BCBS tasting help

Brewer's Friend 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Nipsey

Nipsey

Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
16
Reaction score
3
Location
Jax,FL
I was hoping that the great minds on this site could give me some help. A group of friends and myself have been lucky enough to amass a large selection of BCBS and its variants. We are getting together on Saturday night and have been discussing the order in which they should be served.
Here is what we have

Night Stalker
Big John
BCBCS 12
BCBS 13
BCBCS 13
Bramble
Cherry Rye
Vanilla
Proprietors
Backyard
Rare

Some say we should start with Night Stalker and finish with Prop and Rare. I do agree that we should start at the base but i worry that once we get to the end all of the subtle differences will be missed due to palate burn not to mention being hammered. I hope not to get threadshit on but any help would be great.

Thanks,
Scott
 
Start with BCBS '13 so you can compare the vvariants throughout the night. Get a feel for th base.
Then do Rare followed by Proprietors and Vanilla so your palate is decently fresh for the subtleties.

Throw Night stalker and Big John down the alley.
 
Do multiple tastings. Otherwise, everything will become a muddled mess. Maybe do the nightstalker/Big j with the 2012/2013, then the fruited variations one night, then do the vanilla/prop/coffees another night?


Also, palate cleansing is key.... as well as couches to crash on.

Sours and ginger beer will be provided to palate cleanse. Thankfully this takes place at my house so I'M covered!
 
Nipsey said:
Also, palate cleansing is key.... as well as couches to crash on.

Sours and ginger beer will be provided to palate cleanse. Thankfully this takes place at my house so I'M covered!
Click to expand...
That's a turrible idea. Sours are anything but cleansing, might as well cleanse with Hop Slam.
 
Make sure you get a can of Dr. Skipper to taste next to the Cherry Rye.

Make sure you have enough glass to taste the BCBCS next to one another, so people can't automatically say coffee is like hops and disappears after leaving the bright tanks.

Keep the Big John and Nightstalker for another night, they're not even part of the BCBS family really.
 
mjpotter said:
9 bombers and 2 12 oz bottles means you will each be drinking about 44 oz or 2 bombers. At an average of about 13% abv, you may survive...just depends on tolerance levels and pre/post gaming

I think I did the math on all that right...
Click to expand...

Gonna have to throw somebody else into the rotation.
 
Nipsey said:
I was hoping that the great minds on this site could give me some help. A group of friends and myself have been lucky enough to amass a large selection of BCBS and its variants. We are getting together on Saturday night and have been discussing the order in which they should be served.
Here is what we have

Night Stalker
Big John
BCBCS 12
BCBS 13
BCBCS 13
Bramble
Cherry Rye
Vanilla
Proprietors
Backyard
Rare

Some say we should start with Night Stalker and finish with Prop and Rare. I do agree that we should start at the base but i worry that once we get to the end all of the subtle differences will be missed due to palate burn not to mention being hammered. I hope not to get threadshit on but any help would be great.

Thanks,
Scott
Click to expand...
Not sure how much time the group has or how many of each of the lesser bottles you have, but if that were me and my group, we would split that into a pair of tastings separated by at least a few hours (where no one drinks in between...HAHA!!!). If you expect that your group can't chill between flights, then I would reverse them so as to start with the good stuff.

Splitting it up (hold on, let me grab a beer) I would do:

Night Stalker
Big John
BCBCS 12
BCBS 13
BCBCS 13

and then later in the day:
Bramble
Cherry Rye
Vanilla
Proprietors
Backyard
Rare
 
bb8189 said:
Not sure how much time the group has or how many of each of the lesser bottles you have, but if that were me and my group, we would split that into a pair of tastings separated by at least a few hours (where no one drinks in between...HAHA!!!). If you expect that your group can't chill between flights, then I would reverse them so as to start with the good stuff.

Splitting it up (hold on, let me grab a beer) I would do:

Night Stalker
Big John
BCBCS 12
BCBS 13
BCBCS 13

and then later in the day:
Bramble
Cherry Rye
Vanilla
Proprietors
Backyard
Rare
Click to expand...
If you end with Rare, you'll be disappointed. Palate fatigue is a real thing, and it should be avoided. Here's how I would do it:

BCBS 13
BCBCS 12
BCBCS 13
Rare

REST

Vanilla
Proprietors
Bramble
Backyard
Cherry Rye

Bake a ****in' cake with Big John and Night Stalker.
 
Have you guys heard of side by sides / comparisons?

I'd do:

BCBS 13 and Rare
palate cleansers
Vanilla
pcs
BCBCS 12 and BCBCS 13
pcs
Proprietors
pcs
Backyard and Cherry Rye and Bramble - these all suck anyway...jk a little

Night Stalker and Big John if still interested at the end.
 
We did a similar tasting this summer with 6 people, as far as BCBS we ended up with Rare, Vanilla, 09 bomber, 2012 coffee and regular, bramble and cherry. We did all of the bombers blind and drank the regular 2012 first just to get a feel for the base.

We didn't experience a whole lot of palate fatigue, but even for 6 semi alcoholics, a bomber a piece was plenty. We ended up having a lot more beer left over than we thought, so we ended up doing a cuvee as well as made floats with vanilla ice cream after we tasted some more beers. I'd recommend adding 2-3 more people so you don't end up bastardizing bcbs like we did.

Although, floats and a cuvee isn't terrible if you're into that kind of thing.
 
Good to read this, we're doing a similar tasting next weekend so make sure to post the results and what seemed to work and not work. Going to try to stretch it out over the better part of a day, also have some other beers we'd like to work in. Have my sights on some bourbon as well, but that may need to wait a day.
 
I just did this with a total of 6 people (see the tasting thread). I started with the 12 BCBS/13 BCBS just to see what the 1 year aging was like before we dived into the 09 Bomber. They were all very healthy pours so I would recommend keeping the number of bombers to a small amount as well.

I went 09 Bomber, Cherry Rye, Coffee, Bramble, Vanilla, Rare and then King Henry because why not? Base first because duh, and having had Cherry Rye I knew I would like it the least, then the 12 bomber of Coffee since I know how much the coffee had faded at that point. Bramble was so ****ing good, have that early on, my bottle of Vanilla apparently had held up extremely well and was my favorite by far. Rare was still overrated IMO and KH was the ****.

Cheese and water crackers are nice to have in between for palate cleansers. I'd recommend taking a break since you have a couple of more bombers than I did. Do what you can to avoid palate fatigue because that'll be a shame if you don't remember any of those beers.
 
Michigan said:
If you end with Rare, you'll be disappointed. Palate fatigue is a real thing, and it should be avoided. Here's how I would do it:

BCBS 13
BCBCS 12
BCBCS 13
Rare

REST

Vanilla
Proprietors
Bramble
Backyard
Cherry Rye

Bake a ****in' cake with Big John and Night Stalker.
Click to expand...
I should have cross posted my advice in the drunk posts only thread. I vaguely remember typing that advice.
 
bb8189 said:
Big John was one of the best surprises I've ever had. Expected crap for some reason, found that I loved it. One of the best values I've found, ever.
Click to expand...
And boy howdy did I get a little overzealous on my support of Big John here. At least I'm a happy drunk I guess.
 
Was glad to take part in the tasting from the OP. If I recall correctly we went

NightStalker
Big John
Rare
Vanilla
Proprietors
Coffee 12
Coffee 13
Cherry Rye
Backyard Rye
Bramble

and then drank a bunch more stuff like amateur alcoholics.

For the record I had the following thoughts:
Vanilla had severely faded, after being cellared properly the entire time.
Rare was really good but didn't quite live up to the hype
Proprietors was completely underwhelming
I enjoyed the backend beers of the tasting more than the front end. Cherry was amazing.
 
Nipsey said:
We are getting together on Saturday night and have been discussing the order in which they should be served.
Click to expand...

We are doing the same thing this Saturday the 11th. I'm glad to have found this thread because I had no idea where to go with this.

I wanted to do all of the BCS years side by side so we're going to pour all of those out into 4 ounce clear sturdy plastic cups for a side by side and everyone can get a cup of each year and go back and forth. I debated doing it blind as well.

As or the rest of them, I figured we'd start with Rare but I like Michigan's example of putting it in the first few beers.

I also thought maybe doing all of the years, then taking a sparkling water & crackers break then we'd go through the variants year by year so starting with 2010 Vanilla + Rare then 2011 Bramble and so on and doing KH + Barleywine side by side as well.

There are 12 of us so drunkeness isn't a problem each person gets an ounce each of 2005 - 2013 and 2 ounces each of every variant (including coffee 10-13) and I have an '09 bomber to share.



====

Also, I had a vanilla a few days ago and it was worlds different than the one I had 18 months ago.
 
How about this order?

2005 - 2013 all poured at once into 108 plastic cups (9 years x 12 people) (they're very nice 4 ounce clear cups with ounce markers)

People can work through these at their own pace. I'm thinking half an hour to 45 minutes. Everyone is encouraged to drink water

20 Minutes
Rare (2oz)
Vanilla (2oz)

20 minutes
King Henry (2oz)
Baryleywine (2oz)

45 minutes
Bramble (2oz)
Cherry (2oz)
Backyard (2oz)
Proprietor's (2oz)

30 minutes
Coffee 2010 - 2013 (2oz per year per person)

Tasting starts at 7 and I had expected it to go until 11. Everyone has been instructed to bring air mattresses and snacks + I cook breakfast the next day.
 
beer30jax said:
Was glad to take part in the tasting from the OP. If I recall correctly we went

NightStalker
Big John
Rare
Vanilla
Proprietors
Coffee 12
Coffee 13
Cherry Rye
Backyard Rye
Bramble

and then drank a bunch more stuff like amateur alcoholics.

For the record I had the following thoughts:
Vanilla had severely faded, after being cellared properly the entire time.
Rare was really good but didn't quite live up to the hype
Proprietors was completely underwhelming
I enjoyed the backend beers of the tasting more than the front end. Cherry was amazing.
Click to expand...
Proprietors was probably underwhelming because you had it after Rare and Vanilla instead if listening to me ;)
 
Adam Jackson said:
How about this order?

2005 - 2013 all poured at once into 108 plastic cups (9 years x 12 people) (they're very nice 4 ounce clear cups with ounce markers)

People can work through these at their own pace. I'm thinking half an hour to 45 minutes. Everyone is encouraged to drink water

20 Minutes
Rare (2oz)
Vanilla (2oz)

20 minutes
King Henry (2oz)
Baryleywine (2oz)

45 minutes
Bramble (2oz)
Cherry (2oz)
Backyard (2oz)
Proprietor's (2oz)

30 minutes
Coffee 2010 - 2013 (2oz per year per person)

Tasting starts at 7 and I had expected it to go until 11. Everyone has been instructed to bring air mattresses and snacks + I cook breakfast the next day.
Click to expand...
****ing hell you really plan like that?


I just usually show up with a 6 or 12 shipper and we throw down.

Totally not kidding.
 
claaark13 said:
Tough tasting decisions. I had the same problems with my solo Bois variants tasting.
Click to expand...
2548180-drop_the_mic_17cherrylane.gif
 
MordorMongo said:
****ing hell you really plan like that?


I just usually show up with a 6 or 12 shipper and we throw down.

Totally not kidding.
Click to expand...


i tend to overplan **** as well. not because i actually like planning, but because i'm like a ****ing child and get excited and obsessed and can't stop talking about it... It keeps me busy until the actual drinking goes down, where i promptly chuck the plan out the window, lose track of time, and end up with a hangover and a pissed off wife in the am.


oh well. ****'s fun.
 

Similar threads

kurds_2408
Yeast Help for DIPA Clone
Replies
3
Views
339
day_trippr
day_trippr
William Wallace
Is this mold?
Replies
14
Views
1K
skunkape
skunkape
P
What happened to IPA?
2
Replies
49
Views
4K
Clint Yeastwood
Clint Yeastwood
betarhoalphadelta
New grill to augment others---gasser or Blackstone griddle?
Replies
25
Views
1K
betarhoalphadelta
betarhoalphadelta
R
Hop and yeast score
Replies
1
Views
612
NiwotBrew
N

Latest posts

Back
Top