Bourbon County in MA - 2015

You should be able to find it on tap at a ton of bars. For that, we should thank InBev.

 

Boy oh boy! Then I can pay bar markup too!

 

Jack's Abby sells BA Framinghammer (Variants) for $10 / 500ml. seems like BCBS will be priced at that level now. oh well, it was the best deal in craft beer, now it's...just like other releases. still cheaper than Parabola though

it will still sell at this price, so as much as people will complain, it was underpriced before and the market will support the price, so...ok

 

Julio's will get some, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're all spoken for with hold cards. Julio's seems to be a hotbed for casual beer drinkers chasing hyped beers. I remember a couple years back, people were using their hold cards for regular BCBS. Meanwhile, up the road at Sperry's, there were cases sitting on the floor collecting dust.

If I recall correctly, Wegman's was hit by truck chasers. I stumbled across a single four-pack in Northborough ($19.99) long after release. It was sitting on a feature shelf, where they usually put things like 120 Minute, Backwoods Bastard, etc.

 

I hear you, but we did this to ourselves collectively. Backkk in the day this shit used to sit on shelves, now it doesn't...simple economics.

 

Looks like I need to hit my local packy to grab a $26 4-pack shelf turd from 2014, thought that price was too high before. Compared to this year it's a steal...

 

I see what you're saying, but I think simply making less and leaving the price as is would have been a better solution. If they want it to appear then disappear, by all means, make less. But unless demand is at or exceeding supply (which apparently it isn't), charging more seems like a pretty terrible idea.

 

If they made less, they would probably charge more for it. I think @RKing44 was making a supply and demand comment. It used to be that supply was greater than demand. Now that demand outstrips supply, Goose can charge what they want for it. They aren't looking to have it sell out quickly, they're looking to price it as high as they can to still sell out overall.

The only thing we could collectively do to drive down prices is simply not buy Bourbon County anymore. Somehow I don't see that happening.

 

Well, conceivably it could. People could get sick of it in the next few years and move onto something else. Other higher rated bourbon barrel-aged beers will come out. I remember when the regular Bourbon County was in higher demand, now you can likely find it sitting somewhere in a few months. For a comparison in 2015, you would NEVER see Rare sitting on the shelves, or to a lesser degree even the Coffee variant.

 

True, but I suppose they've probably calculated that into the price as well. If they raise prices by 25% without changing supply, anything less than a 25% decrease in sales would still mean an increase in profit. Also, I think they know that even if it sits, it'll sell eventually. Especially with the flashy cool looking new label, I can see a lot of non-beer-fanatics stumbling across it some day in (gasp) January or February and picking it up just because it seems different.

 

Yeah, makes me think AB-InBev has their hands in more than just distribution this year. Makes it easier to just enjoy more of the local imperial stouts. Dropping a little Weller107 into some Barbapapa will make me forget all about BCBS.

 

I think we're interpreting supply levels differently. Since 2012 at least, it has been easy to get, months after it's release. And I've lived three places throughout the state, since then. Each place was the same story. In Western Mass where I am now, I could still pick up a four pack well into April-May of this year if I was so inclined. It seems to me, and a lot of people in this thread, that there has been an excess. So, I completely disagree with your assessment that demand outstrips supply. By making less this year it looks like they're trying to get back on the right side of the equation. Trying to create scarcity is fine. But to me, I think it's a bad idea to take something that was readily available and well priced, and then the following year make it less available and not well priced. I expect it to be easy to find again this year, but I won't be buying any because they raised the price. I think they're going to have another year of it sitting on shelves because now they're charging wine prices.

Of course all of this hinges on the premise that they are, in fact, trying to play the scarcity game. I'm sure ABI's armies of MBAs and Quants have far more statistical evidence supporting this move than my puny consumer logic. This is the one AB-Inbev beer I buy, and I'm another customer out the door now. My dollars don't mean anything to them, but it's still revenue they won't be seeing.

 

I think demand far outstrips supply, at least nationally. 4pks sitting on shelves for months in Western MA is an isolated phenomenon, and there are only a few pockets of the country where that happens. I've been going through the various regional forum BCBS threads, and it seems that in the vast majority of cities it sold out in days, and in many places (like Michigan) in hours with 1-2 bottle limits and prices 10-50% over MSRP.

I guess my point is that for now, they definitely have room to increase prices, probably significantly, and still clear inventory. It's still cheaper than most BA stouts on the market anyway.

 

I think this is more of a region to region issue. I've seen it on the shelves long after release in MA as well, and closer to the city. It depends on the clientele of the store. A lot of places are carrying GI now that AB calls the shots, so places that wouldn't normally be craft beer hot spots are getting a couple of cases and its going to hang out for a while. I've also seen places that were not putting it out right away and would just put out a couple bottles every week in less obvious places on the shelf.

 

Interesting. You've obviously put more legwork into this than me. If it is the case the the majority of the distribution footprint is struggling to meet supply, then AB-InBev knows what their doing, like I assumed the did (with the MBAs/Quants). Doesn't change the fact that for me, it's not worth the new $2.50/ounce+ price tag.

 

You mean Rare I assume? I think that is around $2.50/oz, but regular is still nowhere near that - more like $0.60-0.80/oz.

 

Nope. I just have no idea what kind of math I was doing this morning...

 

A place in reading mass dropped theirs this passed saturday

 

Thanks for being specific.

 

Just came across this release from redstone. It says only 4 places in ma but confirms coffee and regal rye.
http://www.redstoneliquors.com/black-friday-goose-island-bourbon-county-brand-stout-release-info-stoneham-only/