Did we ruin Bourbon County?

Maybe, Bourbon County ruined itself...



MINDBLOWN.GIF

 

I like your honesty in the first post and the follow-up as well. I have definitely done stupid shit, but that was more when I first started getting into craft beer. My stupid shit was paying too much money for beers online. I'm sure more then a few of you can imagine what websites I am referring to. I so badly wanted to try all these amazing beers I couldn't obtain locally that I got a little carried away. Now I have learned to trade for beers I can't find in my area.

I can totally understand getting caught up in the moment like you did and agree to pay way too much. I think we have all been in a position where we saw something we really wanted and our brains just go into zombie mode. I think that is the case with any hobby. The desire to obtain sometimes blinds us to what is reasonable.

Though its fun to read all these responses I think we all need to keep things in perspective as well. People over paying for beer is definitely not on the list of the world's big problems right now

 

I would have to do a few side by side comparisons but KDS was amazing this year

 

And that's what's crazy as 'craft' beer gets more and more popular. In general those that don't have to work will likely outweigh/out number those that do. Many may call it jealousy ( or the "two years ago, I could walk into a store and get it") crowd. One may need to adapt to advance and move on. Or get lost in the dust. Find that fringe brewery producing great beers and become a fan of them. I don't think anyone has the right to call anyone else stupid or foolish in the scheme of things. Others may be lucky with what their profession is and time allocated off vs. those that have to work or on call. Just because you were a fan since 2004 and drank every release on release day does not entitle you to a bottle in future years, or to call others who jumped in way too late (years wise) with mules any sort of name calling.

At the end of the day, its just beer. Tough reality for those that do invest way too much time. But its time for them to look back on as wasted, or worth it. Beer releases are not static. I have found that I may miss quite a few. Either you become okay with it, or find ways to go out of your way. Being too judgmental on either front is a No go in my book (except that lady who waited in her car mentioned a couple pages back. Asses are around in all facets of life. There is no mistaking that. There is mistaking what one would do for a beer in the realm of waiting/calling/driving etc.. Unless you're an ass about showing off what you have, I am okay with just about anything else.

 

I don't think the actions of a few beer nerds can ruin an awesome beer. $230 for 2 bottles simply justifies why these shops do this, and why this beer generates the hype that it does.

 

Who the hell gets pumped for 230 bucks on two bottles of beer. Jesus christ man.

 

I'm out!

 

It all began with Three Floyd's Brewing and DARK LORD DAY.

I has destroyed Bourbon County, and has started the process of destroying Firestone Walker with Black Friday Parabajava.

But it all began with Dark Lord Day.

 

I'm actually kind of amazed that so many people are being so ridiculously judgmental on a website like this over people who spent the time, effort and money to get their hands on world class beer. I had a perfectly nice Thanksgiving with family, then went at 11pm to line up with a ton of friends and acquaintances from my local beer group and we spent an incredibly fun night sharing amazing beers, talking about amazing beers, and then buying amazing beers (and to be fair, I dozed in my car for a few hours too). The weather was chilly but not frigid, the event was superbly organized by the store and I got a reasonable allotment for essentially MSRP (a bit over due to Indiana taxes, but whatever) - then I went home, napped a few hours and was good to go. I had an absolute blast going that early and have every intention of doing so again next year.

So I guess I just wonder what everyone who stayed home is complaining about? This is my hobby and my friends' hobby, and certainly nobody twisted our arms to go wait in line for 9 hours - it was one of the best bottle shares I've been to in a long time and the company was excellent. For everyone who said their time was valuable, I completely agree - I want to spend it DOING things I enjoy rather than just sleeping! I can sleep when I'm dead, until then, I want to enjoy things like this. If you don't, that's fine by me, but all the self-righteousness is a bit suffocating.

Cheers all, enjoy your beers both Bourbon County and otherwise. Hit me up if you come to Indy next year for the event, I'd be happy to share some brews!

 

Stuff is still floating around SE Michigan. last shop I saw demanded you buy two sixers of 312 Urban Wheat per one bottle of BC.

Not worth the suffering through 312 again.

 

To be fair I think folks are not upset at the folks who wait in line to get their allotments. I think they are disappointed to see the difficulty and expense it becomes to get favorite beers they have been used to be able to get more cheaply and easily.

I think that even you would agree that a person who pays to bring 8 homeless people into line ahead of you to get 9 full allotments is distressing to a degree? Or the person who goes to every store they can and buys every one of them he can buy to put the beer on the grey market? Or is that just someone really enjoying his hobby, goshdarnit, nothing wrong with that? And if that didn't do it, well how about when it goes up another 40% in price, or more, over the next years, or the store you bought your allotment at is forced, due to popularity, to do allotments as on line raffles for specific beers so everyone has a chance, and the lines and the hassles of so many folks can be avoided.

Our situation changes as more people come into it, and frankly I am amazed you are so clueless about what distresses folks. It changes for the worse, and we don't have to like that it does.

 

Your first mistake was going to the Plainfield Binnys. That place is a hell on earth at any release. Skip BBD next time and either seek it out in other nearby locales with much less interest (20 minutes away there were no lines and ample supply) or go downtown and be done with it.

 

For me, I'd rather just pay a "surcharge" if you will and get a couple bottles and be done with it. I bought a couple regular for $15 each at world of beer, and I consider the extra $5-7 paid on each bottle my convenience charge of walking in and out at 2PM. How others care to spend their time and money is up to them..outside of beer, I'm sure we all spend money on shit that will get others to say "why the hell are you doing that?". As long as you're not scamming the system, lying/cheating to get extras, if you want to get up at 1AM and drive around all day, have at it.

 

Good quote! A tad ironic considering the fact that you were chastising someone for supposedly not doing their beer release homework. One might think that implies you yourself are not exactly very laid back.

In all seriousness though, my point is simple, and I believe true. Saying someone got shut out because they didn't do their homework is not necessarily fair or true.

Mules, line cutting, people holding spots in line for their bros who show up later, these things are out of your control and can not always not be mitigated with careful planning/doing your homework.

 

I have lined up early for beer releases, chased rare beers, and been taken in by the hype. I've also had some very similar and some superior beers that are regulars on the shelves at my local beer store. For some people all of the fun is in tasting the rare beers and sharing them with friends, and for many the chase is as much part of it as drinking the beer.

That being said, those that bring mules to hoard as many of these beers for themselves as they can, or use them to trade are ruining it for everyone. The reason that there are bottle limits is so that as many people as possible get to try the beer, not so that people can bring 4-5 of their friends/neighbors/family members to cheat the system. That is where the line is crossed from advocacy to douchbaggery...

 

I'm 39 and I've been drinking craft beer for 15 years now and anybody who's been into craft beer just for the past couple years can see how drastically it has changed. I may catch some wrath for this but this new fad of "hipsters" have completely changed the scene. It's seems to be let me get what I can at any price and hoard as much as possible just to show off and talk about it. This weekend I was sitting at Kane Brewery and we had our normal bunch of drinkers at the table prob the average guy has been drinking over 10 years of craft beer and right next to us these "kids" prob no more than 24 just comparing who has what and how much they have. Big balls contest. I overheard 1 saying he scored 2 cases of bcs and he said he's making soo much money off of them by selling and not trading. I apologize if I sound like I'm stereotyping but I've been around long enough to see the changes at the breweries, on the forums or at bars...I too enjoy chasing the white whale but alot of the fun has been taken away from it I will never be camping out the night before or paying triple.

 

You are a braver man than I am. We got our two beer allotment while I was on COB Speicher in Tikrit. I passed. Sleep was more important to me at the time and I didn't feel like fighting the crowd.

 

It's funny, on BA we have this double think culture where mules are bad and yet the entire foundation of beer trading is picking up extra beers for folks across the country. Beer trading is heavily skewed towards limited releases. You do the math.

 

It is one thing to pick up your allotment of 3 or 4 or 6 beers, drink 1 or 2 and trade the others, it's another to utilize mules, and hoard, and load up on what should have been other peoples chance to try a hard to get beer.

 

Nobody is humblebragging.....you're just being a prick.

Some of us were simply stating that no, in our particular city it hasn't become "too big of a thing."

That's def contributing to the thread and letting others know that if you play it right, there's nothing overwhelming about the experience.

Everything has been pretty positive until you came in slamming people.