Proprietor's Bourbon County Brand Stout Expectations?

yes. its a bourbon county variant/end thread

 

i don't know that i'm emotionally equipped to think about another beer right now after drinking my last BCBS Coffee. sad day

 

I hope it gets better with age cause it wasn't THAT good fresh. My least favorite of all of them this year.

 

i think the thing with bourbon county stout and age is

1) some people say every big stout will get better with age. ignore,

2) it used to be SO unbalanced, but had so many unbelievably delicious flavors that the only way the mind could make sense of such bad + such good was: this will "even out" with age,

3) many people (more than buy niche fads and placebo; many snobs who have had dozens to hundreds of beers harder to acquire than any goose island beer, much less bcbs) attest to most BCBS vintages getting better with age. so, despite both barrel aging (oak fades) and additives (fruit/coconut fades--i'll attest to the latter; i've made coconut beer--very good coconut beer, actually--and the coconut faded significantly in 1~2 months)--despite all the reasons bcbs shouldn't age well, you just have to:

4) (conversely) if you recall (2), i'd go on record and say, simply: goose island has fixed that. right out of the box, bcbs 2013 was perfect. i don't like supporting AB any more than the next person who remembers how they used to muscle small business off the taplines, but perfect is perfect, and bcbs 2013 is perfect.

didn't have this coconut one. i don't stand in line or take a day off work to pay $30 for beer that's just as good as any of the 20,000,000 other amazing beers out in 2013, AKA beer's golden age. but, i bet it's delicious, i bet it will taste good in 3 years, and i bet age won't do much besides make whatever coconut is there disappear.

will people say "this will get better with age?" see (1). see also the love affair many have with aging beer--which they have because it *actually is* cool that you lay a beer down for a year or two and suddenly it has more malt depth and tastes like you put raisins in it, so don't dis.

 

My expectations are that I will never have this in my life so there's that.

However, it is a bourbon barrel aged stout that is 10+ percent alcohol. It should also be treated like any other adjunct beer. The adjunct will eventually fade away with age and the base beer is what you'll taste.

 

that's what I came in to post, lol

there are 15 or so folks here on BA who "got" this "for trade." look at their "wants." LOL. ok

 

There are already white specs floating around in it. Down the road it will probably look like Bourbon County Special Sauce... if you know what I mean.

It might still be tasty , but the appearance will be gross.

 

My least favorite of the BCBS releases this year. It's still a great beer but the coconut doesn't add the depth you get from the bramble rye or the comfort and complexity of the coffee. I'd take normal BCBS of it because it is fantastic and boozy whereas the coconut just sort of mutes the flavors, to me at least.

 

Post of the year. Well done sir. I thought I was the only one that felt that I can't see 2013 BCBS getting much better with age.

 

I thought it was great, just a little boozy/hot right now. So that leads me to want to age a couple, to let the heat die down. However, the problem is since coconut has such a high fat content...the lipids break down quickly; thus the perceived coconut will assumedly fade quickly, but I want to find out for myself.

 

I'm personally shouting about the Backyard instead of the Proprietor's.

 

Putting my backyard away for a few years. Can't wait to see how much better it will be!!!

 

What are the specs? Forgive my coconut ignorance but I assumed they were just pieces of shredded coconut but is that actually the fat from the coconut?

 

I never looked for this and to be honest I suspect I would have liked it less than Backyard (which I never found either). Coconut is said to taste weird on its own, it's why so many coconut-flavored drinks and foods are artificially flavored.


It's worth noting that everybody thought Vanilla would tank after a year and most people that actually tried aging it liked it better after a year or two. Likewise, lots of people preferred Bramble Rye with a year on it. Beer is unpredictable and people have different tastes.

 

Tiny pieces of shaved coconut right now, but I can just picture the coconut oil (fat) falling out of the beer in 6-12 months and clumping with the white specs. The idea of a creamy white substance in my beer is very off-putting. I'm just speculating, but it seems plausible.

 

Pretend it's a can of coconut milk and mix in the fat. Maybe add some curry too :-). This is hardly an original thought but I wouldn't sit on this one anyways. If the coconut is the star why let it fade unless you have a bunch then I can see tasting how it develops.

 

And yet there are people giving it a perfect 5 for appearance, even after pointing out the white flecks. I don't even know how that works.

 

Maybe they like the appearance of white flakes in the beer.

 

With a little more experience all you guys dissing Proprietor's will better be able to taste the Rare in it, and enjoy it more.

While base flavors don't improve with age, for the most part, Rare in beer gets better tasting every time someone else opens a bottle, and decreases the supply of said beer.