Let me know what you have, and what you will sell for; or, I could trade some Dom, Cab or Bordeaux.
I LOVE Perennial’s Abraxas, but have only had it on tap, never bottle conditioned.
Much bigger fan of their Sump. It’s making the rounds on tap right now; try it if you see it. Biggest difference is that the Abraxas had chili peppers in it, similar to Mexican chocolate.
@Kevin - isn’t Perennial in St Louis? You should be able to find it in Craig’s List.
YES. The Sump Coffee Stout is amazing. I live in STL and a friend of mine actually created the recipe for Abraxas many years ago. It was a sort of contest as I recall. He is really into the beer scene here as well. Anyway, Perennial is good people making some good beers. There has been talk that they’ll be moving facilities to allow for some production in different formats (all in 750 at the moment) and I hope that is so. The upshot of that rumor was that 2nd Shift, another local brewery who makes some really good beers (including a barrel aged Blueprint coffee stout that can go toe-to-toe with the Sump Stout) was supposed to take over Perennial’s facility and increase their own production. However all of this was rumored some time ago and has never come to fruition. Hoping this happens.
As an aside, Sump is one of the finest roasters I’ve had the pleasure of trying and I’ve had a lot of the top roasters. I only find Square Mile out of London consistently as good.
Yes, Perennial is in St. Louis, on the south side not far from the river. Still a very hot item to get, even here in town. Maybe it is one of those things that is more available elsewhere, but it’s a hot ticket around here.
Great to hear the background on it - I usually pick up 6 Sumps each year, along with 3 or 4 Abraxas. Was absolutely shocked to see the Abraxas going for $120 on the beer collectible auction link over in the Dark Lord thread, as I thought it was the lesser of the two offerings.
Re: availability - Abraxas is usually much more difficult to land. Most of the stores in the area get 6-12 bottles, with Whole Foods sometimes dumping their allocation on the shelf. I’m in there 2-3 times a week, so I cleaned them out this year. Local beer place gets the one keg of Coffee Abraxas, probably because the distributor used to work there. Sump is the same story, but with greater availability (it’ll sit on shelves for a couple of weeks) and I have to comes to grips with the fact I’m dropping $20/bottle. Same beer place gets the Sump Burundi on tap, offers both at $10 for a 9oz pour.
Didn’t care for the 17 quite as much (mint chocolate, I believe it was “17”)… and that’s been sitting on shelves for months here.
Yeah, I have no interest in the mint chocolate either. What is interesting about both the Perennial Sump and 2nd Shift Blueprint is that I think both rock, whereas I normally dislike coffee stouts because they tend to be either made with grounds, and therefore taste like bitter coffee grounds, or else to be made with insufficient coffee flavor. Not sure what they are doing differently, but to me these are the two best coffee stouts available. (again, BA version of the 2nd shift)
I’m rather amazed that you have that much access out there. Good for Perennial.
You should try the Fremont Kentucky Dark Star coffee variant. Great stuff and I’d put it on the same level as the Sump. Firestone Walker makes a coffee variant called Parabajava, which is also ridiculously good, but impossible to find outside of the brewery.
We don’t see Fremont here, and I don’t think I’ve seen Parabajava either, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
Parabajava is brewery only.
That is the problem! People here want $400 per bottle. I have limits.
Yesterday AT 3:00 Perennial announced they were opening 2014 BA Abraxas at their tasting room at 4:00. Me and my son went…limIt two glasses per person. They also served Maman which is also very good. At least I got my fix!
That’s nuts. I haven’t tried the BA stuff, just regular.
You’re better off landing Eclipse at that rate.
I agree. The 17 has too much mint… But the BA 17 is a little better, not near as much mint flavor.
Andrew: Where are you in KY? I get down to Paducah every fall to bow hunt for deer. Can you recommend a good liquor store in Paducah to get some good craft beer?
Am in WA state. If you get out here, let me know 