Thoughts ? I read some reviews and it seems interesting . Don't think I've ever had a wheatwine before. Have opportunity to pick up a bottle (750 ml) for $24 from a bar (unopened). I see it's a retired beer but what did they run while on shelves. A good cellar beer ? Thanks in advance
first off, typo: it's Sweet Repute (no "s") second, it's a great beer. one of my fav from the backstage series. go for it, but no need to age it longer. enjoy now.
IIRC, these were retailing for $18-$20. $24 to-go from a bar probably not too bad. maybe share as a dessert beer?
Agreed that that's not a bad price, but I doubt you'll think that was money well spent. It wasn't TOO sweet, but that was really all I got from it (and do I like Bois/BA Old Stock type brews). If you do buy it, honestly, consider mixing the second half with something like bigfoot or old stock or rasputin. I bet that would be really good.
At that price, I would... But I did enjoy this one more than a good bit of the other "recent" backstage beers...
I see New Holland distributes to New York. New Holland Pilgrim's Dole is a bourbon barrel wheatwine that is quite tasty. Sweet Repute was aged in maple bourbon barrels. Despite the difference in barrels, I thought both were quite similar. If you can find Pilgrim's Dole, you can usually get a four pack for about $16. I don't know if it's a seasonal or not but one of my local shops had 4 cases of it the last time I was in there.
It was okay. Worth trying once because it's unlike most anything else on the market. However it's a one and done.
Oh no my friend. This past winter founders released another version of SR, SR XXX. It was like candied liquor, so tasty!! http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1199/156009/ But to the OP's question, before the rerelease of blushing monk I felt that repute was the last of the really good backstage beers. I had a couple fresh and then cracked my last one in February? At that point I urged all my friends who still had one to drink it. Itseemed to have fallen off pretty steeply. Also my bottle as well as many I've heard of had a lot of what I thought were yeast floaters in it. I poured it slowly but the last few glasses were really hard to drink, visually(It looked like a snow globe in my glass). I've been told that the floaters are not in fact yeast but protein. I honestly don't know if this is true or not. Great beer fresh but I'd pass on buying one at this point.
The bottles I aged tasted better than I remembered fresh. I didn't have the falloff or floaties that were cited above. Maybe it's because I have a real cellar . Just a smoother version of an already great beer. Check out the recent reviews under the retired listing for a better consensus. If I were you, I'd reconsider your purchase decision.
