thanks again for the help everyone. You guys are awesome!
Yea, it's either that or having BA developer in your title block is like being a chick with big boobs...everyone is going to be nice to you.
Looked at both bottles this morning. Both labels have the 1 pint, 9.4oz blacked out. The 27 month (batch 2) has a white sticker on the back "Batch 65" and gold sticker on the front "27 month Grand Reserve" or something like that. The 16 month just had a gold sticker on the front "16 month Grand Reserve". I'd say if you can't read the gold sticker look for the "Batch 65" on back to see if you have batch 2 or 3.
