Bourbon County Coffee 2015 - Gusher?

Wow, that sucks! And I was bummed that I got 0 bottles of BCBCS this year.

 

I tried a BCS for the first time (my first bourbon barrel aged anything) last night. It was a 2014 regular, delicious, but I don't know how you drink a full bottle of that on your own. In fairness I had already had an Enjoy By and a Damnation, but I basically had to split half a bottle with my wife with the rest left for today. I found a little went a long way.

I think this why I haven't bought Prairie Bomb to try. Intimidated...

 

Anyone experiencing this contacted goose island yet? I have found them pretty responsive to complaints, and if you don't tell them they can't track down the batches that might be having an issue

 

Nothing like a thread throwing around the dirty I-word. I wonder if this wasn't a Goose product if anyone would allege infection.....

FWIW...here is the Intelligentsia information on the Los Delirios coffee that was used in this year's batch. Those fruit flavors aren't sounding like off flavors...

http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com...t-docs/product-doc/Los_Delirios_Nicaragua.pdf

 

Well the fact that there is sourness, and the body of the beer has thinned out and there is extra carbonation which indicates additional (unintentional) fermentation after the beer was bottled. Yep, there is no doubt in my mind that some bottles of BCBCS are definitely infected. If it were anybody but Goose Island, I doubt you would be defending them.

FYI, I had an infected bottle as well, which I drain poured. Oh, and I'd love to send the rest of my infected BCBCS to whichever douche bag responds with "send me the rest." Just send me a postage paid, self-addressed box.

 

I friend opened a bottle up for me and it was really good. No signs of infection that I could tell. Tastes like bourbon county and espresso.

 

The gushing and sour cherry hits are a dead give away. Neither are representative of anything BC.

 

I am assuming if this was a wide-spread problem this thread would be blowing up.

 

Good 'ol AB quality control

 

Hey! You weren't supposed to take me up on the offer. Now I have to admit that I lied and only purchased one bottle. lol

 

No big loss..SMS will be out soon..cheaper and better..

 

Mine was not a gusher but it did taste awful. All I tasted was sour coffee, no bourbon or beer taste at all. I did have a 2014 coffee back in February and it was great.

 

This thread had me wondering, so popped my only bottle last night. No gushing, no infection, but the beer was just a routinely good coffee stout, nothing like the wonder of previous vintages. A bit sad, but glad I didn't buy a bunch.

I'd take SMS any day!

 

FWIW I have tasted too many beers with infections, and I read the coffee tasting notes you linked, and in my opinion this beer is infected. It isn't unusual for only some few beers out of a batch to show infection, and others are fine. What folks are describing here, i.e. overcarbonation, muted flavors, lactic tart, sour cherry finish are the hallmarks of a young infection.

 

Poetic Justice

 

I hate not having a more credible source for this (so take with the appropriate amount of salt), but a friend and I were discussing the relative rareness of the coffee variant this year. He went to Rare Day and one of the GI employees obliquely mentioned there not being much coffee this year because they had to dump some that wasn't up to their standards. No specific mention of an infection, because I'm sure they know just as well as any brewer that the dreaded I-word is an open invitation for internet rabble rousers to out the pitchforks. But in hindsight, it seems like this might have been what they were referring to. Given the fact that it seems relatively isolated *and* the scarcity of Coffee this year, you can't really fault GI for not doing the right thing here. Sounds like some may have just slipped through the cracks.

It's a little bittersweet, because BCBCS is certainly my favorite coffee-infused stout, and might be my favorite stout overall. I was disappointed to not get my hands on any and had pretty much resigned myself to being unable to trade for any given the seeming scarcity and the high value for which it seemed to be trading. At this point, I don't think I'll be trying to trade for any, because even though the issue seems to be fairly infrequent, I'd hate to go through the hassle, extra expense and lost bottles to get a bottle only to find it tart/flavorless/overcarbonated/etc.

Hahaha, well if he hadn't taken you up on it, I was going to. But props to you for admitting it on the thread--you could have just BM'd him with your mea culpa

 

Interesting, I traded for two Sunday Morning Stouts last year and so far, the one I've opened was sour as the dickens. Infection city.

 

I had a regular BCBS 15 do a minor gush on me, but it tasted great. Took about 5 seconds before it started to foam over, but not with any sort of force.

 

I had two bottles recently. Neither gushed.

One was colder and tasted good if a little thin compared to prior batches. Was definitely my least favorite of any of the coffee BCBS bottles I've had over the years though. You could get a slight off flavor in the finish but nothing major.

The second bottle was room temp and had been shipped to me. Smelled great but as soon as you tasted it, it was obvious it was infected. It seemed to be in the middle of the infection and not completely sour, but it was still very off.

I've had plenty of infected bottles before. I know what an infection tastes like.

Sucks. I'd recommend keeping your infected bottles in case Goose does something about it.

 

Yep, a definite sour / tartness in my bottle...damn, really really freaking disappointed right now.

My bottle was not a gusher. Barely any head at all during a slow pour.

Bottled 09/17/15 Batch 1048 (? Not exactly sure what that # is).