There are supposedly quality reasons that go into that decision, not just speed/efficiency/laziness.

I've seen quite a few solid brewers detest the type of practices that go into these beers, but even more remarkable brewers that support it.

You were supposed to put a photo showing the bottle date as well on each page with each label. Hopefully you get it.

Here were my bad ones:






I think this is really nice after a year, so I'd buy a bunch. 6 or 12, I guess. It's my favorite sister, and great to take to a summer picnic, dinner, cookout, etc.

$25 is a sick deal. I'm going to what is probably the highest priced one ($125) at Jolly Pumpkin, but the guest brewery lineup is pretty sick.

Sorry, meant single IPA.

Down,

Have you actually opened bourbon county bottles and had them be bad yet?

I ended up picking up one more Halia to take to dinner at a friend's place, so 4 total. I think it's a great beer for $15, but don't like it enough to buy it often at the normal $25-30.

I know all about the justifications, but they're based on informed speculation and I haven't seen a single technical paper devoted to it.

I mostly like poking fun at the NE IPAs because I think they're exceptionally ugly. Can't speak to how they taste though, never had one!

Thanks for the recs guys, went to nearly all of these places. Got ~2 cases of beer at Bissell (Substance and Baby Genius) even promising some to others, probably have too much lol. Some thoughts -

-Allagash was an awesome space, would've hung out there longer if not for them not selling pints/flights you only get one free flight and then they only sell beer to go. Allagash has great distro here and basically everything they were selling is available here at the same price point, so didn't buy anything. Farm to Face and One T were really good though.

-Austin St Brewing, which is right by Foundation and Allagash, is worth a stop. Extremely small space, but their Patina Pale Ale is excellent. They also had a version double dry hopped with Equinox that was phenomenal.

-Bissell Brothers was by the best beer we had, especially if you're a sheep like me looking for HAZE FOR DAYS JUICE BOMBS. Reciprocal DIPA and The Substance v good. Baby Genius was my favorite - reminded me of TH Eureka. Looking forward to crushing cans of those over the next few weeks.

-Central Provisions was the best meal we had in Portland, although we had to wait 1 hour 45 min for a table on Saturday night. They take your phone number and text you though so with a million bars around you can plan accordingly. The bone marrow toast, cauliflower, bluefin crudo, and spicy beef salad were all outstanding. Open kitchen so if you sit up at the counter you can see the cooking and preparation of the dishes if you're into that sort of thing.

Halia's always $20 around here, so I also buy at $15. I don't see value in some of the other sisters at $30... I'd rather order 3F or Cantillon shipped at that price, imo.

Re: BCBS Infections

Yes, all the bottles w/ GI-named infection dates that I've tried have been infected. Since I found out about the infection, they have been in a cold fridge which should slow that down. At first it was just a hint of berry or something different, now it's more present. The regular is still drinkable and enjoyable as of this week. It's "good" now though, not world class. I think at some point soon, it will not be worth the calories. I plan on infusing some with coffee, coffee + coconut (+ vanilla?), and I'm trying to think of some other experiments to change how it finishes... that's where it's way off, and it's a shame because otherwise it's my favorite beer to savor.

I have some bottles with "good" dates... I am skeptical, but I'll try one in a few months to see what's up. They're in the cellar.

The Prop is ok, not great. The infection didn't ruin it.. yet. I will probably drink my remaining bottle within the next few weeks. The coffee was terrible, the barleywine worse.

tl;dr: if you have any bottles of BCBS 2015 regular, stick them in a cold fridge and drink them soon. Try mixing or infusing to change its finish imo.

I can't believe you haven't had one yet. So many breweries out here are now making them. Like sours, it's for better or worse, depending where you go

You should try the NE versions though and see what you think.

i had 3 bottles left. 1 has been in the fridge the whole time, the other 2 in the back of my pantry. Have one barleywine also that i assume it just trash at this point?

I'll try the one thats been in the fridge the whole time and see how it is this weekend maybe.

Ugh I thought that you had to provide proof of purchase in the form of a receipt and was all like lololololol I guess I lose. Haven't even checked the dates on my stuff. I guess I'll do that some day this week.

Good news / bad news:

Bad news: Cutoff date on the recall/refund was the 15th.
Good news: You don't have to photograph your infected beer!


---

Going to FoBAB? I'll be there Friday.

Since it's that time of the year now, what are some of everyone's pumpkin ale/beer offerings? I had New Belgium's Pumpkick over the weekend and I thought it was pretty good. I usually don't like the pumpkin beers because they seem to be syrupy to me for whatever reason. I like this one because it had pumpkin spice flavors but was dry and a little tart from the cranberry in there as well. Pretty solid brew.

Down,

I have 4 bottles left and they were all from "good" dates, but they were a day away from "Bad" dates so who the f knows. Crossing my fingers.

Got 4 tickets to Friday. Would be great to catch up!

Edit: "Refunds are available for Bourbon County Brand Stout bottles dated: Oct. 9, Oct. 12, Oct. 21, Oct. 22, Oct. 23, Oct. 26, Oct. 30, Nov. 4 and Nov. 5. The lone bottling date of infected Proprietor’s Bourbon County Stout is Sept. 18. All bottling dates are from 2015. " Re: coffee/barleywine/etc, are there dates in particular for those or were they universally infected?

Pumpkick is good. I like Fat Head's Spooky Tooth a lot too.


But damn, when Southern Tier's Warlock rolls out, I'm a happy dude.

Ugh, pumpkin beer.

Yeah I'm really not the biggest fan either to be honest but I like Pumpkick but it's probably because it doesn't taste like typical pumpkin beer so I guess that means I still don't like pumpkin beer haha.

I just looked it up:
http://www.stbcbeer.com/black-water/warlock/

Sounds interesting.

I'm in Cali. I don't think I can get that out here. PM me if you want to work out a swap for something out here you can't get.

=( half my bcbs regular is from the infected dates. As is my prop. I'm guessing all the coffee and bw is in theory no good? Ugh. I suppose I'll put all of that stuff in the fridge and drink it on the first Cool weather opportunity? The non infected stuff I can keep in cellar? Boooo.

Procured some goodies for some friends visiting from LA. They're bringing a buncha monkish. Will report back hopefully.

Coffee and Bwine were universally infected I believe Cit. Goose is quoted in one of the news articles as saying they are only refunding certain dates for the regular because they have a lot more on hand and they can narrow down dates better, but every single person I know hat had Coffee and Bwine got infected bottles after a few months, every bottle was just garbage.

Non infected dates, which all my 10+ bottles I've acquired in the last year were, tasted awesome. I have one I'm saving to cellar.

I had one at a buddy's that tasted slightly off, but I don't know the date on it unfortunately. Could've been mental too, it was just after the regular started getting infection reports.

Malice, that's a legit lineup.

Warlock was on sale for something like $6 a 22oz at the end of 2015. I bought a pair, drank one and kept one, it was pretty good.

My favorite pumpkin beers are rumpkin and that brandy or cognac one from almanac. I liked the pumpkinator too from Saint Arnolds.

This.

The Patsy by Barley Forge Is Effin Delicious. Enjoy!

The pumpkin backlash is understandable but reactionary to a fault. I'll still take a well done malt forward fall brew with some pumpkin notes any time.

Just tried Trillium's Double Dry Hopped Summer Street. Summer might be my favorite of the "streets" I've tried. For those unaware, I'm fairly sure all of their "Street" beers are the exact same recipe in terms of malts, yeast, and bittering hops (columbus), with the only difference being the dry hop, though the flavor/aromatic hop might get used in more than just the dry hop. I'm not sure on that. Congress is their most popular, and that's galaxy. Summer is with simcoe, and it's potentially my favorite. This is the first time trying the DDH version.

As is one of my problems with some Trill brews, the carbonation is a bit off. Quite low. Otherwise fantastic. Slick feel, right amount of spice and bitterness, some grapefruit and maybe some slight tropical fruit notes, but it's not an overpowering juice bomb. Gonna try the remaining cans a week later for each and see how it progresses. In general I think Trill beers get released a little "green".

In general simcoe might be my fave hop. Came across some super fresh finestkind IPA from smuttynose, which I think is pretty simcoe heavy, and it was just delicious. Maybe the best widely available, high value IPA in the new england market. A 12 pack of 12oz cans cost me 15. Only Jack's Abby can compete with that.