Opinions on Materpiece Eclipse

The guy who bought 70 bottles definitely thinks so.

{Rimshot}

 

400 bottle count @ $47 a pop...and apparently 1 guy got 6 cases and only like 20 people got a chance to buy bottles

 

Muling groups. The dark side of craft beer.

 

I generally avoid Fifty Fifty beers so IMHO, no

 

Meh.

 

I'm sure many folks will say "yes" and a lot will say "no" ... which leaves you nowhere. What I'd ask is:

1. What's the "cost" you're looking at? No way to say it's worth it unless we know what you're giving up. If you find a trader that's reasonable, it very well could be.
2. What are your favorite big stouts? That's going to help figure out if this is in your wheelhouse or not.
3. What other big stouts do you have / want? You don't have a lot of beers rated / ticked. This, to me, seems important because it's about opportunity cost. For example, if you love a lot of vanilla and haven't had Vanilla Rye, Madagascar, Vanilla Hunter ... then, no way is it worth it since you can get all those and probably more for less than the price of entry.

TL;DR - it's all about opportunity cost and your taste preferences.

For what it's worth, friends of mine that have had it (who were shut out at the party so were probably pre-disposed to hate it!) thought it was excellent.

On another note, I wish there was a way to look at ratings with all the silly 5 star with no comment reviews filtered out. Perfection, by definition, is rare and hard to achieve. When I see a beer like this with 6 of 22 reviews perfect 5s ... I'm skeptical to say the least. It's funny to sort all beers in a style by rating and find that, lo and behold, there are so many "perfect" beers with 1 or 2 reviews by breweries you've never heard of. Who knew The North Brewery of Endicott, NY made a PERFECT imperial stout called Imperial Cerberus. Just goes to show, the rarer something is the better it is. Firestone Walker, take note!

 

So here goes, On draft it was really good. Although it was the 2nd best beer i had that night. However, I wasn't a huge fan of the Vanilla-Java on draft and out of the bottle it was my surprise of 2014. Its a bigger stout with better mouthfeel then the other eclipses brewed with totality as the base. They brewed a bigger stout for this, and then also kept it in barrel for 18 months. Its good man, probably not 45$ retail good, but worth it. it was only 400 bottles and yes someone got 70 for mule group and a few others got at least a case. Good luck, if its reasonable, trade for it.

 

Yeah dude, that had to be at LEAST two paragraphs. Way too much effort.

 

Never had Masterpiece, but every Eclipse I've had has been terriffic, it's a bit pricy, but it's damn good. Most of these are $30 beers give or take, and Masterpiece raises that by $20. If your curious and the price doesn't make you skip dinners for a week do it, for a one time thing it's not a lot of money.

The problem is distro was fucked because assholes hoarded the beers, finding a regular guy who may want to part with one will be a lot harder and likely pricy. But if your inclined there's only one way to know.

 

Great post from Kurmaraja. What does "worth it" mean to you? Masterpiece is damn good beer, but only if it suits your tastes. This is a great BA stout that will age gracefully. BTW, lots of hoppiness with 80 IBUs.

Unfortunately, the price was driven by rarity as you can easily acquire beers just as good for half the price. But if you place any value on a sexy, numbered, 750ml waxed bottle with lots of soap opera drama behind it, (on top of how it good tastes), then it's probably worth it.

 

It's really good. Had it at a share just recently with DB Huna, KBBS, and Prop and it did not disappoint. I would have to say out of the 4 it was fourth in line for me, but some of the group had it above those other beers. It all comes down to personal preference.

 

Id have to say it may be the best straight up (no other flavors added) BA stout I ever had (bcb rare, too). So in that category I gave it 5/5. Do I prefer a fresh CBS or BA abraxas more than it? Depends what type of mood I'm in. It's all what your preferences are for sure like the other BAs said.

If you can track it down reasonably then I say take the jump, but that's just me.

Cheers