Side Project / Shared (2021)

yeah, well played @WRogers_stl

 

Bought 4 OG and solo domed 3 of them. Pretty easy-drinking wheat wine for a maple hater like me.

 

No doubt in my mind that's the primary driver, although just behind that is the pandemic-induced increase of skill in the trigger fingers of proxy-havers.

Side Note, and not directed at SP in particular as this has been a growing fad for a while, but his whole "double barrel" marketing has got to be cracking brewers up, considering most well-blended barrel aged beers often have several different barrels involved. The extra time spent aging is definitely a differentiating factor, but most people have come to expect that from SP regardless of the barrels.

 

safe for the weekend. whew

 

Double barrel means the liquid was aged in one barrel and then moved to another barrel for further aging. It could be bourbon to bourbon, bourbon to rye, bourbon to cognac, or any number of other combos. It doesn't mean blending Heaven Hill barrels with Weller barrels where the liquid only spent time in one barrel before blending. Almost all of their BA stouts would be double barrel(or triple or more) if that's all it meant.

 

i agree. distinct difference between blending and transfer for secondary aging.

 

I understand that's what it means, and also that many traders will confidently cling to that actually being a meaningful distinction for hype purposes. While acknowledging that "Double Barrel" is a slam dunk method to sound extra special in the marketing for people like you to go bananas over, and the method of cutting down the amount of time a beer spends in separate barrels is an interesting method, it's a very nitpicky distinction. I'd argue that blending from liquid aged longer in individually distinct barrels actually imparts more character (with added discretion), while this method more than anything else might lend itself to more efficient turnover and usage of space than actual flavor impartation.

For me, and for most cellarmen, it's all about the magic of blending and attaining the right ratios for an optimal final product, regardless of the distillery or spirit stamped on the barrels. Some of the best barrel aged beers I've had have been all about exercising a deft hand with the blend.

All that said, this beer in particular really stretches your own definition, at least for me, and I'd put my money on b1 (cue the b1 was better echo). But the only way to really tell the true difference is to take this bottle back in time and try it with a freshly released b1. Which brings me back to the wax.

The sudden explosion of hype around Maple in the Wood is all about its appearance. The marketing. The "DB" label. I loved this beer the first time around, actually quite a lot. But I'm not any more hyped about it than I was then. It's clear to me the same can't be said for the rest of the followers here and on the socials.

 

“nitpicky distinction”?



It’s literally two completely different things

 

Clearly, I strongly disagree. And that's the tea.

 

At this point you're reading more into this than I am, making assumptions as to how much better it is (i.e. longer it may have been aged), when it's not been clarified, at least I've not seen indicated anywhere, that's actually the case.

And this is where BA comes in as my preferred platform for rating beer. All this ridiculousness started bifurcating when Untappd came around and obsessed everyone with getting as many check-ins as possible, so distinct batches started being entered there, while BA did not have different vintages of most barrel aged beers until largely SP fanboys started forcing it based on SP's winery style labels. When in actual fact barrel aged beers have always been experimented with in this way, not just blending beer that was all aged the same amount of time meant for the same bottle, but blending different aged beer regularly and all kinds of other whacky stuff to get the optimal flavor profile.

Imagine wineries marketing their products based on all the different methods and processes the wine goes through once it hits the cellar. The ones I can think of actually having done this are pretty cheesy, sort of garnering the opposite of hype. But hey, this is beer geekdom here!

 

Double barrel aging is meant to dial up the spirit profile. After a certain amount of time in a barrel you are only getting more flavor from the oak. I’m sure a lot of people thought DB Anabasis was “hot”, but that’s the point. DBA was insane, but I thought regular Anabasis was a more balanced beer.

 

Fake news.

We can’t assume that a double barrel beer that releases a year after the original beer was actually aged longer. That’s just ridiculous.


You are fake news.

 

Are we though?

 

So is DB MitB from the original batch???

In the case of DB Annie, honestly extended BA would be more appropriate from my POV than DB but that's just me #shruggie

Barrel variations really aren't as much of a concern to me unless they are single barrel experiments, which aren't as successful in the aggregate. And in regards to @CypressPaul1 that's not usually the case. Most breweries will make it a point to state how much longer a beer was aged than normal.

 

yes. They said on IG that it wont drop this weekend

 

Sweet! I missed that, thanks!

 

I’ll admit that I think the gold wax is extremely sexy on this one... I’m not ashamed of that. I also thought MitW was a fantastic beer, even if it wasn’t overly hyped. Did I F5 it a shit ton today because I’m hoping to land this bottle? Yes, yes I did.

 

To back you up, they changed the label to "Coming Next Week" on it. That should help reduce questions and F5s for the next 48 hours.