While I've had a couple 2 oz. pours, until Friday, I'd never had a full pour of Kentucky Dark Star and, as I know a lot of your are cellaring this beer, I thought I'd post some impressions. It's still great. I think that the time in the bottle has rounded out the malt character a bit. I'd also say that, while still very apparent in the nose, the bourbon taste might have decreased but the barrel/vanilla taste seems to have increased. I found the barrel notes reminded me of Firestone's DDBA quite a bit. I'm considering opening another in December to see if I notice any change. Anyone else have one of these lately?
had one a week ago or so...thought it was doing well...the mouthfeel hadn't really changed (still thin) which is my biggest complaint on the brew...still my favorite BA oatmeal stout though...and probably my favorite Seattle beer as well.
Spot on description, Billy. It's a delicious beer, but too thin. That's easy enough of a problem to correct. Hopefully Fremont does.
It's interesting, being relatively new to the beer scene mouthfeel has been an elusive thing for me to characterize until I had KDS. It was the first beer that I've had that I immediately thought had a thin mouthfeel. At least I know I wasn't imagining things.
Yeah-that makes sense. There are some beers where I find myself thinking, "Is this thin?". It was blatantly obvious in this case. Again, delicious beer, which will be even better, should they correct this. It does seem like they have taken care of this with recent batches of the Dark Star (the base). Had it on Nitro at the beer garden recently. It was all kinds of ridiculous.
Cellaring shouldn't affect the mouthfeel very much. Flavors and smell will change with time but mouthfeel is basically built into the beer by the grain bill and mash temps. I would imagine that several years might have an affect but I would guess carbonation would be the biggest change. as far as I know at least, feel free to correct me. Is the brewery the best place to snag Fremont bottles? or would bottle works be a better choice? I'm gonna be in the neighborhood next week.
It'll be challenging to find B-Bomb and KDS anywhere in the area, but you shouldn't have a problem finding other regulars/seasonals, either at Fremont, or the local bottle shops/grocery stores.
Yes is the answer. Bottles and cans are slightly cheaper there plus you have the added bonus of drinking super fresh Fremont beer while you visit. They do not have any B-bomb or KDS for sale right now but you can get A-bomb in cans, bottles and growlers.
You're coming a week too soon. If the non-haiku is to be believed, B-Bomb 2012 is coming out December 1st.
When I was there last week they had KDS on tap, nitro & cask! It was awesome! Cask did it for me, so good. Delicious on nitro too. Didn't try the regular tap.
You're correct, it was regular Dark Star. Delicious. It was also two weeks ago. My days get confusing.
