Bottle Logic (2022)

That's awesome! Thanks for that information. I was hoping they had a society membership like the Bruery. I appreciate you input.

 

I hope this doesn’t sound like hate towards BL, but getting the bottles via WOL was a great incentive to earn like PDmoore stated but their stuff doesn’t sell out like they did years ago. You can get 98% of their stuff by just buying what you when you want. I’ll do WOL again, but getting access to bottles in no longer an incentive. I’m cool with merch and glassware.

 

Is this because the hype is gone, because the beer quality has deteriorated, because the pandemic killed demand, or because they are producing more of the stuff than ever before? Some of this, some of that? Anyone know?

Personally, I hate that they started double-mashing stuff. 1-2 beers, fine, but not all or most of them (RIP original recipe FO ). I also stopped buying stouts with syrup or fruit in them (which for them is every other release, it seems). That's why I'm personally buying less BL these days.

 

I think it's all of the above:

• The Hype and it associated FOMO is largely gone in Southern California.
• The above, I think, is largely due to the wider distribution and availability of their beers. We've all seen the selves full of BL beer.
• Not so sure quality deteriorated, just shifted to a focus on sweetness (a la Modern Times) over their signature barrel flavors.
• All this at a time, when many of us have grown weary of heavy syrup sweet stouts and are buying less of them.

I still like BL, but I buy and drink nowhere near as much as I did a few years ago. For me, the main issue is the 4th bullet above.

 

From my experience, their beers became readily available and over time too sweet.

 

I'm pretty sure they upped their production by a lot, which also killed hype. People are saying that the beers have just become too sweet, but my friends have always called BL "diabetes in a bottle" outside of Darkstar/Red Eye, FO, and some of the rarer bottles like Space Trace and original Ground State. A lot of their beers were too sweet in the past, but the thicker double mash base takes that cloying sweetness and turns it into syrup instead of sweet beer. Thicker beers that aren't sweet, like Hypermash or Umibozu or Deprecaphobia, really work well. I like the thicker mash FO more than recent years but not as much as FOb3 and before. I didn't like thicker mash NC.

 

It all comes down to personal taste, but I am a big fan of the BL barrel aged sweet stouts/barleywines and double mash base. BL releases such as Depercophobia, Scatter Signal, Fundamental Forces, Arcane Rituals and Mass Action have been some of my favorites from any brewery in recent years.

While there is some amount of batch variation for specific repeat releases (e.g. FO), I have not found that overall release quality has dropped over the past 5 years. Of course, most of my BL consumption has been these "bigger" barrel aged releases so I can only speak to those.

 

I get that most of their Stasis stouts are solidly in the pastry realm--I mean, we all should, considering the marketing and the labeling clearly elaborate upon drawing inspiration from specific dessert or treats--but compared to Modern Times, Horus, Aslin, Equilibrium, Other Half, Veil, The Answer and Hidden Springs, I always found BL to be far, FAR more balanced and well-integrated with their far more well defined barrel characteristics.

As nicely as I can put it, I personally find stouts made by all those other aforementioned breweries to be fair to poor, and tend to lean towards Angry Chair for breweries on the cusp of too sweet without being cloyingly sticky or artificial. Even Shared and Side Project are on the sweeter end, for me.

For reference, aside from BL, I typically prefer Kane, Voodoo, Revolution, Cigar City and even FFF. TG and Hill stouts have never been fully satisfactory to my palate, as they are often too woody or heavy on dark fruit.

All this to say, my consumption of BA stouts has become more moderate over the past few years, even though it's still one of my favorite styles. It's become more localized too, as breweries near me have improved their barrel programs over time. Surely the pandemic is partly to blame, but I don't really think that's a primary factor. My personal levels of FOMO and hype are no longer strong enough to justify the expense of trading, shipping, waiting and worrying. I just don't care that much anymore. Every single person I know trades way less than they used to as well. People all over are appreciating what they have locally, and also falling back in love with well made, lower ABV styles.

 

Not previously mentioned, but I would think the (increased) presence of online shops selling the various BL releases over the last 3-5 years has drastically reduced hype.

Hype is driven by two factors: Those that have access and want it, and those that don't have access and want it. That last one brings it more than the former. So, as production outpaced local demand, it's a matter of fulfilling ISO demand for beer nerds across the US. If the only way to get it is to trade, then that keeps the hype up. If there are other ways to acquire it (tavour is not the only option - in fact, it may not even be the best option for BL), then that will reduce trade demand and reduce demand the greatest.

To a degree, this is not just my analysis, but my personal view after watching the beards with necks world since 2017.

 

I still have a 19 AR and the 21 - probably time to make those disappear -and replenish with the 22. They are always so good, you’re right. Aurum Orbitals sounds fun, too. Darkstar November has been one of my favorites over the years, and was one of the reasons for my first visit to BL in Anaheim. I’m just glad I’m not local. I would be finding a reason to pop up there way too often.

 

I have tried most of the Stasis releases the past few years, and enjoyed the large majority of them. As I drink this Paisley Cave, I have determined that marshmallow is the magic adjunct for pastry stouts. I don’t necessarily taste marshmallow but it seems like it ties all the other adjuncts together and smooths off any rough/bitter edges.

If BL just decides to include marshmallow in nearly every new release from here on out, I am on board with that.

 

There are so many breweries that fuck up so many beers with marshmallow that this is absolutely a rubicon moment.

For the most part, BL can feel out the right circumstances to push the decadence envelope, and when to exercise restraint. I'd hate to have seen what would have become of Somniphobia, D&D, or even FO if they'd have had marshmallow added to their components.

 

My comments were specific to BL, as I have had very few beers with marshmallow outside of Stasis. Of course BL has many outstanding offerings with no marshmallow (notably, Deprecophobia is arguably their best new release of the past couple years), but they have a very high hit rate on their releases that do include it.

Perhaps “nearly every release” is a bit of hyperbole. Perhaps “Rubicon moment” is as well, unless subpar marshmallow adjuncts prove to be the undoing of some poor unfortunate brewery.

 

While i think that Kraft Jet Puffed Marshmallows are nothing to write home about and an insult to beer , im glad you enjoy them!

 

A large bag of marshmallows is about $2 at Stater Bros, slightly cheaper for the cream, and adding either to bourbon barrel aged beer is an easy and cheap way to add a sweetness that is popular in the American diet.