September Cellar Reviews

I just drank my CBS. Has been properly stored since purchase. It tasted amazing, and the maple was still in tact.

 

Cracked a 2009 Deschutes Mirror Mirror last night....absolutely amazing. Not sure why, but didn't have high expectations for this, but it was delish.

 

Good to see there are uninfected bottles out there. Was yours stored in the fridge, or at cellar temp?

 

yes, stored in my fridge/cellar at about 55-57 degrees.

 

I've had two, both uninfected, but this was 2 years ago. They were delicious!

 

09 Nemesis. I've always been disappointed by this beer. Starting with high expectations from the description and brewer. I've always found it harsh, unbalanced, and generally thin an unpleasant. So when I poured out my last bottle a couple nights ago and found it had lost carbonation and was getting ugly floaters in the beer and my first whiff brought a big nostril full of stale, wet cardboard, I expected to take a sip and then immediately drainpour.

But lo! I enjoyed it! It certainly showed some signs of aging, the beer opened up nicely, losing some of the more obvious off notes and showing some appreciative ones, some nice vinuous qualities.

The beer, for the first time I can remember, felt unctuous and full on the palate, round, smooth, balanced. Hints of maple and vanilla. No more alcohol.

Now, I don't want the "beers don't age well" crowd to read into this that OMG THIS IS THE BEST BEER EVER AGING BEERS RULEZ YOU JUST LOVE THE TASTE OF OLD LIKE OTHERS LOVES THE TASTE OF RARRE... I'm saying this was a B, B+ beer. But since I never really thought it was even average, this was actually a huge improvement, to my tastes, and a great example of tasting beer slowly over time to determine when YOU will enjoy it. If I still had any bottles left, I'd toss 'em in the fridge and get to drinking. I don't know if I missed peak, if this is peak, or peak is yet to come, but I finally met an age I could drink this beer at.

 

There are infected bottles out there?

 

It is well documented

 

That's interesting. I couldn't taste the maple after 6 months.

 

I also drank '11, '12, and '13 KBS. All stored at 55 degrees since their inception. The '11 and '12 definitely fell off, a lot! They were good, but no where near as good as the '13. I've drank 3 '13 KBS in the last 2 months, and they are peaking. I couldn't be happier.

 

Cracked open a bottle of Tyranena Who's Your Daddy (batch 2). This is almost, but not quite a year old. I gotta say its not doing so good...

A-its still a nice looking beer. 1 full finger of head from a hard pour.
S-Whiskey, oak, cardboard, soy sauce. smells of substantial oxidation.
T-It remains whiskey forward, soy sauce has gotten heavy in taste. Cola flavor, nutty like a brown ale, bakers cocoa, lots of black licorice. its gotten muttled and messy.
M- Still has nice carbonation, but has thinned out substantially. its gotten hotter/boozier than it was fresh.

I hope that no one is sitting on a huge stack of this beer because that is probably not a good thing. After trying to drink my last bottle tonight, I would not want much more of this beer sitting around waiting for it to get better. I dont think that it will get any better. Sad to say its so...

 

Yes. I was in Colorado when Mirror Mirror '09 was still on the shelf. I bought 5 bottles and brought them back home to Illinois. Of the 5 bottles that I drank 2 of them had obvious infection issues and the other 3 drank beautifully.

 

A buddy of mine and I just drank 2010 KBS, 2011 BCBS, and 2012 Black Note. All in my deep, dark cellar since purchase. All were amazing. A lot of people rail against aging KBS. The coffee fades a bit. But overall, still a magical beer.

 

'12 BCS: still harsh Bourbon/booze nose and taste at first, but then my taste buds numbed a little and was VERY good. Also had '12 Black Note on tap at Bell's Eccentric Cafe and was also VERY good, but without the booze burn. I just LOVE Black Note as I'm sure you can tell.

 

Oh, I'm definitely not railing against it. I still very much enjoyed it - it was amazing. It just wasn't as good as the fresh bottles, in my opinion. I still have roughly 10 bottles left, of '12 and '13 vintages, so I'll definitely drink them periodically and post my opinions on here.

 

A good reminder to use Google to search the interwebs in the future.

Yeah, I was well aware of the 09 Abyss issues (I dodged them in my purchases), but hadn't recalled that Mirror Mirror suffered, also.

 

@errantnight - I also had an '09 Nemesis and loved it. Unfortunately this was my last one, but I have been trying one every year to year and a half and it has only progressed. I wish they still had the Nemesis project instead of these more crazy Back Stage hooplahs.

 

Don't laugh. I opened a bottle of Infinium, 2010 I believe, last night (stored at cellar temps). Freakin terrible. Choked my way though the good part of a glass and dp'd the rest.