In a recent article I espoused the view that a good brewery is consistent in their brewing process; that is, from one batch to the next, I’d expect a brewery’s flagship porter to taste EXACLTY the same. But inconsistancy (intentional) is also necessary…at times.
My thunder for this post was a bit stolen in the comments section in my previous post by Sean Inman and Big Tex, but hey…great minds think alike, right?
So when is inconsistency a desired quality?
Special releases (including certain seasonals). Dark Lord, the yearly special release that hails from 3 Floyds comes to mind. In order to get this beer, an individual has to stay awake into the wee hours of the night to purchase special tickets. Then, they must travel to Munster, Indiana as the beer is only sold by 3 Floyds at the brewery on that day. Then the individual must wait in hour all day, just to buy a limited quantity of the beer. Now, if this special Dark Lord kept a consistent recipe, I doubt that the hype surrounding it nor the anticipation of drinking it would be so intense.
I noticed that come of the older bigger craft breweries in the past few years–noting the trend in the craft community that values these intentionally brewed anomalies–have brewed outside of the boundaries of their classic lineup to include specialties. Boulevard’s Smokestack series comes to mind.
But, not all special releases should be different year in, year out. For example…for the most part, when I pick up a bottle of Dogfish Head’s Aprihop, I want it to taste like last years Aprihop. And let’s face it…it would be pretty awful if Spaten suddenly through a curveball in their Oktoberfest recipe.
On a side note, sometimes the fluid nature of special releases ends up being a bit of a bummer. For example, I recently heard that 3 Floyds was aging this year’s Dark Lord on Whiskey barrels. If this is the case, I doubt I’ll be heading to Dark Lord Day 2011. I’m not a huge fan of bourbon aged stouts.
What special releases do you most look forward to? Personally, Jolly Pumkin’s Perseguidor gets me going.
Founders Nemesis is like this for me. I look forward to seeing what they’ll do year to year. BUT, when it comes to KBS, I want it to taste like KBS.
I find this true especially with Bells as of late. I often have to wonder what Oberon will taste like (subtle notes of course) and am curious if they tweaked the recipe for Hopslam once again. Guess I’ll find out Friday.
[Reply]
beer_scientist Reply:
January 12th, 2011 at 7:42 pm
I think you and Nate both bring up a good point about this and I was thinking about writing an article about this very topic….I still will because I have some stuff I’d like to add. Funny you mention Hopslam. When I was back home in Indy, I drank a bottle I had cellared for a year and it was a real treat.
[Reply]
THFBeer_nate Reply:
January 13th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
I too had a cellared bottle of hopslam…it was way better than I had recalled (not that it was bad, just this time it tasted REALLY good). I am a big fan of Nemesis too,Eat it drink it. Looking forward to your article, Mike.
[Reply]