GI Bourbon County bottle share tasting order…

Thanks a lot for posting the link to that thread.
That sounds like a very good plan.
Points well taken.
I just wish it was all my beer, so I could lay down the ground rules.
I'm sure we'll just go with the majority, when it comes to order.

 

Ask and you shall receive...

Thanks again for the extra thread!

This was the closest to what we actually did ~ thanks!

__________________________________________

Well, as you might imagine, it was one hell of a great night.
Great company, great food, and of course...some pretty kick ass beer!
I was just glad that we finally got everybody together while the weather was still a bit on the cool side.

After some great advice from the responses above, I think we did it about as good as we could.

We had 24 - 5 ounce snifters, and eight participants.
So we all got roughly a 2.75 ounce pour of everything, which we all agreed ended up perfect.
Seven in our beer group, and a brother and his girlfriend split the eighth spot.
We drank every beer on the list on my original post, and then a couple more!
I actually passed on a few (13 BCBS, BCBBW & 13 BCBCS) due to hosting, and other reasons.

Before we started, we had some very nice 8 count shrimp that @moneynoobject prepared for us.
Very well done Chuck! Thanks again for sharing & cooking those up for us!!!

We also had a fresh fish dip that another buddy (Vince) had just caught last week.
Along with Italian hard salami, Prosciutto, a few nice cheeses, crackers, and veggies to snack on during the course of the night.

Water was the popular choice for palate cleansing.
Although we did end up cracking some of the GI sours as well.

The Beer:
Started off with a side by side of 09 & 08 BCBS.
There was no loser in this pairing, IMO.
Both fantastic - with the 08 having maybe just a couple layers not found in the 09.

Then we decided to do another side by side of 12 & 13 BCBS.
Everybody agreed that the 08 & 09 were, without a doubt, way better than 12 & 13 (again, I passed on the 13).
I was busy cleaning glasses for the most part, and quickly fell behind a bit.

Next came the BCBVS (Vanilla), which I had never tried previously.
Right away I really quite enjoyed it, for the sake of it's difference.

Then Proprietor's. I've had this quite a few times, and it's never disappointed.
Exquisite.

Next up Rare.
Another first for me. I could really taste the difference in the bourbon in this one.
Very, very nice. But definitely not mind blowing, for me anyway.

Then we went to side by side with Bramble & Backyard Rye.
Bramble was much sweeter than the Backyard, but I really liked the Blackberry that I was getting.
Backyard was pretty similar, just less sweet without the Blackberry.
Both were pretty solid.

Then we paired the Cherry Rye with some cheesecake and berries.
This beer has gotten better every time I've had it. Very, nice.
I actually thought it was a bit overwhelming when it was released.



What goes better after desert than coffee?

We paired up 12 & 13 BCBCS for the last side by side.

The 12 BCBCS is just so smooth.
Yeah, maybe the coffee has faded a bit. But I just love this beer.
I reluctantly gave my share of the 13 to my wife.
Or I should say I gave it up freely, then debated on going downstairs and popping another (I didn't)
Everyone loved the coffee beers, and they ended up on most of the top 3 lists.

Here are the beers that received votes (with 1st, 2nd & 3rd place votes respectively in parenthesis).

Rare (2,3,3)
Prop (1,3,1)
BCBCS 13 (2,0,1)
BCBCS 12 (2,1,0)
09 BCBS (1T,0,2)
08 BCBS (1T,1,0)
BCBVS (0,0,1)

My votes:
1. 08/09 BCBS (tie)
2. 12 BCBCS
3. Rare

My favorite sour:
Madame Rose

**Fulll disclosure - I gave up my pour of 13 BCBCS, and am almost certain that I would've voted it #1.
To be honest, Rare, Prop and Vanilla were so close behind for me, it was like splitting hairs.




They also cracked a couple of BCBBW's to round out the Bourbon County, but at that point I just passed on it.
I am personally not very impressed with the barley wine GI put out last year.
I think I speak that for our whole group, as well.
I still have a dozen or so, and I just hope that it gets better.

I was more interested in the 2012 Madame Rose that was staring me down...holy crap was that tasty!
We also popped a 2007 Pere Jaques, a 2013 Lolita, and a 2013 Gillian.

Then, as people were starting to leave (everyone who left had a sober ride - I insisted) one of the fellows breaks out a growler of King Sue!



Thanks again to all the people who gave such valuable input to this thread!!!

Thanks to everyone who made it out:
@Mplsmetro57
@GopherPharmer
@striker2160
@MRC711
@moneynoobject
Vince
Damon ~ thanks for helping me keep up with the glasses!
Vikki - sober cab
Janell - sober cab
Tracy - sober cab
Becky - sober cab
Lisa - thanks for putting up with all of us!


Cheers all!

 

Also of interest:
Everyone but myself put Bramble Rye on the bottom of their list for the Berry variants.
Most had an order of Backyard, Cherry and then Bramble.
Of course I thought different.
I rated them: Cherry, Bramble then Backyard.
All good, but would rather drink the standard BCBS or BCBCS over any of them.

 

If I could do anything different, I would've simply left out the 12 & 13 BCBS.
We had all agreed that the Coffees should be last.