Just a little Bourbon County tasting with the boys. Been seeing a lot of these lately, thought we'd have a go at it here in Chicago.
Thanks so much to Fischman's for letting us use their private room and putting on a keg of Baudoinia!
All the usual suspects were there, and then some.
We started out with a blind tasting. I told everyone they were getting 4 vintages, one would be fresh 2013, one would be very old and the other 2 in the middle. I served them 2005, 2010, 2013, & Baudoinia (curveball!). Rankings were as follows:
2013 was far and away the winner with the most first place votes.
2010 and Baudoinia were pretty much even. Almost everyone though Baudoinia was the freshest one since it had the most alcohol heat and 2013 was far more mellow.
2005 was ranked dead last for 21/22 people.
So many Chicago pours!
Fruited BCBS head to head.
Comparing the 12oz 2008 and 2009 to the bombers. The bombers held up much better. No surprise there.
People started getting a bit foolish with all the high ABV stout running through them. I think
maximthegreat is getting a little handsy with
Duffman929 on the left and
jdhende is bonding with
JohnfromPurdue in the back.
I think we broke out the big guns a little later than we should have. Props had enough flavor to push through the palate fatigue but I don't even remember tasting any nuance in Rare or Vanilla at that point.
Coffee lineup was interesting.
2010 was pretty subtle but still tasty.
2011 was terrible and tasted like a pepper beer.
2012 was fine. I thought the coffee tasted kind of stale.
2013 is sublime. Best coffee ever imho.
We had a bunch of other Goose beers to break up the monotony a bit and someone even turned up the heat with some Stiegl Radler!
Also, we had a make your own variant contest! Chicagohpu won followed closely by the blueberry pancakes and mint chocolate. Doughnut/Coffee was very good and birthday cake was crazy, but spot on. Peanut butter cup is a long time favorite of mine. We also soaked a fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich in both a bottle of bcbs and bcbbw and those turned out great too.
That's pretty much everything. A few bottles arrived late, mostly duplicates to make sure everyone got a full Chicago pour. L-R: BCBS 2005-2013, BCBS Barleywine, King Henry, Coffee 2010-2013, BCBS 2008 handfilled keg bomber, BCBS 2009 Bomber, Vanilla, Rare, Bramble, Cherry Rye, Backyard, Props, Nightstalker 2010, Big John 2012, GI 25th Cthulhu, GI 25th Jubilee, GI 25th Brettanomite, GI 25th Flanders Red (not pictured).
I think 2010 and the 2009 bomber are pretty much peaking right now. I wouldn't age my BCBS beyond that anymore, especially if it continues to come in 12oz. bottles. 2005 and 2006 were pretty bad. 07 and 08 were fine but we had individual bottles that were much worse than others.
I also think 2013 is about as good as it gets. Great vintage.
Cheers everyone!
