I plan to start assembling verticals that I will hopefully keep running for a long time and think I want to use CCB Marshal Zhukov as my first vertical, due to its combination of very high quality and reasonable availability. I have a few 2011's, but was wondering if anyone had info on the vintages (ie. original production numbers,likely current availability, what it will take to land). I believe there has only been 3 years, '09, '10, and '11, so as long as the first two batches weren't experimental small productions or the like, I can't imagine it would be terribly difficult to assemble the whole vertical and then keep it running, but I wanted some opinions first. Thanks.
Also, does anyone know if the different vintages have different labels or some other way to distinguish what year thy are, as CCB usually doesn't born on date.
Haven't had the '09, but the '10 was flat as hell. Still delicious though EDIT: Just realized you were talking about the labels... maybe you can shake the bottle a bit and try to see how carbed it is?
Definitely some were, but it was hit or miss. I had a bunch of good bottles but did have a few flat ones, too. Newest batch is great, though. Beer-shake!
Beer shake indeed. I wouldn't call the 2011's flat, but the carbonation is definitely on the very low side. Adding to the beer shake-iness. Anyways, guess I'll head over to the ISO:FT and try to swap a couple '11 for a '10 and '09. May be a shot in the dark, but everything is worth a try.
