[HoosierBrew]

Broke out one of these tonight. I buy it every year when I can find it and was lucky enough to get 3 - 4 packs last year - it's maybe my favorite bourbon barrel aged beer.  It's a beautiful, cool early fall night here and it made me want to pull out one of last year's vintage while sitting outside on the deck.
 So whereas the 2013 was wonderful at release (as it always is IMO) age can only help. As far as bourbon barrel stouts go, BCS is fairly boozy in a good way. Very well attenuated in a non-typical way for RIS, but complex - dark chocolate, milk chocolate, coffee, caramel/toffee, vanilla, boozy,oaky but tastefully oaky. At ~15%, insanely drinkable all things considered.
So half a year later, the difference in an already great beer is the softening and blending of flavors, a predictable mellowing of the booziness into more vanilla and toasted coconut character, slightly more caramel, ie., pleasant oxidative changes.  Nothing drastic, but definitely a more velvety, soft overall mouthfeel. Really,really good stuff.

[erockrph]

I grabbed a 4-pack last year to see what the buzz was about. I'm not really into barrel-aged beers, and BCS didn't change my mind any. I can see why everyone who raves about it is into it, but it was just too hot & woody for me. I'll have to check in on a bottle soon to see if it's gotten more palatable for me as it aged.

Also have 2 bottles of the 2013 Barleywine in the cellar, but my SOP is to leave barleywines in the cellar for at least a year or two before sampling.

[HoosierBrew]

Yep, to each his own. BCS is definitely more bourbon forward than most bourbon barrel stouts, also better than most IMO. But I think that the beers (and styles) that are out on the extremes of flavor can be polarizing, whether it's alcoholic strength, barrel character, hoppiness, sourness, etc. I love sour beers but I've had a few that were over the top sour to me, beers that my friends rave about. And sometimes I have a Rodenbach and enjoy it, other times it's overly acetic for my tastes. There's definitely a fine line.