BT Release Celebration

This. And I love mint.

 

That's okay. You have 3 boxes of major goodies coming your way to ease the pain.

 

ISO a BT tasting glass

 

DROOL!!!!

Since I was stuck in a dreadful termination of parental rights trial all day yesterday (for which none of the parents showed up) rendering myself unable to attend the BT release. . .

I am really hoping these BT variants show up at the Hoarders Society initiation party . . . hey whatever happened to the regular barrel tasting party? While I'm wishing, a ticketless party (similar to FiftyFifty Eclipse or FW Invitational) seems in order.

 

That's so strange, mine had basically none. I think if you had put it side by side with regular BT '12 I couldn't have told you which was which.

 

Same. I got a whiff of mint, but could not taste the difference with regular BT.

Maybe it's a Tasting Room vs. Provisions thing? (I was at Provisions.)

 

For me, it was like this:
1) Vanilla Coffee BT
2) BT '12
3) Grey Monday
4) Bananas Foster BT
5) Mint Chocolate BT

The Food Pairings:

First Course: Wild Mushroom Mole, Masa Cake, and Sesame Seeds; paired w/ '12 Black Tuesday


Second Course: Coffee & Vanilla Pulled Pork Slider w/Coffee BBQ Sauce, on a Pretzel Bun; paired w/ Vanilla Coffee BT


Third Course: Blue Cheese Cold Smoked over Hazelnuts, Dried Figs, Fresh Pears, and Toasted Hazelnuts; Paired w/ Grey Monday


Fourth Course: Peanut Panna Cotta w/ Toasted Marshmallows; Paired w/ Banana Foster BT


Fifth Course: Chocolate Goat Cheesecake, Raspberry Coulis & Micro Mint; Paired w/ Chocolate Mint BT


Every serving was fucking amazingly delicious! Kendra did a great job explaining why each beer and food pairing was so special. Really made it that much better. I also wanted to give a huge shoutout to the staff at Provisions who kept our tables clean, our drinks flowing, and provided the highest level of service . I couldn't have asked for a better event! Cheers!

 

I wonder if I would have changed the order if I was at the food pairing??
1) Vanilla Coffee BT - intense coffee nose and flavor. This was a favorite of most people I talked to
2) Grey Monday
3) Chocolate Rain
4) Black Tuesday 2011 - smoothing out nicely
5) Black Tuesday 2012 - boozy
6) Mint Chocolate BT - a bit too minty for me
7) Bananas Foster BT - no bananas, a little caramel at the end

 

I was at Provisions also, session B, and my pour of Mint Choco BT was HEAVY on the mint. I'm talking like, chewing on a mint leaf kind of minty. Definitely left a cooling sensation when I exhaled haha. I love mint more than the next person, but it was almost too much for me, but still enjoyable. Maybe the growler of Mint BT they poured from had sat in the Randall for a while?

 

Chocolate Rain + Grey Monday blend = Nutella
Chocolate Rain + Mint blend = Thin Mint cookies

Those were my two faves. My least favorite was banana fosters.

 

The service and attitude of the staff was amazing.

Also, Grey Monday is phenomenal. Can't wait for the release, which I guess should be imminent (?).

 

Grey Monday, then Vanilla Coffee BT

 

And the Goat Cheesecake was excellent!!!

 

Blech. Too cold, grainy texture, just unappealing.

Bananas Foster. By far the best body with a quick finish. Not cloying (shockingly). Really loved this.

big gap

Grey Monday (quite nice, although the oily-ness was contentious at the table)
Black Tuesday (tasted great at first, after the some of the sweeter variations that followed, though, it came across as hot and a touch thin. Still very tasty).
Vanilla Coffee (the coffee note was really heavy and wasn't great. One note, roasty and a touch burnt. Ashy. Not stale, just over-roasted coffee. We steeped some '11 BT in some Guatemela Acatengo Gesha coffee at the event and it was much better.)
Mint Chocolate (didn't gel, minimal mint flavor, give me Stone Collaboration Imperial Mint Chocolate Stout any day)

Rueuze was ok. Complex, a nice palate cleanser, didn't give it much focus, but my immediate impression is that it suffers from being a blend of a lot of other blonde Bruery sours that are a bit too acetic for my tastes. Good, maybe the best of their blonde sours to date, enough to make me feel good about picking up a few bottles, but not in love at first.

 

For me, Grey was like a refined version of BT, if that's even possible. I want to drink the coffee BT everyday for breakfast. Too much flavor mixing doesn't do it for me. List as follows:

1. Grey Monday
2. Vanilla Coffee
3. Black Tuesday
4. Chocolate Rain
5. Bananas Foster
6. Mint Chocolate

 

Yeah, the mint wasn't too strong, but it didn't really work well for me. BT straight up is better than minted version. Even Tyler wasn't too happy with that one, but hey you gotta try.

 

if i had to categorize (roughly in order..):

awesome:
coffee
chocolate rain

meh:
banana fosters
grey monday
mint chocolate
bt

 

What did the glassware look like?

 

Did they announce any sort of date for when the Grey Monday bottles would be ready to be picked up?