Central Waters Anniversary

I had another great time at the anniversary party, but again I got in early and had such a blast. Saw over twenty cars in the ditch on the way down Saturday morning, wow.

 

This was my first CW party and I must say I had a lot of fun. We waited for 1 hour and 45 minutes in line which sucked. They just need several more people crossing off names and taking money to keep the line moving problem solved.

 

Everyone is complaining about the name checking, I spent a whopping 30 seconds at ID check and then probably another 30 seconds paying and getting my beer. Get rid of proxies, problem solved.

Great party, I look forward to going next year and I hope all the whiners decide to stay home next year. Keep up the good work Central Waters.

 

Which is why I want to know how many Sixteen allotment tix were sold. Because while 30 seconds per name sounds like a pittance, that's only 120 allotments per hour that can be processed (and let's be real, that's not the actual rate for name checking when someone has to hear a name, potentially ask for it to be repeated/spelled, check an ID that someone may/may not have at the ready, find which of 20 pages that name is on, find the name and then cross it off).

This is an incredibly clear bottleneck, and if they sold 1,000 tickets (is that inconceivable?) then the potential problem with having a single checker working on paper was evident from the get go.

 

Great party by CW, lines aside for some individuals to get their allotment(s) of course, but a very easy solution for next year that would clear the way for a faster throughput would be to have brewery employees who were already walking through the line checking off individuals and handing them a ticket for each allotment they are picking up at the point of sale. Check name, get ticket, turn ticket in at point of sale for 'x' bottles allotted, pay for bottles, done.

On another topic, did anyone else find Peruvian Morning to be different from years past? My group was disappointed with the version on tap (tried multiple times throughout the day), and next to a bottle of (non-infected) 2013, it tasted like an entirely different beer, with little to no barrel character and very light coffee flavor.

 

Without proxies there is no way CW sells nearly as many bottles of 16 that they did given the weather at this time of year, travel factors, etc. I think proxies can be kept while solving the 'bottleneck' issue.

 

I was just questioning if 16 was really in barrels for 21 months. My reason being, it seemed as the demand got insane, the supply increased to meet the demand by leaps and bounds. Now I understand that they could have expected an increase in demand, but they seemed to have a huge difference in bottles. Was this because they split the batch of 14 14 and 15 whereas 16 wasn't split at least that I know of? Thoughts?

 

They did a pre barrel tapping of Sixteen at Burnhearts in early 2012. 21 months seems about right.

 

Here's my timeline and math and stuffs.

1414 would have been brewed around October 2010, aged in 14-year barrels for 14 months and then released January 2012. And then 1414 won the Gold Medal at GABF in October 2012.

21 months in barrels before the release in January 2014 would put it at March/April 2012.. not long after they released 1414 at that year's Anniversary Party two years ago. So my guess is that they recognized that after 1414's success, they would need to brew future anniversary beers accordingly.. and I assume they were already planning to do what they did with Fifteen, so that obviously happened last year so 16 would be ready.

It's interesting though, that 16's barrel presence is fairly tame compared to its predecessors, at the very least compared to Fifteen. Not that they had to make it bourbon barrel-forward like the last 2 Anniversary beers, but that they went in a slightly different direction. Is it true that this stout was brewed with molasses?

 

Well 1414, 15, and black gold are all the same base beer aged for different lengths of time (black gold used different barrels too) but they all would have been put into barrels at the same time, anyways I'm assuming the base beer of 16 was at least the size it was for those 3 beers. It probably was even a bit more because I believe it was around 1414's release and success that they upgraded/added room to the barrel aging program, which also would've been around the time that 16 went into barrels

 

I found PM to be way different as well - figured it was probably just me so I didn't post anything. Very little coffee on the bottles I picked up from the brewery this weekend. In my opinion still a great beer - lots of creamy vanilla - but very similar to the BBS. I honestly am not sure I would have known it was PM and not BBS in a blind tasting.

Maybe they held back on the coffee this year because of the infection problems? I only bought a 4-pack at the brewery because I kept getting bit by the infection bug, so I figure this year it's a four-pack, drink it, then buy more if I want.

 

Had it on draft at the CW16 party, and everyone in our group thought it was excellent. It did seem a bit different to me, though, with just as much coffee flavor but smoother, with much less of an acidic coffee bite -- sort of like the difference between percolator coffee (previous years) and cold-brewed coffee (this years). It'll be interesting to see if this difference is also present in the bottles.

 

How does 16 compare to 15 and 1414? I never had 15 or 1414.

 

OK, it just seemed weird that as the craziness insured, they all of a sudden had plenty of supply. Just a conspiracy theorist here!

 

So.. you're thinking they watered it down so they could have as many bottles for sale as they did? Something like that?

 

CW Brewed a ton of the 14th anniv beer. So much so that they had enough to age longer and use for 15. So having a good increase in the supply of 16 isn't any conspiracy. They have increased their barrel aging capacity a ton right before the 14th party so it's all online and the goods are coming out from that.

Kudo's to CW for all the improvements from last year's issues.
For those who can't handle waiting in line then stay home. This is the way special releases are in the current age of Craft. I've waited outside on very cold nights all night for beer at Surly Darkness '12, KBS '12 and recently Dark Horse BBPT5 release a few months ago if that now. Be Prepared for the worst and you'll have a good time. To all the people I've shared beer with in those long lines you are the people who make the long lines worth it. Beer advocates sharing and enjoying beers. That's how you make orange juice from oranges...
There are a few minor improvements that would make the line wait faster that have been mentioned and I think that's all that's needed to help for those who "can't handle waiting as long as they did"
I was the guy in the Red Sox coat milling around most of the night. Cheers to all who I met and all who toughed out a wait for an amazing beer. Hope to see everyone again next year.

 

this was the 2nd beer i had after a pint of Hop Rise.

tasted awesome to me. maybe slightly thinner than i remember but.. it didn't stand out as being radically different to me.


eta: Coffee Stout on tap at the brewery tastes different than the bottles i've always bought. could be a similar thing happening with Peruvian Morning, maybe?

 

Were you the big fat guy in the kilt?

 

yeah, same here man. took me 2 minutes to check my id and have my bottles in hand

 

didnt they use older barrels for 16 than 15 or 1414? i have drank 3 bottles now and had it on draft all night and got a ton of barrel notes, but its just not barre "forward" and much smoother and balanced then previous batches. all in all, 15 was way too barrel forward and "hot" compared to 1414... which at least had a really good balance of chocolate and barrel. that said, 16 is most certainly the best tasting of the bunch (havent had black gold) and definitely fixed the mouthfeel problem. tastes like a brownie batter with a nice marshmallow flavor when it warms up