Black Friday stories

your first and only post in over 3 years of lurking, and its a dick swing......nice

 

Hoarder

 

Had to work. Dropped off $ to friend who grabbed me a 4 pak of regular and a 4 pak was the limit. No variants. Places sold out in about 15 minutes .

 

I agree about the greedy people...they just look so silly. I was at Wegman's (wasn't even going to go out but I woke up at 4am for whatever reason, and i knew wegman's opened at 7 so i drove the 5 miles to try my luck). They had a 4 pack limit. There was probably only 20 people there but so many kept going back and back and back. I sat there at a table drinking a beer watching it all. How much of this stuff can one honestly drink over the course of a year? It's good, but not an everyday or even every week or month beer to me. And I don't like that they release it on black friday. All this douchiness turned me off. Some dudes in line were talking about all the different bottles shops next to round up as much as possible. What a waste of time. I don't think I'll go out of my way for this beer in the future. My local wegman's got 9 cases of regular and "were shorted" on the 1 case of each variant they were supposed to get. I think it's more like the head beer guy kept it for himself and his friends, but I can't really knock that. Besides, I'd just as well keep a few more $ in my pocket. There are plenty of other good brews that aren't a hassle to get, aren't $25/4pack/ that don't force me to encounter these hypestruck clowns.

 

Planned on getting to our largest beer store in Houston at 4am, got a text from a friend at a little after 3 saying there were already 26 people in line. We left immediately, got there at 3:45am and my other friend and I were numbers 27 and 28 in line. Waited until 10, got one four pack of each variant and one bottle of Vanilla, as well as some other vintage bottles that they had been holding in their cellar.

This is where it gets kind of interesting. Normally this store gets the largest amount of beer in the city, but not all of it. 10 cases of Vanilla came to Houston and this store was originally only supposed to get 4 cases. Well, something happened where either they were able to pull everything or the driver messed up because they did get all of the Vanilla, and nearly all of the Coffee (there was only one other store in the city that I knew of that got a few cases of Coffee as well). I think there were a lot of disappointed people that waited in line at other stores expecting to get variants that those stores had previously received last year. It was quite a mess. I got another 4 pack of regular split between two more different stores and then called it done on searching for bottles after we realized no other stores were receiving Coffee.

I did get to have both regular and Coffee on tap though, absolutely delicious.

 

Last year Kahn's in Indianapolis had a Black Friday (at 9) and so did Big Red in Bloomington (at 1) where I live. Last year we were able to go to Kahn's, get there around 0645 and were upper 30s in line. After getting our allotment we were also able to go to Big Red and get more.

This year Big Red decided to also have their BF event at 9. With Kahn's only having 17 bottles of Vanilla it was pretty much a no brainer to stay home. When I got up at 0645 there were already over 150 people in line at Kahn's. The girlfriend and I rolled into Big Red at 0730 and were 10th in line. They opened the store at 8 so we could be inside. Then they just started wheeling out case after case of goodies. So even though there was a one large bottle, one coffee, and barleywine, and one 4 pack limit we still left with this:

 

I went to work at 6am in a state that got no bottles even though GI has been here for a couple of years now. Closest place to get any was 100 miles away in Wichita, KS where the best store from Denver to Kansas City received 120 bottles of BCBS only, no variants, limit 1 per customer.

 

I went to a release at 11 am and the last vanilla and coffee sold out two people ahead of me. I was kinda bummed, but no worries. I grabbed two 4 packs of the regular to ease the pain, but then I remembered my secret stores and decided to try them out, even if they might not have gotten any. Turns out they still had some Vanilla and Coffee (with a two bottle limit) and they also had Pirate Bomb! So I grabbed 1 of each of those and painfully shelled out the the cash, which was the most I had ever dropped at once on only three bottles... I started to head home at that point but decided to make one last stop at another lesser known shop just out of curiosity (and the fact that I was still wanting a 4 pack of coffee), and it turns out they had all the variants just chilling with no line or limit! Hell yeah! I decided to save myself the financial burden and only get a 4 pack of coffee and to let some other people get some variants since I already bought my limit. So in total my haul for yesterday was 8 regular BCBS, 5 Coffee, 1 Vanilla, and 1 Pirate Bomb. Needless to say I was satisfied. Hope everyone else managed to get some!

 

MKE was even worse. Midwest allocations seem to be way down, likely due to expanded distribution to some more "glamorous" markets.

Most shops had to choose between Vanilla or Coffee, 1 case each, and then got 1 case BW and 5-10 cases regular. Smaller shops didn't see any variants at all. Mostly you had 12-100 people lined up for release events and shops are lucky if 1/2 walked away with beer they really wanted.

 

I was watching Mike and Mike in the morning last week and they had a term for the Superbowl hangover. They called it "eating the cheese" and basically it is this behavior. Folks keep eating the cheese until they realize hey wait a minute this cheese tastes bad and by then it is too late. Can't help but ponder if for these hard core BCBS chasers drinking their horde will be a burden at best.

Me personally, I was turned off by the price increase this year; last year it was the hype that turned me off(go figure).
I woke up yesterday ate a plate of stuffing+mashed potatoes and gravy that would make an obese person hurt inside, and chose to stay home. Today I went out and picked up a half case of various fine ales with comparable abv to BCBS and it cost me as much as a 4 pack of the stout. That's my story.

 

PM me a list of what you might be looking for, im also in KY but have a cellar of stuff from all around, Im just looking to get some Coffee to go with me case of BCBS

 

Agree, Milwaukee was terrible. I am SO glad I chose to drive an hour and fifteen minutes to the flagship Binny's in Chicago. I will do the same again given this year's shaft job.

 

Cool story bro. Needs more dragons.

If you think you saw limited amounts, come to Ohio to look for some.

 

I got 12 cases of prop
22 cases of coffee
and only 19 bottles of vanilla. What a shitty haul!

 

Ohio and those asinine < 15% ABV laws. Feel for you bro!

 

I was only able to put together a case of vanilla and three cases of coffee from 8 different stores, after 8 hours in the truck and 450 miles. So many more hoarders and truck chasers this year who totally ****-blocked me

 

I didn't go hunting for bcbs at all. Living in the suburbs of Chicago you'd think it would be easier to get bcbs and all is variants but frankly it takes a fair amount of work just for a few measly bottles, waiting in lines and driving from store to store hoping to get lucky. Lucky enough that you'll find it and also lucky enough that the store isn't gouging or "holding them for regulars". It's a shitty game I didn't feel like playing again, which is sad because bcbs is one of my favorite brews.

Call me cynical, a whiner or whatever but the reason I can't easily get into this is simple: greedy asshats hoarding. Don't believe me? Take a quick scroll through the "latest hall" thread and you'll see pictures from plenty of users sitting on a case or more of regular, coffee, and bw. 4 bottles of vanilla? Maybe prop too? Stories of wives muling, quick outfit changes and other shady shit are disheartening. I think back to last year when I was looking for one bottle of backyard, a four pack of reg, coffee and bw. After going on the hunt I didn't even come close, 3-4 hours of searching for my reg, backyard and one bottle each of coffee and bw. I ended up trading for what I actually went out and struck out looking for. Why? Because it's not enough to buy a four pack or two and be satisfied for some people, they need more for friends, more for trades more for extras. It's all bullshit. If you're disappointed you could barely get anything, thank the rest of this community, thank the people in the "hauls" thread that have way more than they need. Thank goose island for hyping this release like they do.

Now, not everyone in the BA community is guilty and to those that practice moderation and aren't selfish, good for you, that's what makes this community a cool place to chat, exchange ideas and share a passion for great beer. For those who are guilty, shame on you. Shame on you for being an "advocate" for only yourself. Shame on you for being that guy/girl who stumbles into that limited release with no limits and cleans it all out. Shame on you for chasing trucks and holding bottles at stores only to drink a few and trade the rest away. Why shouldn't I get something because you "needed" to trade them?

I could sit here and tell you a dozen stories of ba generosity I've experienced, followed up by plenty of douchebaggery, trolling and bs. It's beer, nothing more, nothing less. But it's getting more and more sad to see that people can't police themselves to the point that they're hoarding just to brag. We'd all love to see supply meet demand for limited, barrel aged and rare crap, but that's never going to happen. Craft is growing every year even though production is increasing, and everyone deserves their share, not just a few selfish entitled people. Not just the truck chasers and those willing to overpay, recruit mules and circumvent stores rules for their bottles. The culture of "rare" beer within this community creates demand and hype, and people take advantage of it. Bcbs and other releases included, this shit needs to change, because it's taking the fun out of this for me, as well as plenty others who would probably agree with me. And isn't this hobby, this community supposed to be fun? Shouldn't everyone get a fair shot?

End rant.

 

Made a turkey omlette in the AM, kicked back with family and they decided to go wine tasting and i need some new beers, the fridge was looking void of non Thanksgiving leftovers.

Went to my bottleshop and taproon at 1145, was planning on hauling some hoppy beers this weekend anyway and knew they had reg BCBS for release. Snagged 8 BCBS and a ton of super fresh IPAs, some dessert stouts, and a sour they had held for me in the back. Alpine Nelson was on tap, had a mini pour and was home by 1. No different than any other beer pickup for me.

I just wrote out the "show me your big **** pic thread", is the printed word sexier beer **** than a photo? LMK BAs?

 

I landed what I wanted- a bottle of BW. Would have loved a 4-pack, but I'm already 12 oz's ahead of last year.

 

I rounded up two buddies and we visited OddSide Ales. We drank some Morningwood and Hipster Brunch Stout and had the honor of sharing a table with two gorgeous young ladies half our age. My buddies and I are very familiar with the craft beer scene in Michigan and these young ladies were schooling us about the craft beer scene in West Michigan. On top of that, patrons were encouraged to bring their own breakfast to OddSide yesterday. We didn't bring any breakfast but no worries because a kind gentleman had to leave so he gave us his big ass leftover plate of bacon. We should have stayed there because we were on a roll but we had an agenda. But not before leaving with some of their beer.

Next stop, Perrin's. They had their Malted Milk Ball porter back on tap. It was good to see this old friend again. My buddies had a couple Imperial IPAs. We left Perrin's with some of their beer as well.

Those girls told us to have lunch at Stella's in GR. The burgers were very good but the three of us agreed we had the best french fries ever. They had this salt fused with hot pepper sauce and they were excellent. We only had water to pace ourselves.

Our last stop was Founders. My buddies had Rubaeus and an All Day IPA. I went for the Pumpkinmudgeon. It was their Old Curmudgeon Ale with pumpkin spices, aged in bourbon barrels and weighed in over 12% abv. As much as I wanted to like it, it was a sweet mess. I couldn't pick up any barrel notes at all. I like to let bourbon barrel brews warm up before drinking but there was no indoor seating so my beer stayed cold outside. The pumpkin spices dominated the beer similar to Southern Tier Pumking. I love Curmudgeon but I couldn't get excited for Pumpkinmudgeon.

We had enough beer drinking for one day so there was only one thing left to do. We stopped by Frank's Meat Market on Fulton and purchased some fresh and smoked kielbasa. I'll be having some today.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I scored zero bottles of BCBS and variants. I have absolutely no regrets. Me and my buddies had a fantastic day by enjoying each others company and the company of others rather than running around like a ghoul from one shitshow to the next. We're going to look for those girls again next year.