Are you over the Chase?

What if your name is Chase?

 

I've never taken a liking to expending effort for questionable results and likely failure, hence no beer chasing for me. However, there are times when I'm walking the aisles or perusing the coolers of a beer store only to find something that others have said they've chased. And when I find these without the fuss, bother and waiting in line, enjoying them is all the more sweet for me. Examples: Sierra Nevada Barrel aged Narwhal on a shelf, Gahdhi Bot in a cooler, a growler of KneeDeep/Kern River Deep River that was on for one day before it kicked when it wasn't even on the BeerMenus list yet, cases of BCBS on the floor in a smaller store [last year, don't get excited]. Perhaps not the most rare, but rare enough.

 

Or you bank at Chase?

 

I do not participate in the chase. It is basically that I am too cheap to pay the prices the chase beers demand. There is so many shelf turds that I like as well or almost as well as those. Having said that I was fortunate enough to be in Waterbury for an Alchemist sale. At least there you could get a case (or two if your wife is along) for 75 dollars. Since these are 16oz cans it is not a bad price. Even with this I may not have gone if it were not for my kids going bananas when they found out we could get some.

 

I can usually get all the BCBS I want by waiting a month and then trading for it.

 

I'm not really into the chase, but if an opportunity to get a rare beer appears in front of me I'll definitely take it.

 

Everyone is "over" the chase..that is until BCBS comes out tomorrow

 

Enjoy the chase but don't beat yourself up over beer

 

Totally over chasing Lawson's Finest Liquids, and have zero interest in the tons of contract brewed Sip of Sunshine IIPA they produce in CT,regardless of the 100 (over)rating.

 

Or you enjoy a good steeplechase?

 

I've never been a fan of The Chase, I'd rather NASCAR went back to full-season points.

 

Yep, almost...

 

Yea. I mean it helps working at Total Wine, and having friends that own/manage other local beer stores. Not needing to chase it helps.

 

I'm definitely still tempted by many beer releases but I find myself deciding to not actually hunt beers down more and more often.

BCBS is the big one here in the Midwest and it's interesting because there really was no comparison out on the West Coast. Sure, RR and Alpine were sought after, but you could always find them on tap or make plans to go the Alpine to pick some up- no hunting involved. Most bottle releases were brewery only for the smaller breweries, sometimes only on tap. So you couldn't really hunt beers at bottle shops.

I can understand how folks who love BCBS would want to spend a fun day hunting down some variant bottles. In fact, I'd be inclined to go along and help them land their allotment if I wasn't working. People get excited about it, and it's good to have people excited about craft beer.

I'm more likely to get excited over plentiful seasonal releases (NG seasonals/Thumbprints, Founders seasonals, Celebration, some Lips of Faith) and I'll "hunt" them down over the first few days/weeks that they're out. But I find myself opting out of special one-day releases, limited distribution beers more and more often.

Some of this has to do with $ as well- we can't ignore that as craft beer lovers. Our "hobby" gets more and more expensive every year. Over the past month we've had the following big releases, all of which I'd love to buy:
Black Husky Twelve-Dog & BA Twelve-Dog: $90 total
O'so/Funk Factory Door Kriek: $20 a bottle, 2 bottle limit = $40
O'so BB Imperial Night Train: $12.99 a bottle= $12.99
Tyranena Carnal Knowledge in the Wood: $10 per 4-pack x3 = $40
SN BA Narwhal: $17.99 a bottle= $17.99
CW BB Stout: $13.99 a four pack x 2= $28.00
Lakefront Black Friday BB Imperial Stout: $15 a bottle x 2= $30
GI BCBS Vanilla Rye: $22? a bottle= $22.00
GI BCBW: $22 per 4-pack= $22.00

Those are only the beers I'm interested in, there are many more that other folks love and want to buy this time of year as well. But my total, if I bought everything I wanted, would be over $300- that doesn't include any of the non-special releases like Celebration, or the beers I've been having on tap this month.

My usual beer budget is around $100 a month, and I try desperately to stick to it. November could easily push into the $400-450 range if I let it.

The only way I can stick to my budget is to not chase beers. It's ok to miss out on a release or two- chances are you'll get to try it at a bottle share or festival at some point.

 

I sort of always was ...

When you live in my part of the world (Bryan, Texas) and you start looking at the Top 250, it doesn't take you long to figure that you will NEVER be able to try many of those beers. Not on my salary.

That doesn't mean I don't look for new stuff. I've got to try BCBS, run through some fresh Enjoy By and have pulled a handful of fantastic bourbon barrel-aged brews locally, so it's not as if I'm stuck drinking tall boys of Milwaukee's Best.

And I've at least had the chance to see a Westy 12 bottle:




Honestly, I didn't think I'd ever do that much ... after all, that bottle required a plane ticket to Belgium and about an $80-100 purchase at a bottle shop. Ironically, the actual bottle of Westvleteren 12 was free, and my friend figured you'd be an idiot not to load up on other beer in order to get the Westy 12. If I get to taste it, great, but I really do feel somewhat satisfied just being able to say that beer exists, it's not a myth, I've seen it.

 

The chase is a hobby. Being that, it comes down to an individual's choice how much time and treasure they want to invest in this hobby. I'm lazy so the amount of energy I'm willing to invest in the chase is pretty low. If the opportunity to try a popular beer presents itself I may take it but I would be just as interested in trying a little known beer from a nearby brewery.

 

As has been stated already, there are many great beers available on a regular basis, at a decent price.
I see no need to chase beers that rarely equal the hype, and even more rarely, are worth the price.

 

Yep. Especially when, nearly every time you get the hard-to-find beers and empty your wallet out for them, you find out that it is just a really good beer; nothing transcendental, earth-shattering, or life changing. There are plenty of really good beers consistently on the shelf wating to be bought and enjoyed.

I, also, despise when stores keep all the special releases in the backroom rather than just putting them on the shelf and enforcing a limit-per-customer rather than having to fellate the beer manager. I am not the most outgoing person in the world and feel weird asking if they have stuff in the back.

 

I'm completely comfortable with saying that I always anticipate releases of beers that I like. I don't care about chasing beers that I don't enjoy so much (KBS is my primary example), but I will be going out tomorrow to get as much BCBS as I can. It's genuinely my favorite barrel-aged stout, so I feel no shame in doing so. I will drive up, wait in line, and buy my allotment of Central Waters Seventeen. I will make three more trips to that part of the state for every Funk Factory release. Whenever TG releases something new, I will drive the distance to get that beer. I enjoy the chase. In most cases, people in this thread are correct that equally quality options can be found on shelves, but I don't think this holds true for certain styles particularly bourbon barrel stuff and wilds. I see why people don't like it, and I draw the line at literal truck-chasing (who seriously does this?), but as soon as those Tweets go up, if I can, I'll be wherever the beer is.

 

I never really was a chaser but I would visit certain stores for Pliny the Elder or Blind Pig and I always ran into 1 bottle limits. Now I won't go out of my way for one bottle of beer, not worth it. Stone distributes RR in my area and the Stone driver told me that he will get people who follow him to get RR beers.
There's so much good beer in the market I don't feel a need to chase.