Hell yeah, I will see you there! Also bringing a buddy. Except I'll be the idiot friend in that equation. I'd be glad to split a bottle or two with some fellow BA message-boarders at the Cellar afterward. If there are any saisons as part of the tasting... then I'll be at least slightly more capable of after-partying than I was after Library #6 (aka double-barrel night!) And my bad dude, I totally missed your question -- sorry it's a bit late now. But the Library Tasting #9 was announced at the bottom of the promo email on Dec 16th, but it wasn't mentioned in the emails after that. So it would have been easy to miss.
November - Mid January have always been little to nothing. In before “the whole year has been lame duck”
Think the year started out slow, but it rebounded nicely about mid year. I still think the up front fee doesn't get you enough, but I've been pretty pleased with the offerings since about July.
My buddy isn’t in the club and got more bottles than I did! Hoping for some bangers before the club ends, but I doubt it. They like to dabble beers for people to be temped to renew, owell
Any other reviews of the new DM yet? Trying to decide whether to bring one to a share this weekend (with a bunch of folks I won't know) or hoard greedily for myself and a few friends (if they're lucky!) There's been a handful of reviews on here so far that ranged from "phenomenal/maybe even better than Batch 1" to "delightful/well balanced" to "perfectly ok/not worth paying for another one" The Untappd hivemind says it's a clear-cut entry for the Mount Rushmore of Side Project beers from 2025 (currently sitting at 4.71). Alongside the Double Rye/Double Vanilla Derivation from Stout Week (4.74) which I was also a pretty big fan of, and ... welp. Shin Shin 2025, which is also 4.74. And which folks in here are saying they weren't exactly blown away by. I am definitely a little bit of a **** for a coconut/vanilla combo though, so I reckon that's gotta figure into my calculus.
Probably in the minority here but for me personally, I'd lump it in with Shin Shin as one that was a disappointment. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of pastry stouts or overly adjuncted beers so take that with a grain of salt. Both beers had a major lack of barrel that I would attribute to the overuse of adjuncts. In addition to the lack of barrel, it leans on the sweeter side which is another big time turn off for me personally.
Totally get that and appreciate the feedback! I definitely prefer a very-well-made (thoughtful even?), whiskey-forward unadjuncted stout, if I had to pick my single favorite type of expression in the genre. I sorta backed into BA beers by starting in the world of Bourbon. So I have a bias towards that ol’ Kentucky Hug too. Some adjuncts definitely hit better for me than others though, so I’m excited to see if this one lands in the (not too) sweet spot. Cheers!
"Double-Barrel Anabasis 2025 + Anabasis 2025 Packages will go LIVE in the La Coterie Shop January 13th at 10am"
Interesting that there isn't enough DB for all members while it's in a 750ml, hopefully it's still a decent supply
They wouldn’t have sent the email ahead of time with a release time if it wasn’t FIGHT CLUB style. LFG!! Edit: also HNY from the SP to LC. Fight it out
