Bourbon County Coffee 2015 - Gusher?

Not sure that I follow. Are you saying that pedio would have had to be introduced by the bottling line and since that is unlikely at a brewery such as GI, the diacetyl people speak of is not actually there? Sorry if I'm putting words in your mouth and have misinterpreted. Barrels are notoriously difficult to keep sanitary. I'm assuming it would be a likely source of pedio, but I see how it could then be easily spread from isolated barrels to large numbers of bottles by combining multiple barrels into tanks and/or bottling lines.

Edited to add a link from a homebrew angle, and how an infection (most likely pedio) can introduce diacetyl and not be cleaned up by fermentation activity: http://brulosophy.com/2014/11/13/problem-identification-or-helping-a-buddy-stay-in-the-hobby/

 

I have had perfect carbonation on the one 3 i ve had, really great brews , the only detractor was that the coffee was bitter.

 

Opened up a BCBCS stamped 1224 tonight- bottle was in the cellar until 3 days ago, when it went into the fridge. Opened cold. Didn't gush. 1/2 finger head. Slight tart fruitiness, that faded as the beer warmed. Don't think this one is infected, but definitely has a "juicy" note.

 

had the regal rye on draft over the weekend and it was phenomenal, but i love fruity stouts. really a fan of that. i wish i had more coffees to trade for it.

 

oh, they would feel it.

 

Do tell. What off flavors are you experiencing?

 

Again, I'm a professional brewer. I don't need links. Barrels are not difficult to keep sanitary. Nothing is difficult to keep sanitary. There may be mistakes, but it's certainly not in the barrels unless idiots are filling/emptying them.

 

Not infected..

 

I didn't get any up here, sucks. I would like to see what everyone thinks is wrong with this beer; that is probably perfectly fine based on the description.

 

No. not likely. They bottle in an hour far more than the entire 2015 run.

 

opened my coffee a few weeks back. date stamp 17/sep/15 1537. First time trying it but was very delicious and no issues with the bottle.

 

Can you clarify what you mean? Are you saying everyone claiming infection is wrong and this is the beer GI intended? Lots of people in this post have said what they "think is wrong with this beer".

 

I'm not sure I agree with you here. Things designed to be kept sanitary are easy to keep sanitary. Barrels are not easy to keep clean. They are porous. They are the very definition of unsanitary. Sure, you can throw all kinds of sulfite and acid at them, but they are still porous. There's a reason brewer swithced to stainless. In the absence of a microbiological QA program with products that are consumed quickly or locally (like a brewpub), it may just be a case of "ignorance is bliss."

That being said, GI seems to have a legitimate a problem. It may be microbiological. It may not. It may be a slow growing bug at a very low seed rate. It may be cross contamination with a more attenuative yeast. It may just be they just made it differently this year. Regardless, people are detecting a difference. The fact that it is not consistent would tend to indicate it wasn't intentional. I find it difficult to believe that GI would deliberately release contaminated product. So the likely explanation is there is a gap in GI's QA program which they are likely eager to close. That will take time, despite all the resources available to them from ABI. People should give them time to figure it out. It's going to take longer than a few days to do that. I seriously doubt they're trying to pull a fast one here. The Bourbon Country franchise is too important to their whole brand identity for them to do that purposely

 

I know nothing about the specifics of bugs, yeasts, etc., but if the problem was with the barrels, wouldn't we experience issues with the kegged BCBCS as well? It seems like there haven't been any issues reported with draft BCBCS. Again, I know next to nothing about a lot of this, so it very may well be a dumb question...but I figured I'd ask anyway.

 

Sorry, bad wording on my part.

I would like to taste the flavor profile of the coffee. I don't doubt anyone that says it is infected, that is a taste you don't forget. Plus gushing is usually a solid indicator.

In the BW thread, someone quoted a GI rep as saying the brett in Gillian got loose and found BW.

However, it was stated the coffee blend was overtly fruity this year.

This many people can't be wrong but you can't deny that it is possible someone could mistake fruitiness imparted by the right reason as amuch effect of the wrong reason.

 

Generally draft beer is kept cold through the supply chain, so that would slow the growth of an infection, if any exsists.

 

Drinking one right now and it tastes great. This coffee bean has a nice citrus tang flavor, way different than previous years. Did not gush at all. 17/SEP/15 bottle date 1949 time stamp. Have one left and will post when I drink it.

 

Chicago guy here. Was hoping it wasn't true.

 

bottling time?

 

Good to hear, that's my bottles #

 

All bottled Sep 17. 4 out of my 6 were gushers (1252, 1910, 1947, 1954). 1 gushed only for 10-15 seconds but was totally off (1127). 1 fizzed halfway up neck but was delicious (2158).

 

If it's any consolation.. I dropped $20 on a Lolita, which was my first, and it was a total ketchup/pickle bomb. I can understand the pickle aspect.. I kind of catch that same funk in Sophie(which I love!).. But that random strong ketchup taste... I couldn't get passed it.

Poured it out for the homies.

Thank god I didn't review it, or mention that I may have reviewed it.. A mod would have my head on his keyboard.b

 

What is the HS bottle limits for Room for Me?

 

After letting mine sit longer last night the tartness stuck around and was very prevalent in the aftertaste- not in an enjoyable way. There wasn't anything resembling a typical coffee stout and it was much different than the draft pours I've had. Also, I've had coffee brewed with these beans a few times and the fruitiness that was present was very subtle; I would not expect it to cut through a BA stout to the extent that's been noted by myself and others.

 

Is there a resource that we can use to enter time stamps and results in one place so that all of the time stamps and user reports of infection (or lack thereof) are all provided in one place. This thread is going to continue to grow and it is going to be difficult to search through pages and pages of user reports intermixed with general comments, etc.

 

Add 1654 & 1711 to the list - gush city and a funky, sour, cherry taste, which was not pleasant.

 

Just curious, but has anyone narrowed down any specific region(s) that has acquired the majority of the infected bottles?

FWIW I purchased and consumed BCBSBW in Chicago and NJ, both were good.

 

Someone made this : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...ABUcRYHjz-Q--3edgHzwIE0o/htmlview?pli=1#gid=0

Don't know if it's really accurate or anything, just copying the link. But as many people said, it may not be dependent of time stamps, maybe bottles/caps are responsible etc ... + cellaring conditions

 

Has anyone had a bad one with a time after 10pm?

 

I've used plenty of barrels, now. Correct tactics and routines eliminate infections entirely. It's not difficult, you just can't build your own theories on gut instinct and assume it'll work. Again, a professional would not make barrel mistakes.

 

i have one that it is 2215....I'll open it tonight....for you and for science.

 

Wanted to say cellaring conditions could impact on the rapidity of the infection, therefore it's difficult to make any conclusion, some bottles could have been stored in the fridge so people didn't realised it was infected yet.

 

So, not sure what you are saying here. Do you mean the problem isn't related to the barrels but is cross contamination from bugs used in other parts of the brewery?

 

Barrels aren't difficult to keep sanitary? Your definition of difficult must differ from mine and I work with thousands of barrels a year. Barrels get contaminated despite the best practices in any brewery. They key is effective identification and quarantine of contaminated barrels. GI will have contaminated barrels every year, guaranteed. We all do. Things get very tedious when you are making blends as large as they do and this is really unfortunate to hear.

 

Judging by what I see many other breweries doing with barrel handling, your average "professional" doesn't really have the means or experience to work with barrels in a way that would eliminate the possibility of contamination. Brewers do some pretty sketchy stuff with barrels. GI is one of the best though and I would assume that they are just dealing wit the inherent risk involved with this area.

Just offering another brewers perspective...

 

i'm curious. since barrels are porous enough for water to escape, are they not, in theory, porous enough for bacteria to get in?

 

Yes but most kegs were probably drank quickly, it's only now after some time these infections seem to be showing up. I will be interesting to see if it shows up in kegs as time goes on.

 

Certainly, it's even possible for bugs to jump from one barrel to the next.

 

I just put mine unopened in the dishwasher, is that good enough?