Goose Island Backyard Rye

if you have never had it before drink it.

 

It's pretty good right now. I'm not sure that laying one down is going to do more than shave some of the alcohol edge off and meld some of the other flavor components together a bit better...

But I will say that you would kick yourself if the one you had got broken or stolen or anything happened to it and you didn't get to try it at least once.

 

Drink. It. Now. This beer is so incredibly good right now, I'd be afraid it would change TOO much

 

Send it to me and I'll let you know if you should drink it now or age it.

 

This for sure. But even if you had it...I don't think aging will help this one. The berry and fruit flavors are so perfect in this beer, I worry that aging would take some of that away.

 

As a rule of thumb, you gotta sample the beer on a fresh palate to decide if you want to cellar it or not. If you havent drank it yet what are you waiting for? Just because you feel that the beer is "difficult to find" doesnt mean that you should cellar the beer, but maybe save it for a special occasion in the very near future(just a suggestion)???

In my opinion, I dont think that Backyard Rye will improve all that much with age. The berry trio has been so well integrated with the bourbon county straight out of the gates that its a drink fresh barrel aged stout.

In the end its your beer and you can do whatever you want, but I say dont hesitate to enjoy this beer!!!! Cheers!

 

Drink now.

 

Yes. For starters, it is a one-off they won't make again (or if they do, it won't be until they run out of new ideas in like 10 years). It also had a much lower production than either of those beers. To top it off, BCBS and BCBCS were sold in 12oz bottles this time around whereas Backyard was 22oz only, so there would have been half as many bottles to spread around even if the batch sizes were identical.

 

Yeah, Backyard Rye is brand-new, brewed once last year and never to be made again. It's sort of the spiritual sequel to Bramble Rye....for months there was a rumor that the beer would be called "Backyard Bramble." But they aren't the same beer. Bramble was raspberries and blackberries.

The way Goose has been doing it the last three years is that every year they release:

a) 1 or more batches of regular Bourbon County
b) 1 batch of Bourbon County Coffee (with a different type of coffee every year)
c) 1 batch of Bourbon County aged in rye whiskey barrels with fruit (different fruit every year)


In 2011 (released early 2012) they did Bramble Rye, late 2012 had Cherry Rye. In 2013 they did 2 rye releases, as the Proprietor's 2013 was aged in rye whiskey barrels too. I would not be surprised if every year from here on out has at least one rye BCS with some sort of special ingredient thrown in. There's a lot of fruit in the world for them to play around with.

 

If you only have 1 then you MUST drink it fresh IMO. It's drinking very well. But if it ages anything like Bramble then it's going to be straight jam in a year or so...and I mean that in the best way possible!

 

Oh yes, generally speaking the various Rye stuff is harder to get. The Proprietor's was the most extreme to date. There were about 2500 barrels of Bourbon County ____ bottled this year; Proprietor's made up only 88 of those. I would guess that Backyard was less than 400 but I don't know for sure.

I wouldn't expect to ever see that again in a store near you. $20 is a pretty good price for it too all things considered.

 

I'm actually drinking one now. Kind of a let down, can't hold a candle to cherry. Got a second one, I do feel age will do it well for my taste.

I'd definitely drink it if you've never had it. Aging something you've never tried doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me anymore, brewers released it now because it's ready to go

 

I'm wondering the same thing. It seems everybody said Bramble was crappy at first and was really great after a year or so. Isn't Backyard a similar beer or are they different? I just don't know enough about the two to make a reasonable decision given what was said about Bramble. Truth: Still haven't drank my Bramble either. For those who have drank both are they different animals?

And yes I would typically drink one fresh and cellar one but I don't have that luxery. These beers were HARD to find around here which meant I spent a lot to get them.

 

I like bramble more but I had it with age on it, I think I like a more subtle fruit character.

Why not try them together?

 

Guess I misread. You mention that you like bramble more after aging. Possible the same thing with backyard. I just paid too much. I want to drink them when they are more at their peak. I'm sure I'll drink my bramble soon but just wondering about the backyard and if it needs time. Drank the prop tonight. Gotta drink my RARE soon obviously. What about Cherry Rye?