Anyone know how long they've been brewing this? It says it keeps for five years, but are there any past that five year window right now (pre-2007)? I'd like to get ahold of some older bottles, but need to know what year I need to look back to. Thanks!
I'm not sure when they started brewing Sophie, but I did have a 2009 bottle at the Goose Island Clybourn Vintage Program Kickoff/Tasting on Thursday.. I'd say it held up pretty well; maybe a little less effervescent than a fresh bottle.
I wish I could find this stuff here... all I get here is honkers ale and a few others ...............
I was at the same tasting. Sofie seems to have developed/changed the least out of all the beers they sampled. To be fair, it was also one of the newest, and it wasn't paired against a fresher version. It seemed a little less effervescent, as noted, but about the same taste-wise. 2004 Pere Jacques, on the other hand, was remarkably different.
I agree with mdomask; not much has changed (at least compared to the others). I too was expecting a little more tartness, but it just didn't turn out that way - good beer nonetheless
Absolutely. Sofie is one of my top 3 beers and definitely my favorite Goose Island year-round. I'd hoped that it'd get a bit more tart with some age on it but I've got other beers to fill that role. Sofie is just a great saison and I'm glad Goose Island didn't drop it after the AB-InBev takeover.
A little off topic for the post, but i think it fits here...has anyone had one of the earlier vintages? When drinking it recently, there was a subtle, yet clear funk to it. Now, this was my first time having it, so I cant compare, but in reading reviews from way back when, very very few people commented on the funk (if any, i cant recall exactly). however, as the years passed, i noticed the funk in the reviews. This could be either 1) there was no funk originally, 2) there was an BAs just couldn't perceive it, but now people can because we are all professional beer tasters (said in jest, of course, but also a sarcastic half-truth for the general BA )
From what I've been able to find Sofie has just a small amount of brettanomyces in it. My guess is that there might be older bottles floating around getting reviewed at this point that have developed more funk and perhaps some bottle variation given how small an amount of wild yeast is used.
Looking at your response, and my original post, I believe i was pretty ambiguous, sorry for the horrible structure of that second sentence. When I said "drinking it recently", I did mean today's vintage (I can see how it can read as if I recently had an older vintage). I know that the recent vintages certainly have brett, but i was just wondering when it was originally brewed, in what, 2009 (i think), if it had brett in it back then.
I can find this in my area, but only the bombers and those are 8.50 per 22 ouncer, and it's hardly worth it at that price. It's definitely one of my favorites and I'd love to be able to find some in the 4-packs. They are usually around 12 per 4-pack wherever I travel, so I'm holding out for some of those.
