Blind stout tasting

Just had 7-yeat Oaked Yeti the other day and it was sublime.

 

Ten FIDY: biggest change is at the two year marker IMO. The hops have completely faded and lots of graham, molasses and cocoa come through vs the fresh, hopped up stuff. At a year, the bitterness is still there and it almost seems like it's not a good idea to age it, let the hops completely die out on this one...

Yeti: only had it at a year - recall it being more sweet, dark fruit and hints of teriyaki.

Old Raspy: just had a two year a few days ago; hops still slightly bitter and weed resiny, malts really toasted (burnt costini almost) with a bit of brown sugar and some coffee.

FIS: at one year is really nice with sweet, balanced tawny and roasted malts, plenty of raisin and cocoa powder. A bit of molasses on the back end for me. My favorite of this bunch.

Narwhal: N/A

Never done it blind.

 

Founder IS at one year is amazing.

 

Over the last couple weeks I've tried Old Raspy and FIS with 1 and 2 years on them. I've learned it's ALWAYS smart to age FIS and Old Raspy was a serious letdown aged...especially compared with FIS.

In fact, I may not drink a single fresh FIS ever again. It was that much better with a year or two on it.

I'm sitting a '10 Oak Aged Yeti, can't wait to try that.

 

I drank 2 of the 3 I hung onto from last year's release. The first was so good that I pulled the second soon after. Unfortunately, the second one was super acrid and missing some of the complexity (it almost tasted citrus-hop-like to me) that the first aged bottle had, so I was disappointed. I'll probably wait on the last one for a bit.

 

Aging Yeti is a good idea. It is fabulous either way, but giving it a year or more is great. I think it would be cool (costly but cool) to do some verticals of those as well. I might put away a Hardywood GBS and a Blue Mountain Barrel House Dark Hollow with coffee and chocolate for a year for the same.

 

A couple weeks ago I tried several imperial stouts (non-blind) with a around a year on each - Yeti, Expedition Stout, Founders Imperial Stout, Plead the 5th, Ten Fidy - and my main conclusion was that the variation within the style was huge. All great beers, fresh or with age, though the only one I have almost a rule to cellar is Expedition Stout.