2014 Bourbon County Brands release - Chicagoland

Yeah, the price is hard to swallow. When Binny's had that $2 off Lolita coupon, they were worth buying. Stores that marked them up to the same price as Gillian? Not so much...

 

There's nothing wrong with it in any way - how awesome would it be to go to the corner store any given day and pick up a Prop? But the reality is that these beers are made in relatively small quantities. I have no idea of the bottle count of Prop (10k?) but for every person that gets 2-3 bottles, that means 1-2 other people that won't have any at all. Which, when it comes to a luxury product like craft beer it's hardly some great injustice, but it's worth sitting back and realizing every so often that the demand far, far exceeds the supply so maybe it would be nice to spread the wealth around a bit.

 

Guys, do you not leave your homes? I must have drank a BCBS variant on tap once a month all year long. And Goose Island events the warehouse one in May and the block party in September had more BCBS than I could drink. We live in Chicago, Goose takes care of us. Whether its tap takeovers or giving us an exclusive variant we're drowning in BCBS. I understand chasing a bit trying to get some bottles for home consumption but after a while its not worth the fight.

 

That's it in a nutshell. GI has expanded the supply of the BC series slowly and steadily. Demand has simply outpaced it. Combine that with an expanded distribution footprint, and it's not hard to imagine why it feels like there's less to be had. What will be interesting is to see whether the demand continues to grow at its current pace, and whether GI's production expansion leads to more sizeable production increases.

 

I've stuck my nose in a few tap takeovers and it's usually just wall to wall bros. Which if you just want to try a variant and get out it's ok but otherwise no thank you.

 

I'll fess up, I pretty much exclusively buy the sisters from the Lincoln Park Costco's craft beer section...it's the only place I've found where the price matches my perceived value of them.

 

Halia would be a staple of mine if it's pricing was in line with NG Wild Peach.

Then again, it's right in line with Side Project pricing, and that stuff sells out every batch due to (the mostly deserved) hype.

 

Nailed it on the head. AB doesn't care about BA. They see us lining up and try to think of a way to make more money off of it. Any publicity about BCS is publicity about Goose Island. That's what average Joe will remember when he's in the beer isle at Jewel or Walgreen's, that Goose Island makes beer that is good enough to wait hours in the cold for. Maybe that pushes him towards the 312 rather than the Blue Moon. They can't make any more money off of BCS until they start making more, so why put more resources into distributing it?

Jewel and Walgreen's see the expanding craft market and want to get a share of it. They think that by leveraging their relationship with AB to get BCS, they can attract more craft consumers throughout the year. Probably wrong for most of us on this site, but you can be assured that average Joe will head straight to these places when he wants a craft beer, because if they get BCS, they must get everything.

Here's a question, how many non beer-geek coworkers or family members have asked you this week what the big fuss about this beer is? I mean, my uncle and mom asked me about it. That tells me that their strategy is working.

In the end, I'm fine with it, it makes business sense. If once a year I need to go to Jewel to get my BCS, then be it. More power to them making more money, maybe that means more BCS for me in the future. But Jewel and Walgreen's need to know that I'm going to continue to do my regular beer shopping at The Beer Temple and Binny's because of the service and larger selection of all craft beer they provide.

 

Absolutely this. It's hard to fault Goose when they always seem to hookup the Chicagoland area year around. Were bottles a lot tougher in Chicago this year? Yes, and some of the blame can go to Goose, but I'd say a lot of the blame lies on us.

It really sucks that a lot of honest bottle shops are getting a lot less, but some of the blame falls on those shops. Choosing the sell early last year? Marking bottles up to $30, $40, $50, more? I'm sure Goose notices that stuff. So how about we do our part and choose not to pay those upcharged prices. Or not to buy it until it is supposed to be on sale (that part is tough!). We can also buy all of our sessionable Goose stuff at small shops as opposed to major chains as that seems to be a formula that Goose is now following.

There's also a flip side to that coin. We are to blame for a lot of the difficulty this year. People bring 2,3,4+ mules to releases. People hoard cases upon cases when they have an opportunity. People truck chase, people go into stores they've never been to buy 1 bottle and never come back. A lot of us are buying well more than we can consume in a lifetime. Some of us line cut, save seats at bars for friends when there is a row of people behind you, and even resell bottles at a markup to other people. We also beer trade, which also has its problems. It's hard for me to get on a high horse as I have done alot of these things. Hell, I have an ISO:FT up right now! But I believe buying 2-4 bottles for consumption and trading is different than buying a case+ for the same. Maybe I'm biased and wrong.

Anyway, my point is if you are frustrated by how hard this stuff has become, then try to do some honest things on your end and enjoy the beer karma that comes with it.

 

All valid points in one way or another above.

In the end, however, I urge everyone to take a glance at what it takes to get BCBS in other markets around the country. We are very fortunate here in Chicago and the surrounding area to have the ability to go into a store and potentially grab a case of BCBS if we so desire. Many markets around the country get one case per store total! You think getting one variant bottle is bad, try fighting to secure 1 bottle of regular BCBS at a Total Wine or Whole Foods upon release. Not fun.

 

Bottom line there are too many people in the game and the supply wasnt increased proportionally. Production stayed the same but it seemed there were like 10x as many people in every line.

I didnt see it coming, but I should have, just look what has happened to zombie dust in the past 18 months. Went from always there, to there unless you went on sunday because of the weekend crowd, to the entire weeks production selling in 4 hours.

Hopefully they can crank out more variants with more space in the new barrel warehouse. I dont see how it would be an issue either. The ingredients are added to prop after the barrels. As in take it out of the barrels, put it in a big tank, add adjuncts. they should be able to crank it out just as quickly

 

I know someone in Indy and someone in Dallas that got more Vanilla and Coffee than any one person I know in Chicago.

The demand in Chicago is unlike anything else in the county. The only thing it's easier to get in Chicago is Prop.

 

Yeah, we definitely have first world BCS problems in Chicago.

 

2012 cherry - 200 barrels
2013 backyard - 200 barrels
2014 vanilla - 200 barrels

2013 prop 88 barrels
2014 prop 88 barrels

Please explain how this is an increase?

 

I think this is what Vav was talking about in his thread when he mentioned the commoditization of craft beer messing things up for everyone. It's natural to want a bottle or two of this stuff for yourself, but when you start doing things like bringing your whole family to grab bottles for you, or sneaking into a line a 2nd or 3rd time, or whatever it is, you're forcing everyone else to use more desperate measures to ensure they get something, and you're adding to the scarcity problem.

Personally I won't shop at places that markup beer so drastically, but I get why people do. I was lucky enough (well, I stood in line on Black Friday, so it wasn't all luck) to get my bottle of Prop for around MSRP, but given how impossible it's been to get it since then, I get the desperate measures. When you've got people who have enough Prop to trade to others/sell on Craigslist, but you can't find one bottle to drink, $40 for a $26 bomber of Prop seems like a solid idea.

 

I agree, regular was expanded, that is all. While Vanilla went to more states this year than Backyard.

 

I think what he meant is that the distribution footprint has increased (more places now receive it), so that regardless of whether or not they've produced more, they're shipping to more places, which is creating part of this iniquity.

 

Just in case someone is still looking for some of everything and have time on this Friday (sure to be a shitload of people):
Whole Foods Kingsburry is releasing their load on the horders, here is the info:

The full 2014 Goose Island Beer Co. Bourbon County Stout series will be available for sale beginning at 8:00am, when the store opens. We will also have Madame Rose, Lolita, and class of '88 bottles for sale.

Per Person Limits*:
4 12oz bottles of 2014 Bourbon County Stout
+ 2 12oz bottles of Bourbon County Barleywine
+ 2 12oz bottles of Bourbon County Coffee
+ 1 22oz bottle of Bourbon County Vanilla Rye OR Proprietor's BCS (coconut)
*No exceptions or substitutions.


NOTE: They changed the time to 5pm

 

morning weekday releases blow.

still says 8 am on the website

 

Yeah, sorry, I was a little lazy in my explanation -- overall production of BC beers is up from last year. Sorry for more laziness, but I'll cut/paste from another thread:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/gi-vanilla-rye-and-14-prop.227746/#post-2991525

"just for FYI
BCBS Barrel fills.

Regular: 1900 Barrels
Barleywine: 600 Barrels
Coffee: 230 Barrels
Vanilla: 200 Barrels
Prop: 88 Barrels

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleade...ers-reviewed-by-six-increasingly-drunk-people"

"Here's Chicago Reader's article from last year, which quoted total barrels at 2,500 (compared to just over 3,000 this year). Regular BCBS at 1,400 last year, per the article. That's a solid increase in production, but I also don't know what kind of distribution expansion GI has gone through (if any). Plus, without knowing allocation schedules, it's almost impossible to know how a given market is going to fare. Interesting stuff though.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleade...me-goose-islands-2013-bourbon-county-variants"

As someone noted above, it sounds like most of the increased production has (thus far) gone to BCBS. Which isn't surprising given that's the core brand AND it's second/third use barrels help produce BCBBW. And, as someone else noted, combine that with an expanded distribution footprint, and the sense of it all being more limited isn't surprising.

Long story short, production is up on some variants, not on others, but the general trajectory for the overall series, as I noted, is upward. I can only assume with the warehouse expansions that will continue. Again, the question isn't really a supply one, though -- it's a demand one. And until the demand curve smooths out (which, personally, I don't think it'll do for the foreseeable future), it's going to continue to feel like there's just not enough to go around.