Firestone Walker Sucaba 2016

Thanks for the info - I had not heard anything about last year's being "off". I planned on grabbing one (or two) this year to check it out again anyway. I try not to judge too harshly on one experience, knowing there can be off bottles/batches.

 

Yeah, it wasn't a hugely publicized "scandal," or some serious infection issue, but something in the brewing or blending process that didn't quite go as perfectly as previous years, and left the end product tasting a little off. You should definitely feel confident in picking up a bottle or two this year, on the assumption it will be (much) better. FW's barrel program is too world-class to have two bad vintages in a row.

 

I drank sucaba '15 last night, and felt it was fantastic. I've had five over this last year and all were exccellent. Im aging six more. Looking to grab some '16 soon

 

This isn't universal... I bought a bottle today for $16, and will almost certainly be getting a few more at around $14. I've never really seen it much cheaper than that in previous years.

 

Woah, so the prices are rising and they seem to be going faster, hu? Well, maybe I'll be able to find a bottle in Vegas, but I won't hold my breath. lol

 

Damn I would kill for that price. IF there is any that even shows up its usually around $25 a bottle.

 

You know how much I love Firestone but I'd take Straight Jacket over Sucaba.

 

Absolutely. However, if aged over a year I'd take Sucaba. Straight Jacket should not be aged.

 

Any idea where I could find this, or any other Firestone special release in MA? I'm willing to pay for it!

 

Got it! Now I'll just have to open my 2013 and 2014 Straight Jacket this weekend and tell my wife we had to drink them.

 

It's funny you say that, got my first bottle last year, had in the fridge for a couple of months. When I pulled it out to drink something was way, way off. It was really thin and tasted really odd. I ended up pouring it out. I love barley wines, so I'll buy it again, but was really bummed as it was my Christmas Eve beer.

 

My 2015 was great as expected. Had one 3 days ago

 

Why not?

I've had Straight jacket with over a year on it and it's great.

 

Craftbeer temple.com has ST for sale.

 

I don't believe the problem was ubiquitous in 2015, as some people seemed perfectly delighted with it. But I don't believe it was a small problem either. It was hard to describe what I didn't like about my bottle, because it wasn't clearly sour or butter-scotchy. It was just sort of rough, thin, and weird--a bit "stale" and mildly funky from what I remember. But an off-batch of bottles can happen even to a brewery with as world-class a barrel program as FW. When you see the beer this year, you should be confident about picking it up. They are not in the habit of disappointing their consumers; just the opposite.

 

As have I and it changes drastically. I wouldn't recommend aging it past 18 months.

 

I'm in NH, can easily go to Massachusetts, any idea if I should expect to see any of these special barrel series from FW? Only have a 2011 Parabola, but had to trade for it.

 

They are out in CO. Got 2 this week.

 

They came out this week, some stores just got it today.

 

Got one today in Fort Collins