Central Waters Bourbon barrel stout

Not to upset anyone, but I live five mins from Dexter's and I WILL BE THERE!!! You're all free to come crash on my couch, lol. And on the 2014 BB cherry thread, I have a four pack and I had one alongside one of the new BB Souts, you're not missing anything. Whatever they did to this round of BB releases is magical. I am very excited for the BB cherry next month and the BBBW after that.

 

Anytime I sit people down and do a blind BA tasting. . .9 times out of 10 it goes: Dragons Milk, CW, BCBS

Yes I need more Rye Coco Porter in my life. LOVED that beer.

Cracked a CW PM the other day, no infection, loved it. Bummed they are not making more

Will be stocking up on on the BA for sure!!

 

I thought last year's version was perfection. This beer has always been a touch barrel heavy for me considering the base beer is thinner. Last year the barrel was a touch less and seemed perfect for the thickness of the beer. On a side note, I aged a 2013 bottle for 6 months and it was a shell of itself.

2014 was a tad too barrel heavy for me, but it has more longevity to hold up in to the late spring months

 

Anyone seen this around Chicago yet?

 

asked at fischmans the other day and they said it has not hit yet but soon

 

Could CW please put Y2K back into 12oz 4pk format? That is the best WI BW and ages wonderfully. I know many of you like the BBBW, but my palate is tiring of beer aged in barrels. This beer is a masterpiece with two years on it.

 

Pretty much the first thing I thought when I picked up the bombers last year.

 

You both nailed this. Not only the best WI Barleywine (CW BB included), but one of the best American barleywines, period. It ages more gracefully than Angelina Jolie and the smaller bottles were perfect for the style.

And unlike many BA beers, it doesn't need to see any oak to live up to its full potential.

 

BB Stout will start rolling out in Chicago next week.

 

3 years ago these were coming in 4 packs, and I agree with you and the last couple people that it's the best barleywine including the bourbon barrel aged barleywine. In fact a couple years ago on Beer Advocate I made a thread talking about how I enjoyedthe regular so much more since it is the base beer for the Bourbon barley wine

 

Last year was the first for Y2K in bombers. And they stopped labeling the neck with the year it was bottled, now it is really small on the lower right corner of the label.

Had 16 vs 2014 BBS vs 2012 BBS last night. Others have been comparing this year's BBS to 16, I didn't really see it. Still a damn good stout though!

 

I asked CW to consider the 12oz format again for Y2K on twitter. They favorited it along with some other people, so we shall see. If they must have a beer in a bomber, why not the BB Cherry stout? It is rather limited anyway.

 

I wouldn't compare the CW BBS to CW16 directly, but rather say that it seems clear to me that CW learned some new tricks from doing 16 and applied them to this year's BBS, improving it noticeably, with better mouthfeel and some additional notes of chocolate/coffee. :-)

 

Fair enough. I wonder if it's more of a result from where they are keeping the barrels versus actually changing what they are doing with the beer?

 

I used to enjoy BBS when fresh, don't think the body of the base beer holds up well to again (IMO). And when they switched to aging them 1 year in barrels, I thought it was way too hot. So if they really did improve the base beer based on CW16, I will be looking forward to trying this years.

 

Any idea if this will be at Kenosha Woodman's tomorrow?

 

I was trying to find something similar to a Goose Island Bourbon County and they had a whole bunch of the Central Waters Bourbon Barrel at my liquor store (MN). I bought a 4 pack for ~$14. My thoughts are it's good, similar to the Goose Island one but a little toned down. I felt it had more carbonation and fizzed on the tongue a bit, not quite as boozy either. It does have that nice chocolate/booze smell that really comes out when you roll it around in your snifter/wine glass. The Central Waters is right up there with the Goose Island but falls just short.

 

But you didn't have to run around town picking up one bottle at a time or wake up early and stand in line! BCBS is great, but obtaining it is not.

 

And the CW being half the price is none too shabby either.

 

$11.50 a 4 pak if you bought 4 at Woodmans in GB