Wanted to get peoples opinions of the various Blabaer vintages. First off, I had heard that the bottle count is usually around 180 bottles of 750s and 350 bottles of 375s. Is that typically the case? I know someone reported that it was the case up til 2011 I think, but was unsure about the 2012. Does anyone know what the 2012 #s were? The other question I had was taste. Obviously fruit tends to fade over time and Cantillon tends to get more sour. I got the joy of tasting a 2009 Blabaer 750 on Zwanze Day and it was incredible. Still plenty of blueberry flavor in it which surprised me. Does this mean that the fresh blabaer is SUPER blueberry in flavor? Or do blueberries in general tend to be a stronger fruit in beer and fade less? Lastly, what was the batch # for 2012? I was just wondering how many years Blabaer has been made. Thanks in advanced for any info/opinions!
I had 2011 last year and it was VERY sweet, tons of blueberry in there. Haven't had other vintages though so can't help there.
As far as I know, Blåbær has been released once a year since 2005, except 2009 when two batches were released. That would make the 2012 batch #8. As I understand it, the great thing about lambics and the like is that they don't necessarily develop in a linear way. Yes, fruit tends to fade but as any lambic may first grow more tart, then less tart, then more tart again (just to take an example), the lambic itself may complement the fruit differently, so an older vintage may at any given point taste "fruitier" than a newer vintage. And again, a newly-bottled lambic may also be so tart that it drowns the fruit a bit (though this happens more rarely, I guess). For what it's worth, the general recommendation I got from Ølbutikken (the store that sells Blåbær) was to cellar the bottles about until the next vintage is released, i.e. drink the 2012 in 2013, and so on. This is all theory and speculation, btw. I have a bottle of 2012 at home that I have yet to open...
I just opened a 2011 recently and while it was definitely still fruit-forward, I didn't find it to be particularly sweet, which is what many people seem to report with a fresh bottle. The sourness was at a nice level, with a delicious balance between that and the fruit. From what I've read, it doesnt quite sound like Blabaer builds sourness at the same rate or level that other Cantillon fruit lambics do (ie Fou Foune or Lamvinous), although some of the guys around here that have done 4-year verts and whatnot could probably give a better breakdown.
We recently did a Blabaer 09-12 vertical and most agreed that the fruit gets more and more prominent with the more recent vintages. The 09 wasn't sour or gueuze-like per say but you could tell that the fruit had definitely faded significantly compared to the '12. Grumpyoldtroll, cosmicevan, jbuddle, and a couple others were all part of the tasting so maybe they could weigh in here. I believe that '12 was the 8th batch.
Here is a pic of that vertical ('09 on the left and '12 on the right). interestingly, you can clearly see the actual liquid is quite a bit darker as you get to the fresher batches. Personally I enjoyed the '12 to the rest by a lot, but followed by the '09. As you would expect the '09 was the most sour but it certainly wasn't bracing or over the top as Jim said. '10 and '11 were both kind of muddled and strange. '12 is so fresh and full of berry flavor. Edit...wonder if Evan has a better pic. Mine kind of sucks.
Curious, to piggy back on this thread... Can someone say what it is going for these days? 33cl(may have the size wrong) and 750mL?
I opened a 2007 recently and it was probably my least favorite Blåbær to date. The fruit had fallen off some, but it hadn't picked up the cantillon sourness that i was hoping for. I'm still aging a couple of bottles; I suspect that it had just hit an ackward phase.
I opened a 2007 in Aug 2012 along with a 2011 & 2012 and I thought the 2007 was the best of the 3 vintages. I just opened another 2012 last month and it had drastically improved from Aug, which was good news. Bottom line, I like Blåbær.
I have one bottle hanging around but have been too afraid to open it since I can rarely ever get cantillon. Pretty much always have to trade for it.
opened a batch 1 '09 next to a '12 - '12 is blueberry juice. tart and delicious and overpoweringly blueberry. '09 the blueberry had faded but the sour had ramped up (like Foune does a bit) -- by far preferred the '09 but both were great.
