2014 Bourbon County Brands release - Chicagoland

That's actually my exact experience with the last bottle I had.

 

Yep -- Vince who just left the DG Binny's to go brew in Colorado was among those who helped cram cherries into the Cherry Rye barrels, and I know there are photos out there from the Bramble and Backyard berry-stuffing sessions. And part of the reason we went four years between Vanilla releases was because the whole process of adding the ground-up goop to the barrels was such a PitA that Brett Porter had, at one point, vowed not to go through it again.

 

This beer is such a phenomenon that apparently there is even bottle variation within EACH BOTTLE. I split a 2013 with a buddy last year, and, I, who has hated coconut since the day I was born, absolutely loved it, and didn't taste one speck of coconut in there. It had some kind of crazy delicious depth to it that regular BCBS did not have. My buddy, on the other hand, was overwhelmed with coconut (Mounds Bar). I don't remember who's glass was poured first - the coconut either all came out on top, or had sunk to the bottom of the bottle and came out last.

 

Save your receipt and return the girls next week!

 

This happened to a buddy and I. He happened to notice the first pour had an oily sheen to it and was overwhelmingly coconut. For my next bottle I gently tipped it upside down before opening it and that seemed to even out the flavors as far as I could tell.

 

This reminds me that Jewel said some of their stores would get second drops "next week".
That must be happening soon if their first drop was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or Black Friday, right?

Personally I'm all set with my single 4pack but I'm still curious if this is a reality.

 

This comes from Mike Siegel being on multiple podcasts last week talking about how they add the ingredients post barrel but I think you're right. I seem to remember fruit being added to barrels as well. Maybe he meant only this year they did everything post barrel?

 

Blehhhhhhhhh. I think I need to just give up the chase this year. I only managed to grab (well, “only”) a four pack of reg, a bottle of BW and a single prop that I almost lost my toes over. Last year I hunted down three times as much with the same amount of effort and minus the distro dickery and misleading or out of the loop shopkeepers. I get that we’re a relentless plague with too much time and money, but the shift to bigger, AB-loyal retailers and hype is fueling that fire. It’s looking like multi-muling the Binny’s events is getting to be the only surefire way to secure anything near what I’d like, and that’s a dark, dark turn.
Screw it, this year I’ll start homebrewing a dupe using beer geek tears.

 

I don't know about you guys, but I'm completely striking out this year. Last year I was able to get whatever I wanted with relative ease. This year I have one prop and no other variants. Can't tell if poachers are out there, the scene has grown so much, or that they aren't releasing a lot of it.

 

I hear you have to be on the list to get those tears though; people starting calling about them weeks ago.

 

Damnit. Maybe if I dry-hop with shattered hope and throw it through a whine randall it’ll balance out.

 

York Liquors in Elmhurst on York and Vallette got some regular in. $36, but he can probably be talked down if you tell him how much you saw it for at jewel.

 

Jewel on Milwaukee got their "second drop" Monday.

 

Don't even bother with Milk & More....dude is a huge POS if you even call to ask if they have it. Save your time and energy.

Also not sure how, but I managed to grab a bomber of everything on black Friday as well as two four packs of regular, a four of coffee, and then rounded it out with a four pack last night of barleywine from Galleria on Southport. Just timed out my visits well on Black Friday and got incredibly lucky.

Still, I've been looking like a madman for some friends who were out of town for the holidays and am having no luck. This year's allotment is a little ridiculous....

 

Agreed on milk and more. I was in there once, casually asked how much their FFF bombers were bc they weren't marked. Told me $18 for Arctic Panzer. I kinda smirked bc that's obscene and he got weird like, what's wrong with that? Come on man, you know you're price gouging.

 

i don't blame any store for that given the onslaught of calls they've likely received over the past couple weeks, but another good reason to not bother with them is that they have ludicrous prices on nearly everything they sell.

 

Mr. A's in Palatine, anyone? $18 for Zombie Dust. $16 for a bomber of Victory at Sea. Cannot imagine what their BCBS prices are!

 

$40 a 4pk.

 

Similar experience...a few friends and I went in there after a movie to grab some beer and we were just browsing when one of the guys working told me they had some Zombie Dust stashed in back (we weren't even really looking for it). He came to give it to us, but then his manager/owner/boss/whatever came up front and saw us and gave us a hard time for buying it. Then proceeded to charge us $30 for a six pack while condemning us for buying it even though we weren't regulars.

Not my fault that the dude working offered it up to us without us even looking for it. Place is the worst....

 

Man. My experiences there haven’t been nearly as bad. I might just have a rosy glow for it because I picked up Abraxas off the shelf there years ago before it blew up.

It’s definitely a problem when, of the two places I can think of with a clear-headed, egalitarian approach to releases, LP Binny’s gets over a thousand people in line and Beer Temple doesn’t even have close to the allotment they deserve. Meanwhile, less than scrupulous places are finally getting a sense of exactly how much they can upcharge in a desert and then wonder why we don’t come back as regulars.