So I'm coming up on my 12th wedding anniversary this year and had the "brilliant" idea that it would be cool to open an anniversary beer each anniversary year correspondingly. I love FW and their BA beers and the Anniversary series is no exception so I'm going to go with FW. I've read mixed review on the quality of older Anniversary beers, but honestly don't mind. Anyway, I managed to get 15th through 17th prior to having this idea and have a 14th coming my way. I'm now hoping to find a 12th and 13th (especially 13th because it's our "lucky number" as we were married on 10/13). I don't recall seeing 12th and 13th ever got offered up for trades, though I've only been trading since September 2013. Are there still some floating around? I saw a few 13th listed as FT in the beer profile, but not sure if it's a bad form to throw unsolicited messages at random BAs. Generally, for the more vintage beers, how do FW rank? Any thoughts, comments, or if you have one to trade, I'd love to hear from you. Cheers! Al
A nice message to folks who list a beer for trade is not poor form at all. I met one of my best partners when he messaged me for a beer I had for trade and offered a beer I had on my wants. I have sent out many myself, though usually I don't have luck with them. Occasionally someone will post they are sick and tired of folks messaging them unsolicited, but, really, how much energy does it take to not open a message?
I drank a 12 last weekend and it was still pretty damn tasty. I have a 13 I could consider trading, hit me up and let's talk.
I'm down to one last 13, so I cant confirm yet about bottled 13. I did have 13 on tap a few months ago, and was gorgeous. 14 in the bottle is awesome currently.
I've spoken with a few people in the past few months that have opened them recently, and they have all commented that they could all use a little more time. Still rather hot. I had it on tap a few months ago, and it was indeed still hot. Gorgeous right now, but I think it still has another year to go.
I'd be more worried about oxidation than a little alcohol heat. (It's a 12% abv beer. There's always going to be some alcohol character to it.) The flavors were already well integrated when it was fresh. Age will change the beer, certainly, but there's no guarantee that age will improve the beer.
I had bottles of 10,11, and 12 last month. 10 experienced oxidation, and after speaking with David, they did a poor job of designing it to age, and are trying to buy back all of the 10's left out there. 11 had very little oxidation, and was very good. 12 had little to no oxidation, and was excellent.
