Lagunitas Seasonal Retrospective

[BakerStreetBeers]

Busted into my Lagunitas bomber collection last weekend. Here was the scene before we got started at a gathering at a friend's house.

From left to right:
Undercover Shutdown Investigation Ale
Lucky 13
Freak Out!
Ruben & the Jets
Kill Ugly Radio
B3K
Absolutely Free
2009 Correction Ale
Lumpy Gravy

I believe this includes the full set of their Zappa Beers, plus a few more. The B3K is the one that got the collection going. At a wild guess I'm saying it was released around 2004 or 2005, commemorating their 3000th batch. Weighing in at 11.2%, I bought a couple, drank one and decided to put the other one away for a while.

Honestly, several of them didn't hold up that well -- which could be my less than ideal "cellaring" as much as anything else. These are all pretty big beers and any hop character had largely left in the older releases. For a few of them the effect was of a smooth mellow aged barleywine.

The B3K was quite nice. In contrast to what I remember from the "fresh" bottle, it was smooth and balanced, hiding its kick well. Undercover Shutdown and the 2009 Correction are some of the newer ones and were alpha acid monsters originally, still showing some good hop character.

The standout for me was the Absolutely Free. A Belgian Tripel, the years (1-3) have been VERY good to it.

It was a great time and definitely has me considering starting a deeper collection of ageable beers so I can do it again more often than every 5 years!

 

[r2eng]

I had the Ruben and the Jets, and thought it was pretty bad.

I was kinda' disappointed, as Lagunitas is usually a good beer. I do love the Cappuccino Stout, and the Maximus, of course!

 

[BakerStreetBeers]

I had the Ruben and the Jets, and thought it was pretty bad.

I was kinda' disappointed, as Lagunitas is usually a good beer. I do love the Cappuccino Stout, and the Maximus, of course!

Ruben was a strange one for sure. They did a few variants of it in their tap room and around town: on cask, bourbon barrel aged on cask and a brettanomyces version cleverly called Ruben and the Bretts. I didn't get to try that last one. I found the bourbon barrel overdone.

Maximus rules and the IPA is a pretty standard fallback beer around here if you find yourself in a BMC dominated place.

 

[cercueil]

Your right about the hop presence. IPA's..even double IPA's should be drank probably within the first 6 months or so before the bitterness starts to fade away. I picked up a nice IPA and didn't realize that it was 2 years old. I had to dump the entire thing. Beligian Beer, Imperial Stouts, Imperial porters, scotch ales..etc are good for cellaring.


I see you live in Petaluma..Thats cool..I buy lagunitas a lot because the price is great and even though its shipping from Cali to NJ its only about $5.50 a bomber as opposed to some places that charge 10-12 for a bomber!!