Same. Could be an IL thing. I've had a lot of stuff pop up lately. Birthday Noche (I bought this straight from WW and it's okay), BA Safe Word from Cerebral, Bourbon Paradise, a BA Aslin beer, and No Sleep from Anchorage to name just a few. I've passed on all of them.
@o29 he's not making a joke in case you haven't seen this thread. And that reminds me, I got a reply from WW and need to update that thread.
My feed has been garbage. I have never signed for a box. And GQ is male snobbery, maxim was douchbaggery.
Yeah I don't really understand why Anchorage keeps pumping out new barrel-aged imperial stouts that are remarkably similar to previous beers they've already released (Furthermore is not their first imperial stout with coconut fermented in oak foeders; e.g., The Sacrifice). Just a year ago they were releasing things like a barrel-aged Belgian Dark Strong Ale (Gutted) and a barrel-aged Baltic Porter (Frayja). Give me the variety of styles from last year's releases (when it was still ridiculously expensive at $30) over charging $50 for another stout that is nearly indistinguishable from your other offerings.
Never saw it. Wouldn't buy it. Prairie is up there with TG on the hype train. Haven't had anything from either brewery that wowed me.
I was joking about the Pickle beer. I will say, Bourbon Paradise is consistently very good to excellent depening on the batch and very worth buying if you see it on the shelf. Pirate Weekend was also distributed by me recently and was solid. Hoping BP shows up too. Prairie has had way more misses than hits for me in the last few years, but I'll go after BP every time.
You'll get no disagreement from me on ABC prices. They're absurd. That said, while both beers you referenced were fermented in oak foeders, The Sacrifice wasn't barrel aged. Furthermore is a DB stout - HH for 6 months then Woodford DO for 8 months.
A legitimate question that I am not sure if anyone can answer: Why does Anchorage only age their beers for such a short time before switching to a different barrel? I suspect (but don’t know!) that the initial phase of 6-8 months imparts most of the bourbon flavor, so they are “cutting corners” to get beer to the market quicker since they aren’t reusing barrels, and this provides, say, 80% of the BA flavor that it would if they just aged each for approx. 12mo. If anything, this should lower the cost of a DB Stout/BW rather than increase it (relative to aging each for approx. 12mo) due to decreasing warehouse space, decreasing time from brew to market etc. Just curious, because they are the only brewery I can think of that does this with any consistency.
Ah, thanks for pointing this out. I was misremembering The Sacrifice as also being barrel-aged, but you're right. And I suppose it's unfair to mention that Furthermore is barrel-aged without mentioning that two barrels are used, so that's a worthy correction as well. I just think with Furthermore, Air Whale Hell, and No Sleep all being stouts, and even Open Up More and Jaguar God being stout/Barleywine blends, there seems to be plenty of room to experiment with other styles, and their recent Tavour offerings are increasingly becoming less attractive to me between the increased pricing and my diminishing ability to differentiate between their releases. It was priced at $33 the first time it was offered.
Won’t dispute cutting corners, or Fletcher's practice on “extra revenue,” as this can be/is attributed. Nonetheless, fresh wood & preferable oxidation @ 6 vs 12 - mth transfer - seems to play a role in methodology
A Deal with Evil's pre-sale made me realize I don't want to play this game anymore. May hold onto my account thru the summer in hopes of landing ADWTD TO, but with their latest prices, I fear ADWTD TO is going to start at $120 or more. Anybody buying anything lately? I've actually had some bottles I'm interested in trying enter my timeline, but the prices are above what I'm willing to pay.
