So we did this last night.
The results surprised me, as i expected a few of these to be past their prime.
Batches 5 and 6: I know it's not a commonly shared opinion, but I thought 5 was better than 6. I think 5 is really coming around. That said, neither of these were anyone's favorites. Interestingly, 6 is a lot lighter than any of the previous batches. In fact, color on all of these pretty much went dark to light as you went old to new.
Batch 4: This was an impressive barrel! Tart, funky, well balanced. I see why Vinnie chose to bottle this one on it's own. Not my favorite, but close. This was tops on other people's list at the tasting.
Batch 3: For me, this was easily best. I have no idea where the fruity flavor came from, but there was a fou foune apricot taste thing going on. The fruitness, sour characteristics, and bitterness were absolutely perfect.
Batch 2: Given it's reputation, I expected it to be over-the-top sour. It wasn't. It was the most sour of the line-up, but it wasn't offensive by any stretch of the imagination. If i had a criticism of it, i'd say it was a bit simple and one-dimensional.
Batch 1: This was the surprise of the tasting for me. Gueuze-like, but in more of a boon non-sour kind of way. Grassy, bitter, earthy, complex. It was really good. However, it was missing a necessary lactic sour to help round it out. This, blended with batch 2 (or any of the later batches), was easily the most complex, gueuze-like, beer of the tasting.
Batch PH1: Batch 1 + sour from the la folie barrel. Better than straight batch 1 because it had the sour characteristics that were so necessary. It was really good on it's own. I don't think it was better than some of the Batch 1 + blends that we did, but on it's own, it had all the right things going on.
Blends: So, this was the most fun part for me. All of these batches had various characteristics that made them good. We all had fun blending these in different ways to bring together these various characteristics. The subtle changes made some amazing combinations. We also opened a bottle of Horal Megablend 2013 and blended it with some of the beatification batches as well.
One last note. I have heard plenty of complaints about these beers being oxidized, over the hill, a shell of their former self. I'll disagree with the oxidized comments, at least regarding our bottles. I've also heard the corks used in the grenade bottles haven't held up. I have been cellaring these in my temp controlled cellar for years now. I never once thought to use the word oxidized when tasting them. It just wasn't there. As far as "over the hill" goes...nope..not these bottles. I have been a huge beatification fan boy for many years and I enjoyed them again last night. It's difficult to compare a beer to the memory of a beer, so i'm going to stick with my present opinion and say that they were really good across the board and still holding up quite well.
And, besides...we had a cicebrone at the tasting, so take my words here as gospel.
