Infected Bourbon County Barleywine 2015

Everyone is talking about infection or how ABI/GI will handle the problem, but what I'm the most surprised about is the fact that they don't even make an official statement, even to say something like "We are working on issues with some of our BC Variants right now".

I think THIS is really poor customer service. It's been a few days/weeks now since we first heard of infections.

 

I throw out receipts too, if she knew I spent $60 on a Rare I'd get the raised eyebrow, like are you nuts look. We have the same unofficial policy she doesn't ask and I never mention the price.

 

I heard rumblings of a coffee infection on Black Friday via a few facebook groups. That was 6 weeks ago, and you're right. GI hasn't come out in any way to address the issue, which at this point is definitely a real thing. I have a bottle of BW in my cellar, and I may crack it sometime this week to check for infection. Interestingly enough, 4 years ago GI recalled a batch of Sofie:

http://www.chicagonow.com/the-beeronaut/2011/06/goose-island-sofie-beer-recalled/

Unlikely they'd be able to handle a BC infection the same way though...

 

come on. for like the 4,789th time that's not a batch number! it's a military time stamp. or 12:20PM for people that aren't familiar with the 24hr clock system.

not you personally, or solely, but ALL of the folks that keep calling the time stamps "Batch #s" -- logically, do you guys really think GI made 2,000+ "batches" of each variant?????? do you think they had 2K+ barrels of each variant? do you think they bottled each variant by emptying 1 barrel at a time to fill bottles?????? those of you that apparently do believe this is the case - are you guys holding out & been smoking some New & Improved shit the rest of us haven't had the pleasure of? please. don't further the confusion of time of day = batch#.

this concludes this PSA.

 

About a year before that they did a recall of some Matilda as well.

http://beerpulse.com/2010/06/goose-island-recalls-some-bottles-of-matilda/

 

Oh, pheeewwww, so glad someone was keeping count I lost count a while ago.

Got to try that Matilda, did you? Really tasty. And in fact my one bottle out of six Abyss 09 that were infected was pretty tasty, I actually liked it better than I like Tart of Darkness.

Wonder if infected BCBBW will end up to taste like

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2958/

which was quite delicious, at least from tap (growler).

 

Naw, didn't try that Matilda. But your comment makes it sound interesting.

Just found that link pretty easily as the result of a bit of simple searching to find out a bit more about barrel program infections in general. (Sometimes amazing what's there to be found if one just takes a few minutes and looks. ) Seems there's a reasonably high risk of infection with pre-used barrels, as I think you know, and it often isn't discovered until the beer has spent some time in the bottle. (Which was certainly the case with the only infected beer I've encountered.)

As for the GI line of stouts I typically take a pass on them. Had a 4 pack of the regular (BCBS) back in '09 during a visit in Michigan and found some four packs sitting around waiting to sell. They're not really beers I enjoy after few sips. So these days I don't go looking for them, no matter who makes them.

 

Sure glad I didn't miss Thanksgiving dinner to stand in line and spend all of my money on these high quality AB InBev products.

 

Oops wrong link above, the wild ale barleywine is Spike and Jerome's Cuvee Delirante, and it rocks. Hope this GI one tastes as well.

 

Had one Xmas eve, didn't notice any signs of infection but was definitely not up to par with years past. This years tasted sweeter with less bourbon barrel character (vanilla, cococut)

 

Hey, I still have an 09 Abyss...Does this mean my possibly infected bottle of Abyss has more trade value than my possibly infected BCBBW?

 

Opened a bottle the other night and I would say infected. bottle date OCT 28 12.9% 1219

 

I don't understand why it would be hard to find. I've heard Matt Brynildson on the Brewing Network say that they test every barrel used in their Firestone Union for bacteria every single day when they are making Double Barrel Ale. If a barrel comes out positive for any type of bacteria, it is immediately replaced. At a minimum, all GI would have to do is test the beer in the brite tank after it has been blended together to see if there is a contamination problem. That cannot be hard to do. Hell, if you find a problem, but the beer tastes good, just flash-pasteurize it. If there's a problem with the cold-brewed coffee, again, all they have to do is test it to see if it has contamination. It's pretty common in breweries to regularly test for colony-forming bacteria, I don't understand why it isn't done for beer that costs $10+ per pint bottle.

 

Based upon what specifically, if I may ask? I think it makes sense to provide as much detail as you can upon a claim of possible infection with a specific bottling date / timestamp.

 

Microbiological testing may, in fact, be done. However, their sample size may be too small and their detection limit too high. The microbiological loading may be very low. That may explain why some bottles have it and some don't. That may not be using media capable of detecting this particular bug. It may be a very slow growing bug that wasn't able to grow in their normal incubation time. All of these are possibilities. Clearly they have a gap somewhere, but this issue doesn't necessarily mean they don't test.

 

This is an informative post in another thread:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...lems-what-we-should-know.372645/#post-4392276

 

OK - do be do be dooob - My time stamp is 1220 godammit!! I'm going to crawl into a hole due to the severity of this violation. My family and my families family are disgraced for generations.

Beer Geeks

 

ha ha. if only i possessed such commanding powers & authority! nahh. it's just that like i said you're number 4,789. we gotta stop this madness somewhere. no personal offense intended.

 

Ok, so we have heard cases of infected coffee and BW out in the market. Any word on possible infections in Regular or Regal? How far does this thing stretch?!

 

I have opended 3 of my BW stash from this year and they are all fantastic.