Huge Stout Tasting. What order?

I'd move the Abyss back to after the non-barrel-aged beers. So, after Dark Lord. Also, I'm not sure where Black Ops fits. Either first or after Baller and Dark Lord but before Abyss. I might put Bramble after Coffee, but I haven't had the Bramble, so I can't say for sure.

 

I would go:
Black OPS
Baller
Dark Lord
Abyss
Elijah Craig 18 Eclipse
BCS Bramble
BCS Coffee

 

It depends. Is there something you really want to try/enjoy? IF so, I would start with that one. With a line-up of stouts, it's not hard to burn out your taste buds and not enjoy some of the later beers. If I were doing this tasting I would go with:

The Abyss (assuming this is not an 09')
BCS Coffee
BCS Bramble
Eclipse EC 18
Dark Lord
Baller Stout
Black Ops

 

You open 3-4 bottles at a time and do small tastings of each bottle, take some notes then go back around and do it again. I never like the 'we have to finish bottle A, then we drink bottle B' because then your tastes are masked by the end of the tasting. This way you can try different stouts at different temperatures.

 

Drink the two beers that everyone wants to try the most...aka "the two best beers" and then drink them first. Your palate will be shot after drinking two big stouts and you won't be able to taste the other beers. Don't waste you palate on crappy beers!

 

break it up with a sour or an IPA. You will get fatigue with that list. Some sort of big, bold cheese will help as well.



Break them up into non BA beers and BA Beers with breaks in between after 2-3 beers. Point is to remember what you have had and what separates them from the others

 

Pour them all into a 5-gallon bucket and make one hell of a blend! But seriously, I say open them all up at the same time and sample 1-2 oz pours at a time. That way, you can determine how/if the beer changes as it warms.

 

The Abyss .....4
BCS Coffee.......3
BCS Bramble......2
Eclipse EC 18.....7
Dark Lord.......5
Baller Stout......6
Black Ops.....1

Reasoning....Black ops is the most bubbly with the champagne yeast. Will get the palate to open. The Bramble has a nice fruit character to move along. Coffee will bring a bit of bitter to the party. The Abyss has some coffee and molasses to it and next the DL is a bit of a smokey bacon and will transition well to the combo of Baller and the BA EC 18.

Just my .02

Cheers!

 

I prefer to open 3-4 bottles at a time, and pour a 1-2oz serving into each. I actually prefer doing it blind, so that the name, reputation, etc. have no impact on my review/experience. If I were you I would do it blind - it is fun when a beer that you may have had preconceived notions about is totally different than expected.

 

Agree with this, it made my IPA tasting so much more fun. Hop Wallop > PtE for me!

 

Depends on how many people you are going to have at the tasting, if it is 4 or more I wouldn't worry that much about palate fatigue. I had a tasting with 18 big stouts last December and we split them all 5 ways, palate fatigue was not even close to an issue with some water and light snacks thrown in between. For the most part I did non-barrel aged first and lowest alcohol first since they were all pretty similar beers. I also threw some of the harder to obtain/most-looking forward to first (CBS, 07 Abyss, 2010 KtG). The tasting ended up lasting 8.5 hours, until 5AM but I was surprisingly not that tired and had only a mild buzz even after Black Tuesday.

I would go:

Eclipse 18 EC
Abyss
Baller Stout
Dark Lord
BCS Bramble
BCS Coffee
Black OPS

I haven't had a few of these beers but the Black OPS I have had were fairly fresh (2010 I think, under 6 months old) and some of the hottest beers I have ever tasted besides maybe Raison d'Extra, so much alcohol presence. I threw the FFF and Goose Island beers together because they are both somewhat similar beers thrown into different processes. GI towards the end because I also find the BCS beers to have big alcohol character but much more pleasant that Black OPS. Abyss and Eclipse are both barrel-aged and have lower alcohol% than most of the others, I would probably go with these first. I don't know how the newer Black OPS is or what batch you have but it could also be thrown in with Abyss/Eclipse toward the beginning.

 

In all seriousness I would cut the # down to 5 (no Ops or Abyss).

Eclipse White
Coffee
Baller
Dark Lord
Bramble