The Bar Towel

I did a side by side tasting of these recently - the 2010 being the vintage Keep6 brought in the year before this became an LCBO seasonal. Both are very good in their own right, but I prefer the aged version. I find it to be much richer, with the dark chocolate and port wine flavours bigger and much to the fore. I was enjoying the 2013, which I opened first, and got good complexity with black cherry, licorice and milk chocolate. But having now had a glass of 2010 there is no comparison, really. I'll be laying the rest of my 2013s down for a couple of years! Very impressive beer.

Awesome! I have a 2010 bottle I've been thinking about cracking. Glad to hear it's in fine form.

Good to hear. I discovered this last year and it was one of my absolute favourites. I don't think I've any left but I'll save a couple from this year to age a bit.

I seem to remember some controversy around this beer when it first appeared a couple of years ago; if I recall correctly there were a number of us who found a distinct and unexpected tartness that seemed out of place. I think some thought they had a bad batch, others thought it was just part of the beer's complexity / LTM's artistic license, while others noticed no such trait. I was one of those who was somewhat put-off or at least disappointed and haven't had it again, until right now...

This one is delicious---I'm loving the malt, I'm loving the hops, and I'm going to buy more!

schomberger wrote:I seem to remember some controversy around this beer when it first appeared a couple of years ago; if I recall correctly there were a number of us who found a distinct and unexpected tartness that seemed out of place. I think some thought they had a bad batch, others thought it was just part of the beer's complexity / LTM's artistic license, while others noticed no such trait. I was one of those who was somewhat put-off or at least disappointed and haven't had it again, until right now...

This one is delicious---I'm loving the malt, I'm loving the hops, and I'm going to buy more!

Those 2011 bottles are getting better too...The woody cherry characters are more integrated with the chocolatey malts. It also seems a lot drier and less cloying than when it was younger. I remember that one post on BA that (by the brewer, I believe) saying that he didn't think this would age well, and It's ageing very nicely.

schomberger wrote:I seem to remember some controversy around this beer when it first appeared a couple of years ago; if I recall correctly there were a number of us who found a distinct and unexpected tartness that seemed out of place. I think some thought they had a bad batch, others thought it was just part of the beer's complexity / LTM's artistic license, while others noticed no such trait. I was one of those who was somewhat put-off or at least disappointed and haven't had it again, until right now...

This one is delicious---I'm loving the malt, I'm loving the hops, and I'm going to buy more!

Yeah, as Jeff says, the vintage you are referring to is 2011. That was the first year it appeared at the LCBO, but Keep6 had brought it in the year previously on a private order. The aged one I opened was a 2010. The 2010 didn't have that tart, barnyard character, even when young, that the 2011 definitely had.