Every year I like to do an early February beer tasting. I hadn't done one in a while, which meant my verticals had grown a bit. I have a lot of 8,9,10 skip-a-few type verticals, and then I have some I have been diligent with. I had planned to crack the 13 year Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout vertical but Michigan didn't get BBCS this past year, or the year prior. By the time I went hunting it was too late. I called my beer guy Vince in Savannah, no luck, he'd drank his last one that night prior. I text my cousin in N.C. - no luck. Maybe November, but by January the ship had sailed. So I asked my old trading buddy in Chicago, no word. So I popped on Beer Advocate ISO: Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout - finally got a bite from a good dude. He was looking for some stuff from Bell's special release party. However according to the fine print they wanted you to download apps, get covid passports and go full commie to get in. Looked like fun but sorry - I don't do full CCP just to get a damn beer. So I said well I guess well just have to drink em' and not have a current one.
Then come last Thursday I get a call, Vince is the man and he secured me one whoa ha yippy yah yay! But it wasn't gonna be here Saturday and I didn't want to rush things. Low and behold my buddy in Chicago found some too. This really made my week; but it meant the Brooklyn Vertical would just have to wait. But I still have several years of BA Dark Horse Plead the 5th, KBS, Bourbon County etc. Dave brought the world's best chili with peppers he smoked himself, I baked bread, and stout cake, and it was a good time.
We drank an O.A.S.I.S. (Old As Shit Imperial Stout) from Cherry Street I had brought back from Georgia, last year's Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, and a few other brews and then opened the 11,12,13,14,15,16,17, and current Dark Horse Plead the 5th BA versions. Eleven was awesome, 12-14 eh.. pretty funk aroma - think dog poo for 12, 15-17 were pretty good, 11,16,17 were the best.
I like to keep a small bunch so everyone can sample, but when I grabbed 13 years of KBS - well - I guess I need to have a little bigger crowd if we are going to sample that many ales. So we decided to crack some random brews instead. Rogue Rolling Thunder 2020 was great, Arcadia Shipwreck 2017 seemed to live up to its maritime disaster moniker with vinegar as the main character, and we peeled the wax off of Killer Penguin 2012 which was decent. I don't think it was ever anything out of the park, but it aged well. I always liked it unique wax with a laser engraved wooden date stamp. I had made some of my own stamps back in 2013 and think it's a fun way to personalize a brew.
Hopefully we'll crack that Brooklyn soon. It is my favorite Imperial Stout!
