I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to tell what batch/year a bottle of Surly Smoke was from? Thanks for the help.
The ink color did vary slightly from year to year (on the gray/white/beige not the red), but the best way to tell is to write the years on them.
Doesn't wax color also play a part with respect to the dating of these bottles? Seems the first year was all red, with "silver" for the second. Didn't keep any bottles for my collection so I can't check to be sure, just goin' on what I remember.
Ah, well that will make it easier to figure out. I really should invest in some greasepaint pencils or maybe some silver Sharpies...
Thanks for the help. Writing the date on the bottle though does not help me in this case. I won the bottle in a fantasy football BIF and opened it last night and was hoping to know how old it was.
How pronounced was the smoke? This years batch seems like the smoke was.turned up. Feloniousmonk & I opened a 1st release bottle which was awesome. Big dark fruit notes with chocolate.
While I feel ya on the big dark fruits and chocolate, I felt this years batch had a slightly less bold smoke profile. Which, in my opinion made it the most balanced and complex fresh batch of Smoke to date. The previous two bottlings hit their sweet spot around a year, this was extremely drinkable from the word, "go!"
I think 2011 is "White" and the 2010 is "grayish" If you remind me i can take a photo when i get home and post it.
I figured it out. Thanks for the helpful responses. There is a place were the bottle creation date is embossed on the glass. I was told that, at least for this beer, that coincides with the year the beer was released. This seems correct to me since the bottle says 09 and that coincides with what I would guess based on the way the beer tasted.
And how was that? I have the three year vertical and I'm curious as to what is going on in the '09 bottle.
