2014 Bourbon County Brands release - Chicagoland

Discussion in 'Great Lakes' started by Jaycase, Nov 24, 2014.

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  1. cwehr13

    cwehr13 Initiate (0) Aug 4, 2011 Illinois

    Maybe its how its stored. I have a temp. controlled chest freezer. I did have one a darkness day but don't remember how it tasted lol.
     
  2. mdomask

    mdomask Initiate (0) May 27, 2012 Illinois

    Prop 2013 has lots of bottle variation. See posts from last year about this time of people comparing notes ranging from "no coconut" to "mounds bar in a glass."

    FWIW, the Prop Vav had on tap at his big tasting in October was on the lower side of coconut flavor.
     
  3. Makubex

    Makubex Initiate (0) Jul 4, 2012 Illinois

    I think a lot of people don't realize that what's in one bottle isn't necessarily from the same "batch" as what's in another.

    Goose adds any adjuncts to their beer after it's extracted from the barrel, prior to bottling. The problem is, there's only a finite volume of space for blending/adding adjuncts so it's not like this process happens just once. This is all hypothetical, but let's pretend that Goose Island made 4,000 gallons of the base beer for 2013 proprietor's (base beer meaning without coconut added), and let's pretend that their bottling system has enough capacity to hold 500 gallons of liquid at a time. That 500 gallons of liquid is where they would add their adjuncts, so in our hypothetical situation, that's eight opportunities for one batch to get more coconut, one batch to get less, one batch to be blended with beer that has more barrel character, one batch to be blended with beer that has almost no barrel character...

    The blending is done so that the ABV and flavor of the base beer is as consistent as possible, but with the adjuncts there's potential for it to vary wildly. Beer does "fall off" but with dominant flavors such as coconut or vanilla, those tend to stick around for a LONG time.

    Anyone who claims that 2010 vanilla or 2013 proprietor's has fallen off is simply trying to reduce trade value so they can pick up a bottle for themselves a lot less painfully.
     
  4. Jplachy

    Jplachy Pooh-Bah (1,664) Feb 12, 2012 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    This guy gets it.
     
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  5. Dantron

    Dantron Initiate (0) Jan 2, 2007 Illinois

    My 18 month old son is currently at Whole Foods for a music class, if I have him get into line now do you think I'll get any BCS?
     
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  6. Jplachy

    Jplachy Pooh-Bah (1,664) Feb 12, 2012 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    He'll definitely get some BCBS 2034.
     
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  7. ChicagoGuy

    ChicagoGuy Initiate (0) Dec 2, 2014 Illinois

    Fantastic explanation. Thank you!

    Except me - I'm mostly just jealous that my bottle didn't land on the "mounds bar in a glass" side of the spectrum when my wife & I guzzled it 9 months ago :slight_smile:
     
  8. SeanBond

    SeanBond Pooh-Bah (2,880) Jul 30, 2013 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    I don't think it's fair to say either that people (at least all of them) are trying to reduce trade value; I'd say the same for Prop '13 based on my last bottle, and I have no interest in trading for another. It's just people's prior experiences that are coloring their views.

    Also, while obviously there will be variance from batch to batch, how would you compensate for that in your expectations? GI's brewers themselves said to drink Prop '13 fresh, since the coconut wouldn't last, so it's logical that people would expect a fall-off one year later, regardless of batch. I don't know enough about brewing or the properties of each ingredient, so if someone told me coconut is similar to hops in the way it starts to disappear over time, I'd believe it. If there are bottles of Prop that are still drinking great, that's awesome, but given all the info some of us have (the word of the brewers, our own personal experiences, etc.), it's not an illogical assumption to make.

    On a similar topic, does anyone know what the expectation is with Prop '14? That coconut water was coming through really strong when I had a bottle, so I'm curious how this one'll hold up.
     
  9. SeanBond

    SeanBond Pooh-Bah (2,880) Jul 30, 2013 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    I never got Mounds bar from last year's Prop either, unfortunately (3 bottles and one time on tap); personally I actually got much more of that from this year's (probably thanks to the cacao + coconut water). Still might like '13 better though (although it's very close).
     
  10. fatdeets

    fatdeets Initiate (0) May 19, 2014 Illinois

    I had a similar experience with the 2013 prop. Had it on tap in December and the coconut was non-existent. Had it again in January our of a bomber and it was a coconut bomb. Then had it for the last time on tap again in February and it was somewhere in the middle. I thought I read somewhere that coconut is a notoriously difficult adjunct to work with in terms of producing a consistent presence from batch to batch hence the use of coconut water in this year's product.
     
  11. mdomask

    mdomask Initiate (0) May 27, 2012 Illinois

    Where are you getting this? Per GI employees (podcasts, interviews) and pictures on Instagram, it sounds/looks like they add most of the extra ingredients directly to barrel. With Vanilla Rye, they reportedly thought it didn't have enough vanilla flavor when it first came out of the barrel, so they ran the batch through what's more or less an industrial randall to increase the vanilla presence.

    I'm just curious why you think they do all the adjuncts post barrel...
     
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  12. tinypyramids

    tinypyramids Pundit (897) Jul 19, 2012 Illinois

    am i the only one who actually disliked this year's vanilla? it's super sweet and has so much vanilla that it is borderline undrinkable. 2010 vanilla, which was opened up at the same tasting, on the other hand, was still amazing.
     
  13. PHBoiler

    PHBoiler Pooh-Bah (1,765) Jan 14, 2013 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah

    It sounds like the consistent trend here is that the coconut is not as prominent on tap. You could have coconut that sits at the bottom of the keg and just isn't contacting enough of the beer over a 6-12 month period. You could have draft lines that don't incorporate the coconut into the pour like a bottle would. I can personally attest that having 2013 Prop on draft last weekend, it brought very little coconut to the table outside of highlighting that aspect in the base beer. That said, it was completely different taste than standard BCBS. It was a smoother mouthfeel. It had a definite rye spice to it. The barrel profile was different in terms of the flavors highlighted like coconut, roast, and nuttiness. Some spice and some fruitiness. I wouldn't hesitate to acquire 2013 Prop on the basis that even if it isn't a coconut bomb, it's still a completely different experience than standard BCBS. If you hold onto that beer for 5 years, at a bare minimum you have a lower ABV BCBS aged in Templeton Rye barrels.
     
  14. Krazedpgt

    Krazedpgt Initiate (0) Dec 8, 2013 Minnesota

    With you on this. Overload of vanilla that makes it hard to drink.
     
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  15. tonydollars

    tonydollars Initiate (0) Dec 4, 2014

    CELLAR DOOR sold out.
     
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  16. JellyJacket

    JellyJacket Zealot (610) Dec 5, 2012 Illinois

    Milk And More shipment arriving right now....seems like the bombers are spoken for. Offered to put me on the the list for one if I bought all four girls. Sigh.
    Not sure how they're dealing with the four packs.
     
  17. funhog

    funhog Pundit (861) Mar 8, 2011 Illinois
    Trader

    So where can I get some 2014 BCBS????
     
  18. Dantron

    Dantron Initiate (0) Jan 2, 2007 Illinois

    You could just buy one off of Craigslist for less money than that will set you back.
     
  19. JellyJacket

    JellyJacket Zealot (610) Dec 5, 2012 Illinois

    Yeah....considering how poorly this year's search is going I probably should've done it. More Halia can't hurt. I should say, the prices there are usually quite fair, I like the shop...I just don't qualify as a regular I suppose. Or an employee.
     
  20. Dad_of_Rad

    Dad_of_Rad Zealot (562) Jan 24, 2013 Illinois
    Trader

    Same here. It's cloyingly sweet IMO. The question is when does it fade enough to be enjoyable. I have to say other people I know that've had it love it. I'm not sure if they just see that "vanilla" on the bottle and are marketed to love status or if it's just a palette thing.
     
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