2014 Bourbon County Brands release - Chicagoland

Discussion in 'Great Lakes' started by Jaycase, Nov 24, 2014.

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  1. RexKramer

    RexKramer Initiate (0) Jan 19, 2011 Illinois

    As someone who was out of town for the black friday event, I hope that I find a bar that does a BCBS event or happen to stumble across a release later in the year as I really want to give the beer a try. It's a shame that excitement over a beer has to be marred with people working the system and treating others like crap. It's certainly moved me more towards the thought of giving up on chasing beers and being happy with what I find when i find it.
     
    TMoney2591, hombrepalo and Rainblows like this.
  2. Lansman

    Lansman Savant (1,104) Mar 19, 2011 Missouri
    Trader

    Welcome to the community! Don't let comments from a vocal minority overrule the general awesomeness that this community still is. If you want to see a glimpse of how it "used to be" (though I would argue it still is if you look in the right places) go to the 4Elf party bottle share before the release next weekend up in Marshall, MI. (Just turn away from the inevitable line cutters that will show up in the AM). :slight_smile:
     
  3. ppohio

    ppohio Initiate (0) Aug 5, 2011 Minnesota

    Pretty grim. They could have cut allotments a little bit to spread it out. They saw how many people were there, and they decided to let the first 50 or so walk away with everything and everyone else get significantly less. Given that there were probably 150 people in line when they opened the doors, they could have easily said one variant each and spread it out.

    Most disappointing is that the Whole Foods guy said they were punished by the distributor for having their release this week instead of on Black Friday, which is why allotments were cut. As with anything, take that with a grain of salt, but I hope this isn't the way this thing is going.

    Edit: I missed Black Friday and the weekend to family commitments so although I wish they had spread out the variants a bit, I appreciate Whole Foods for at least giving some us a shot to get some regular BCBS this year.
     
  4. mdomask

    mdomask Initiate (0) May 27, 2012 Illinois

    Awesome! I love knowing the hows behind stuff like that.

    Sounds like the preferred process for making bitters... where some recipes will be just toss everything in a jar, whereas better recipes will have you keep each botanical separate and then mix to a good ratio at the end. It makes sense that you'd use a similar method in beer.
     
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  5. SeanBond

    SeanBond Pooh-Bah (2,880) Jul 30, 2013 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    From what I've seen (and honestly, I only hang around a couple of the forums, so I don't have that much experience), this tends to be one of the more positive areas of the internet. The vast majority of people on BA are nice and enthusiastic, and are willing to help out fellow enthusiasts (whether it's with trades, information on where to "score," brewing info, etc.). Judging the site (not saying you are) by what's happening with BCBS is probably not a good idea, because it's not really representative of the rest of the site.
     
    ChicagoGuy likes this.
  6. boilermakerryan

    boilermakerryan Initiate (0) Nov 8, 2011 Indiana

    I think you just summed it up right there. Perhaps GI needs to have something like a Darkness day or DLD. You get a ticket, alottment...end of story.
     
    Aero, Rainblows, Jaycase and 2 others like this.
  7. ChicagoGuy

    ChicagoGuy Initiate (0) Dec 2, 2014 Illinois

    I dunno, I think judging the community by this particular BCBS thread isn't such a bad thing - everyone here seems pretty cool & happy to share tips/info, so far, and no one seems to be shying away from a bit of amusing smack-talking when it's warranted.
     
  8. SeanBond

    SeanBond Pooh-Bah (2,880) Jul 30, 2013 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    No, you're right, I mostly meant don't judge BA (or beer enthusiasts in general) by all the controversy (sounds so dramatic) around BCBS this year. You're right this thread is pretty positive, and that's been the general rule.
     
    ChicagoGuy likes this.
  9. Rainblows

    Rainblows Initiate (0) Feb 27, 2013 Illinois


    This, this, this.
     
  10. RexKramer

    RexKramer Initiate (0) Jan 19, 2011 Illinois

    It does seem like it would ease some of the tension and other negative aspects of pushing the beer out to different stores throughout the city. They could throw a hell of an event and generate similar buzz.

    Then we could focus on bitching about things like not enough port-a-johns, lack of good food, and the horrible ticketing system.
     
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  11. Clownoisseur

    Clownoisseur Zealot (598) Oct 7, 2013 Michigan
    Trader

    How quickly people forget about Hunahpu's Day 2014......
     
  12. Jaycase

    Jaycase Grand Pooh-Bah (3,554) Jan 13, 2007 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    I think this approach needs some serious consideration by GI. Sell everything on one day and be done with it. Instead of now where it's this extracted process with gangs roaming the Chicago streets a la The Warriors, hunting for every last bit of BC shaking down every store employee where instead of bats & knives they have cellphones.
     
  13. boilermakerryan

    boilermakerryan Initiate (0) Nov 8, 2011 Indiana

    I think a Bourbon County Day would be a perfect opportunity to prevent truck chasing, harassing liquor stores, lines forming at 1am (If some of you like that then by all means more power to you). I have spoken with liquor store employees that are so paranoid on how to split up their allotments that they are making themselves sick. In the end I think there has to be a better way.
     
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  14. Drucifer

    Drucifer Initiate (0) Apr 16, 2012 Illinois

    I second this wholeheartedly. I reacted a little poorly and exaggerated a bit. It's definitely a vocal minority that gives groups like CCBE a bad image, and is no where near 90%. The community definitely has a ton of bright spots. The camping before Darkness Day and the line bottle share at DLD are a couple more events that will make you feel like a welcome part of this hobby as tons of generosity can be seen there.
     
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  15. SeanBond

    SeanBond Pooh-Bah (2,880) Jul 30, 2013 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Yeah, I'm not 100% sure a ticket system would be a simple solution for the BCBS issues, but it's certainly one of the options that should be explored.

    Also, I've said this before, but I'm really hoping that GI blows this year's production away next year, so we don't have to worry about this. At the end of the day, if they can significantly ramp up production, we don't have this issue where only the first 1/3 of a line gets what they want, or where smaller shops don't get jack.
     
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  16. boilermakerryan

    boilermakerryan Initiate (0) Nov 8, 2011 Indiana

    I don't think anyone has forgotten about that. No matter what you do people will always try and cheat the system. I have been going to DLD for 5 years and I can honestly say this past year was one of the best run. There will never be a perfectly run event however, I think there can be an effective and efficiently run event where 80% of the people are happy.
     
  17. mrsandman35

    mrsandman35 Initiate (0) Feb 27, 2012 Colorado

    My girlfriend and I got the last two bottles of vanilla and last bottles of coffee this morning at Whole Foods after being shut out at Mt. Prospect Binny's on Black Friday (where we waited 90 mins to be about the 3rd and 4th people to not get a bomber). They could have lessened the allotments but they posted on their event page what each person would be able to get provided it was available and this was a lot of what motivated me to get out there early. Saw the Whole Foods release and figured this was our last shot this year so wanted to get there early. Planned on getting there around 530am, saw the post on here of someone in line around 3am when I woke up at 4am and so we hit the road a bit earlier. We got there right after 430am, so a minimum 3.5 hours of waiting got you a bomber today. Unbelievable what it takes to get this beer nowadays and seeing as this is about as far as I am willing to go to get it, I don't think I'll end up with any next year unless they change up the system.
     
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  18. mdomask

    mdomask Initiate (0) May 27, 2012 Illinois

    Meh, I see where you're coming from, but... I think the scale on BCBS, especially after this year, is just completely different from other high profile stouts.

    Two years ago, this could have worked and been miraculous. Now, when BCBS is a "must have" item that's covered by every news outlet AB/InBev can feed an easy soft story to? Not sure how well it would work.

    Plus, the beer for this event would come at the expense of supplying other stores (I'm guessing). So, you screw over more shops, distributors, etc. Which, given how pissed they are this year may not be a bad thing...

    I want to love the idea. I just think BCBS has gone mainstream now, so whatever event gets set up around it will reflect that :slight_frown:
     
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  19. Heathcliff_Hasbro

    Heathcliff_Hasbro Initiate (0) Apr 29, 2013 Illinois

    Similar thing happened at South Loop Whole Foods on Thursday morning. There were about 100 people in line when their sale started at 8am. They got one case of each variant and had a 1 bomber vanilla/prop or 1 4pack per person limit for coffee/bw. First 36 people walked away with variants and the rest got shut out, including some folks who said they had been there since before 6am.

    A lot of people would have been much less disappointed had they decided to do 1 bottle per person across the board. In their defense, the limits were communicated ahead of time to those who called in, but to me this situation justifies Vav's method of deciding allotments based on the line that forms and alerting everyone of this method beforehand.
     
  20. SeanBond

    SeanBond Pooh-Bah (2,880) Jul 30, 2013 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Yeah I think at this point all we can pray is that their new barrel warehouse pays huge dividends.

    The only other point that may be a bright one is that Prop will never (hopefully) be distributed outside of Chicago, so theoretically while demand my increase every year, HOPEFULLY Prop will start to be easier to get.

    At least, that's what I'm clinging to.
     
    mdomask likes this.
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