Brooklyn BCS

RISs do fine with time, I've had it at five years and thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Haven't had it in a while, but I definitely preferred it with 1+ years on it. A shop I used to live by have multiple years just chilling on a shelf, so I experimented a bit.

 

I think I have some 2010's laying around somewhere. This gives me a reason to crack one open. I will report back Friday. (Sorry, I am going to sleep now and i work from 5:30am to 1:30am tomorrow)

 

Brooklyn hosted a vertical tasting last Monday to celebrate BCS turning 21 and as part of NYC beer week. They poured 11 vintages dating back to 2004. This was the first time I'd had the opportunity to try a beer vertical and it was a great event! Suffice to say I believe this beer ages quite well and is worth picking up.

Garret Oliver mentioned that improvements have been made over time in bottling practices and this will effect cellaring the 2012 vintage forward. There is much less dissolved oxygen, and that it will thus take much longer to develop. He said going forward, verticals with 2013, 14, etc will likely clump together and not show much difference until they have quite a bit of time on them. However, he also felt they would last much longer and be great long term cellar candidates.

 

I think this needs to be cellared- at least I hope. I bought two 4-packs of the latest release 2015/16 and opened one this week and thought the bitterness was overwhelming. Since I have them and they were cheap, I'm happy to age them to see what happens.

 

Did those of you who had it aged more than a year think it lost any of the chocolate? I recently came across some winter of 2014-2015 that I picked up. I was thinking I should drink it soon (I'll try one this weekend) and was worried about it losing the chocolate if I aged it any more.

 

Just a labeling note first for clarity, the bottles say winter 2015-16 on them, but at the event Brooklyn was just calling that 2015 vintage.

I took some brief notes at the tasting and while I caution they're far form perfect, I will say that the chocolate changed as it aged. The younger years had more chocolate in the taste, though this made the flavor slightly less nuanced. The young stout was rich and malty, but not as layered as some of the older versions. As it aged, the chocolate flavor receded, but remained in the aroma. Some of the roast dropped out of the nose making the chocolate aroma clearer, though again the chocolate flavor was lessened. Some years had strong sweet notes, one had clear alcohol warmth coming through, and I thought I noticed a touch of mint in the oldest, the 2004.

Suffice to say that while I agree the chocolate does change and slowly fade as it ages, I wouldn't rush too much as you probably have a good 3-5 years before it becomes a major shift.

 

I bought a case of BCS in the fall of 2014 and I drank some last year and some this year (about 2.5 years old at this point). The beers I had this year had noticeable effects of oxidation (dark fruit flavors). I discussed this beer a while back in a New Beer Sunday thread:http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-sunday-week-573.386002/

Cheers!

 

There is no chocolate in BCS, it's just the name of the beer. As a retailer I hate the name because people always expect a big chocolate bomb, and they get none. It's a true RIS, period. You won't lose anything except the sharper, drier edge it has fresh like most good RISs.

 

Just finished one and now read the comment from @RDMII. That makes more sense as I was thinking these year old plus had already lost it's chocolate. I'm now thinking I want to hold on to the other three for a while longer.

 

Do it, they'll do fine for several years.

 

I had a '13 recently at a bottle share and it was oxidized and really not good IMO. (Yes, the person who brought the bottle has a legit cellar, so it was under the proper conditions during aging)

 

They use chocolate malt, which is a roasted malt that imparts more chocolate aroma and flavor than using chocolate itself. It's not a chocolate bomb, but when it's young you get a rich imperial stout with distinct chocolate notes.