Velvet Merkin SD?

Just saw two cases at a well known craft beer market in Ocean Beach. 14.99

 

Whole Foods La Jolla was down to a case and a half by 3:30 today. Probably long gone as I type this.

I got two, I have four, I'm done. I had one this evening, and was a bit underwhelmed. On the other hand, it tastes exactly like I'd expect BA Velvet Merlin to taste, so I can't say they blindsided me. A lot of subtle things going on with it, though.

 

I got two, mostly because the idea of BA Velvet Merlin doesn't sound spectacular to me; but I also trust that Firestone makes excellent beer. That said, I've had quite a few lower ABV stouts/porters that were BA and the only one I recall really liking was Ballast's Black Marlin, and even that is sort of inconsistent (I had it twice and one time it wasn't nearly as good as the other).

 

I had the Merkin on tap at a F-W tap takeover at The Urge about a year ago. I liked it, but was glad I started on that because it gets overwhelmed by your stronger stouts fairly easily. To be fair, I had an Alpine Koffee Sutra an hour or two before trying the Merkin, so maybe my taste buds were a bit saturated.

 

Merkin is a good beer for people that dislike the more "boozy" Imperial Stouts. It's a good beer, and easy to drink, but definitely not Parabola.

 

Mission Valley BevMo just got their cases in today. 2 bottle limit. Mission Valley north BevMo got 1 case (1 bottle limit).

 

I've noticed that with most of the lower ABV bourbon aged beers, the bourbon taste is a lot more prevalent - at least to me. Alesmith does a BA version of their Nut Brown that I don't like all that much either.

 

OB Quik Stop got it in, not sure of price. No point making people jump through hoops for names when it is on twitter and facebook already.

 

Is it just me, or did BevMo not put this up for online ordering this time? I know that things often won't show up in their master list, but as far as I can tell they do not even have a secret product page this time (so you can enter the link then change your store).

I'm thinking this one may hang around a little while at select locations. The fanboys (like me) are chasing down the first batch, but I suspect that we'll see this more like Sucaba in lingering around for a little while.

On a related note, I saw some DDBA in a local Sprouts, of all places.

 

Scored my two finally at the O-Side bevmo. Sounded like they were running low.

 

Some Sprouts locations are a good spot to snag limited releases. Varies a bit but I've seen DDBA, Sucaba, and Barrel Rolls at one location. And just to balance that out, been to countless others with nothing special at all.

 

Sprouts Carmel Mountain Ranch was where I saw the DDBA, and I saw Barrel Roll #4 there as well. Sprouts Clairemont (Genesee Ave) has a well stocked beer section, but I've not seen any rarities there - but that might be because they get snagged up quickly. Sprouts University City is a smaller store, and does not have quite the beer selection of its bigger brothers (or food for that matter).

 

I doubt it lingers much. Both mission valley locations got it in around 1 pm and they both said they won't last the day considering the amount of phone calls they've been receiving over the past 2 weeks.

 

Got the last bottle at BevMo Oceanside.

 

BevMo Mira Mesa still had 5 bottles about an hour ago.

 

Got the last bottle at bevmo mission valley north

 

No it's not.

 

Its not north sd more like south oc but they had a bunch of them at the total wine off el toro 13.99 if i recall correctly

 

Still at Whole Foods La Jolla as of 15 minutes ago.

 

Googled "velvet merkin price"
First result: http://allaboutbeer.com/daily-pint/whats-brewing/2013/08/firestone-walker-to-release-velvet-merkin/

$16.99

But hey, I appreciate you posting a link with the actual retail price.