What has been your favorite Bourbon County Rye so far?

Sadly I've only had the Cherry Rye when it comes to the rye versions, but it was excellent. If anyone has any of the others and is willing to make a trade shoot me a message, especially the Proprietor's 2013.

 

Bramble Rye is the only one i havent had of the 4, so my vote is somewhat incomplete, but of the 3 i have had the Backyard was the best. The proprietors would have won if the coconut had been more pronounced, but there were times you could barely taste it, if at all. When present, it was delicious, but certainly not worthy of the ridiculous hype and trade status it has. Just my two cents.

 

I've had Cherry and Backyard. While Cherry was excellent, Backyard might be the best beer I've ever had

 

Backyard for sure, haven't had the Proprietor's yet.

 

Cherry Rye gets the nod for me, just amazing. I feel as if it's a very polarizing beer, because a lot of people don't like cherries, but they try and rate it anyway...but that is just a masterful beer. Some people say it tastes medicinal, and I call TOTAL b.s. on that. It tastes like a stout infused with natural cherry tartness in the best way possible.

Coconut and Backyard were amazing, Bramble was probably my least favorite but not bad by any means.

So, personally, I'd say Cherry>Coconut>Backyard>Bramble.

Also, because of the rye variants, I ordered a bottle of Templeton Rye *from Binny's*(in my best dontdrinkbeers voice). It's smooth and amazing, really great stuff. Definitely more spicy/fruity than Bourbon.

 

Amen...are you really in Antarctica? Because Backyard shouldn't be that hard to land...

 

Except for bramble they are all fantastic. Some points to consider...cherry rye didn't age well and proprietors is inconsistent (some bottles and keg drafts lacked coconut character while other bottles have coconut floaties), felt backyard bottles are even better than draft.
I would vote the good bottles of proprietors at the top then backyard (for some reason that beer just does it for me), then cherry rye, then the not as great bottles/keg of proprietors.

 

I've only had Cherry and Bramble so far, but Cherry won that one hands down.

On a side note, I Randall'd '05 BCBS with some stale Jewish rye bread and a shot of Old Overholt... delicious!

 

Backyard, Prop, Bramble, Cherry.

It was close between backyard and prop but i think i wanted a little more out of prop.
Backyard might be the best beer ive ever had.
It was new years, mayb the enviroment added the delight but i was a kid in a candy shop with that beer.

On the flip side i thought cherry was way to fruity and thin.
I would take coffee and BBW any day over cherry.

 

Bramble is my favorite, mainly because it is the only one of those listed that I have been able to get my hands on.

 

having had all 4 last night id have to say my preference goes in this order proprietors, backyard, cherry rye and lastly bramble. all are very good but there was a pronounced gap between proprietors and all the rest

 

Oh, well Brett Porter was recently quoted by a BA on here saying that Cherry was more ready to drink than ever, with a year on it, right now. Then again, what the hell does he know?

 

Not saying he's wrong but well sure I'll call bs on that. For 2 reasons: 1) When that beer was released at FOBAB '12 it was perfect, nothing wrong with it. Sometimes a beer just isn't going to get better. And 2) the draft pour at whole foods bcs release a few weeks back was oxidized and cherry flavor was fading.
And just clarify - I'm not ripping this beer for being past it's prime. Fruit beers like this just aren't meant for aging IMO.

 

I don't get the love for Backyard Rye at all. That was nearly undrinkable, and I like some fruitier beers. It was an ok sipper, but that's being generous. Tasted rather artificial and stupidly sweet. It was my first and only BCBS variant, and needless to say, I'm not going to splurge on any more.

I wish I could have gotten the Coconut, though. That sounds delicious.

 

I've only tried the Backyard Rye, but it was absolutely spectacular. Totally deserving of the hype, although some of the price-gouging in CT appears to be a little ridiculous.

 

I've had all four and here's my honest opinion. I stumbled upon Bramble Rye accidentally one day and only bought a bottle because the store manager insisted I take it. This is back in my rookie year of beer drinking and I had heard of bourbon county but knew nothing about the beers. Anyways, the Bramble Rye took my palette to an entirely different level. I hate fruit beers but this baby was my pride and joy. It blew both my father and I away and IMO, is the best BC Rye variant yet.

I've had Cherry Rye three times (lucky me) and each bottle got increasingly more bad. Age does not treat this beer well. Fresh, it was mind-blowing. Six months in, it lost most of its balance and became just okay. One year in, it lost absolutely everything and tasted exactly like medicine. I had to struggle to get it down.

Backyard I obviously just had for the first time and while it was amazing, I thought it was a notch below Bramble, personally. The only reason I can think to give for this is that maybe I like blackberries and raspberries better than muhlenberries and whatever else is in backyard. I also don't think age will treat this beer well so I should open my second bottle sometime in the near future.

Proprietors was a huge disappointment. While I would still rate it 2nd or 3rd on this list, I expected so much more. I got very little to no coconut and if you blind poured this for me I would've told you it was regular BCBS. Sad.

Well this was by far the longest post I've written in my BA career. I'm going to shut up now. Cheers all.

 

Prop>Bramble (especially w/ a year+ on it)>Backyard>Cherry

I hope Backyard ages as beautifully as Bramble.