Did we ruin Bourbon County?

My Friday was somewhat cheaper, though I have no variants. I made lunch plans with an old friend I hadn't seen in a while. He's a COSTCO member . At 10:30 I picked him up and before 11:00 we'd figured out that the rule was 4 bottles of the base , only per member @ $7.99. At that point it's time for lunch, a leisurely burger and catching up.
After I drop him off I'm on my way across the river to check out Friar Tucks and Super Liquors. My phone rings and the owner of my neighborhood store has a case of the base for me, price turns out to be $124.99 plus tax. I assure him that I'll see him in a couple hours.
Super Liquors has the base sitting on the floor. I pass and leave with what turned out to be a badly euroskunked bottle of Pilsener.
Friar T apparently had a mad rush at opening time; they had got variants including Rare for $70. Sold it all in an hour. Oh well. I was glad to find a six of Victory at Sea and some Tallgrass BA Vanilla. I swung by Fed Ex for the box containing two bottles of FW XIX. Dropped off all that and saw my old friend for my case. From his parking lot I texted a buddy that they still had some of the base; I gather he bought four.

 

You are crazy my man, I found one liquor store in the afternoon that had regular at $20 a pop, thought it was too much and walked away. To each their own though, it is a good beer, but im not spending that much on one bottle of ABI.

 

Bullshit. It's not circumventing anything. There's no rule stating that the people standing in line for beer have to be the ones that drink the beer. Don't like it? Tough. The person entitled to the beer is the person who shows up to buy it. Period. Not you, or some other craft beer nerd that is butthurt they didn't get any. Your mentality that some people are more entitled to beer than others - others who actually make the effort to show up and stand in line, no less - is just as responsible for "ruining" craft beer. It's selfish of YOU to want to just stroll in to whatever random store and buy a limited product simply because you like the product more than other people. It's a far more ridiculous attitude than someone who gets more beer playing by the rules.

There are retailers out there that will make an effort to form a relationship with their customers, and take care of customers that regularly give them business. Find one. Patronize them often. Talk to the people who work there. You'll get what you want without having to bother with "selfish a-holes."

 

230 for 34 oz of beer??? Maybe for a really nice 18+ year old scotch… The distro by me was selling 12 packs for 93 bucks and I passed on principle. Its beer, and you got ripped off in a big way my friend.

 

I'm with you brother!

 

I'm under the impression that "Pros" will do just about anything to score. What do you think she's done to score all that?

I tried, not real hard to score this past Friday at Binnys and was told it didn't last an hour and one store employee told me people were in line at 10:00 the night before.
Checked the local Armanetti's and they had sold out also but they charged $29.95

 

Airline tickets are luxury items and the government sued airlines for illegal collusion in raising prices. The practice of how you raise price matters, the fact that government sue a luxury service provided illustrates that fair market pricing is not solely limited to non-essential items. You are far too focused much on a small technical detail the use of "gouging" when the broad focus of charging exorbitant prices in US law can apply to luxury good and essential. You're wrong in stating that companies can maintain low or high price as to squeeze steal market share anti-monopoly rules are specifically designed ward-off for these practices for the protection of smaller businesses. Being able to afford and carry out a successful legal action, and ensure that the case is taken over by the government is challenging though not impossible.

 

Ohhhhh. Well I have done that as well. Though definitely not after having a BCBS!

 

Better use of 230 - road trip to any good brewery (probably up to 12 hours away with gas prices as cheap as they are now) and stock up on 3 or 4 cases of something really good. In the Chicago area FFF's, Toppling Goliath, Fat Heads, Bells, Founders, and many more are close by. I payed 45 bucks for 3 BCS and 1 BCBW and I stood in line for an hour in St. Louis. It was worth it because I've never had either before, but I wouldn't do it multiple times a day and I definitely wouldn't blow 230 bucks on a few beers.

Also - someone in an above post said they passed on 12 packs of bourbon county for $93? = moron.

 

I happened to be in Chicagoland over the holiday, to visit my girlfriend's family.

We met a friend out at a bar that had the BCB 2015 barleywine, 2015 stout, and 2013 stout on tap. I had one of each. No line, no waiting.

While hitting up a handful of shops to find a specific "beer" for my girlfriend (she's very into Sprecher Hard Apple Pie), I also ran across a shop that had three cases of Zombie Dust just sitting out (if I were a hophead, I'd probably have bought some), and another shop that had rows of seemingly every Eclipse variant since 2012. No lines, no waiting.

Now that I'm home, I'm enjoying some BA Vanilla Bean Buffalo Sweat and Backwoods Bastard, and when I run out of those, I'll likely pick up some Wulver and BA Siberian Night. All, again, with no line and no waiting.

I don't understand the phenomenon of waiting in lines, chasing trucks, muling, and all that. There's good beer out there for the having - a lot of it just on shelves. I just drink it, and enjoy it when I find it.

 

I have to think there is a level of shame that many people go through at one point or another in pursuit of rare beer. Hype reaches epic proportions due to sites like BA (see: ISO:FT forum). It's easy to get carried away, and sometimes these gut check moments are a blessing in disguise, regardless of all the jackass responses you are getting here. There are thousands and thousands of people out there doing the same thing as you, although perhaps more successfully, and without openly admitting on forums.

I'm in a similar boat where I've gone a bit beer-obsessed in 2015... just wanting to be well informed on all of the hip and top rated beers across the country. Buying extras purely for the sake of trading or just because "maybe I'll want to age it or share a second bottle with X friend". But no matter how hard I try I still can't land most "whalez", I have too many decent extra bottles sitting in my closet, and there are like 10 guys in the "Post your latest haul" topic that put me to shame every week . Cheers to trying to get back to the basics in 2016 and working to ignore that itch to line up and drop hundreds of dollars every time the flavor of the month comes out.

 

Too popular for me now. I'm not standing in line with Sandy Duncan who doesn't even like beer so she can Instagram the line. Their first 2 albums were way better.

 

Given enough time human greed and selfishness will ruin everything they get their hands on.

Add in profiteers, hoarders, and the penis measuring contest for some people and the result is some of the bad aspects of craft beer we are seeing now.

Still lots of great BAs out there though.

 

Ok, but I'm fine with the MSRP and only disagree with the market premium of the other seller. If you have the means, you've done your due-diligence in finding the good you want, why would I consider an alternative option? I also stated in my other post that this retailer is known to raise prices and then discounts. Last year, they charged $64.99 a bottle for VR only to discount to $13.99 a bottle at which point I bought out their inventory. I really don't understand your logic by of choosing a next best alternative as you make it sound like they are the sole retailer. Luckily, a free market economy supplies multiple sellers though it may take some work to track down that good at the MSRP.

 

You see, the real problem with Goose Island is that after you have a few glasses, as I did yesterday, a joke might go completely over your head, as yours somehow went over mine! LOL. As I said to the other person who commented on this though, I have certainly chased a beer with whiskey (not sure about Rum) though not with any of these barrel aged bourbon beers. I had a glass of rye and coffee BCBS yesterday and let's just say it was a good thing I didn't drive a car afterwards.

 

This thread has devolved into almost everyone posting one of a few types of post:

1. "Here's my Black Friday/BCBS story that has nothing to do with the initial post but hey, I wanna humblebrag about how much I got or groan and complain about how little I got.
2. OP is or is not an idiot
3. Arguing about the definition of "gouging"

And yet, I can't tear myself away. Forge on, BA. I have the day off, a beer in hand, and there's nothing good on TV.

 

I decided to pass on BCBS this year. I'm trying to stop with all the release madness as it causes more stress than the beer is worth to me.

 

Didn't chase bcbs this year, just like I didn't chase it last year, or the year before. I did however walk into my Liqour store around the block to get a pack of cigarillos and happen to find an untouched case of regular. I snagged two for $12 a pop. Not too bad

 

I had a great experience here in RI acquiring Bourbon County stuff this year. Between 2 stores, I ended up with 3 stouts and 2 barleywines ranging in price from $9.99 to $11.99 (RI didn't carry the others). These beers are fantastic - I actually think the barleywine doesn't get enough attention - however I would have walked away if they were more than $13 or so. No way in hell I pay $70+ for Rare (no beer is worth that much IMHO).

To the OP - step away from whale chasing for a while and just enjoy. There are plenty of BA stouts out there sitting on the shelves (I see BA Narwhal everywhere).

 

First and foremost you are absolutely putting words in my mouth. I do not know how you interpreted,

"You can do your homework, get there early, stand in line for hours, and still people like the OP who think it's fine to drag non beer drinking family members out to, "triple their allotment," will indeed lock you out."

As, "YOU to want to just stroll in to whatever random store and buy a limited product more than other people."

In fact I said the opposite. My complaint is not about lines, or research, or getting their early. It's strictly about people bragging about circumventing limits with their non beer drinking extended family members.

Second this idea that bringing mule is playing by the rules is not true. Playing by the rules is purchasing the allotment the store provides, and there you go! Otherwise the store would have no limit! And there are indeed stores that have no limits.

When a store has limits, it's because they want to foster a good relationship with as many people as possible. They want to help out as many of their regulars, or just beer drinkers in general, as possible. It's an attempt to shut as few people out as possible.

How do you not understand that?

Third, it's in fact the person who brings mules that believes they are entitled to more beer than the next guy. Not the person preaching about respecting the rules.

Also thanks for the lessen in building relationships. I'll try that at the store I've been goign to since 1998, and whose manager emails me weekly, and holds my BCBS for me. Oh wait...