"Your Cellar's Best" Brown Bag at The Hermosillo recap

Sad that these events don't get somewhat regular coverage (I blame you, @cquiroga). But this one was pretty awesome.

20 beers, all served blind (double blind except for the 1 or 2 each person might have brought).

In a somewhat not-shocking revelation, the top beers of the nights (by consensus, I have slight quibbles) were:

2010 Cantillon Vigneronne
Armand'4 Lente
Armand'4 Winter

[gap]

Veritas 015

[gap]

The rest of the crowd.

My personal favorites ran:

Lente (clearly the best beer of the night)
Winter / Vigneronne 2010 (super close)
Tart of Darkness with Cherry and Vanilla. This beer was phenomenal and unexpected. Had a finish for days, layers of flavor as it opened up, balanced, rich and intense. Just great. Just not quite as complex as the gueuzes.
Black Tuesday 2013. For many this was too sweet...it is sweet as balls...of candy that are very sweet. But it's also rich, complex, layered, and perfect to drink (no more than) a few ounces of.
Veritas 015 (although I had this late after the reveal and it was much better than my two earlier samples after having warmed up and breathed a bit)
Barrel Age Speedway Stout 2013

Other assorted random surprises for me:
How little surprise there was. The lambics stood out head and shoulders above everything, big name beers delivered. Nonna's (over-extracted and unpleasant white wine barrel character, but I think I was more down on it than most), Blackberry Bu (too much fruit and yogurt-esque tartness, not enough beer character) and Pannepot (age) were disappointments upon reveal, but highly hyped breweries delivering a good but underwhelming product in a blind tasting and older beers turning south aren't exactly surprises.

The group was split due to the number of attendees, in the smaller set I was unable to convince anyone that Black Tuesday (tasted blind at the time of course) was even a stout, let alone Black Tuesday (the consensus settled on a BA barleywine a la Goose Island Bourbon County).

Firestone Walker XV was great. A little oxidation but complex, with earthy tones rounding things out. Anniversary beers have acquired a sort of universally held conventional wisdom that they don't hold up (and that has even creeped into a general: Firestone Walker beers don't hold up!) but routinely in blind tastings they hold up as good or better than anything else. If you don't like your beer aged, don't age it. If you like aging beer, FW stuff is as good a choice as any.

I nailed Allagash Curieux (and Black Tuesday and the Armand'4 beers, but had those two reversed). Of course I also thought the two Veritas 015s were completely different beers and wasn't sure what fruit was in the second one.

Heady Topper was just good (Bob had some tasty Highland Park hoppy beers on, not to mention Cellarmaker. that were better), Pannepot 2010 was tasting heavily oxidized and past prime (a beer I usually associate with long shelf life).

Saison Bernice is probably the rating I'm most unsure of. It seemed like a pleasant enough tart saison, but with all the huge flavors in this tasting (many of them similar in character if not expression) it seemed watery and thin. In a different line-up or on its own I wouldn't be surprised to think far more favorably of it, but here I mentally slid it behind all the great Belgian saisons and many of the better American variations I've tried.

Full list (and my scores):

1. Veritas 015 - 85
2. Firestone Walker XV - 90
3. Hellshire III - 80
4. Cherry Vanilla Tart of Darkness - 91
5. Veritas 015 (again) - 88
6. BA Speedway Stout 2013 - 87
7. Hellshire 1 - 70 (could have been worse)
8. SARA 16e Farmhouse Noir - 75
9. Armand'4 Lente - 99
10. Creature Comforts See The Stars - 86
11. Saison Bernice - 82
12. Vigneronne 2010 - 96
13. Pannepot 2010 - 83
14. Yellow Peach George - 82
15. Nonna's Blend #8 - 78
16. Allagash Curieux (2010?) - 84
17. De Garde Blackberry Bu - 81
18. Black Tuesday 2013 - 90
19. Heady Topper - 87
20. Armand'4 Winter - 97

 

Third Monday of every month at The Hermosillo Chris (cquiroga) on here is the organizer. Bring a 22oz or 750ml bottle (or 2 smaller bottles) of a beer for that month's theme (most themes are decided a month in advance at the tasting) and you're good to go!

 

This happens literally every time and it always includes some of the better beers that night.