Bourbon County Coffee 2015 - Gusher?

In case you missed it ... Goose Island is offering refunds:

"Anyone who would like a refund for 2015 Bourbon County Coffee or 2015 Bourbon County Barleywine, please contact us at 1-800-Goose-Me."
http://www.gooseisland.com/blog.html?id=post_11

To our loyal fans,

Each year you stand in long lines in the cold to get your hands on Bourbon County Stout and the special variants. This is beer that we hope is shared on special occasions, or maybe even makes the occasion special. Beer that we truly hope helps strengthen bonds and makes lasting memories.

I want you to know that the entire team at Goose Island puts our heart and soul into making Bourbon County, and we understand and appreciate your high expectations for them. It is always our intention to put forth the best beer we can craft. When we don’t meet those expectations we take it personally, and we want to make it right.

It has come to our attention that since bottling the 2015 Bourbon County Coffee and Bourbon County Barleywine, they have developed flavors that are not consistent with our expectation of how these beers should taste. That’s not to say the beer doesn’t taste good, in fact some drinkers may enjoy it very much. However, it doesn’t meet our standards for the taste profile of these beers.

All of our beer goes through a very thorough quality oversight process including sensory and microbiology programs. This by no means is a guarantee of success especially with barrel aged beers. Both of these beers have drifted out of their target character thus leading us to provide refunds for anyone who is unsatisfied with them. Anyone who would like a refund for 2015 Bourbon County Coffee or 2015 Bourbon County Barleywine, please contact us at 1-800-Goose-Me.

In spite of the risks inherent with barrel aging, our quest to grow these beers and our barrel aging program will persevere. I hope you continue to join us in this adventure.

Very Truly,
Jared Jankoski

 

But who is worse us complaining here or you complaining about people complaining?

 

I just called and asked about the time frame, as I was planning to age my barleywine. They said if the beers fail to meet my expectations a year or two down the road, I can call in for a refund.

 

Thanks for all the feedback over the past few days about our 2015 Bourbon County Stout Coffee and Barleywine release. Please take a moment to read our response to the situation on our blog http://www.gooseisland.com/blog?id=post_11

 

If you have to ask...

 

Yep... infected... bottle gone... I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with as well...

 

I am pretty sure that anyone that calls and said they had a bad bottle experience with either Coffee or BW will be getting a refund, whether you have the bottle or receipt or not. They are trying to make this right and protect their brand - I foresee this being a process that is low stress and easy on the customer...call the hotline, get a refund.

 

I can't imagine they are going to be issuing refunds to people who just claim that they had a bad bottle. Especially since it sounds like they are going to be extremely open to people who do have bottles (see @pagriley's post).

It certainly stinks for those who had a bad bottle and tossed them already, but I think at a certain level you have to assume that someone who got a shitty bottle would/should have contacted them about it. Of course, the deep pockets of their parent company has been discussed on this thread already--they may be willing to eat the money they lose from the cheaters in the interest of not screwing over any valid complaints. At this point, calling the number is probably a better option than speculation.

I disagree. Call the number. If you fell victim to an infected bottle or dozen, they will take care of you. Broadcasting every single detail in their blog post just makes scamming them easier.

 

I don't know, this seems like a stretch. That would be open to so much abuse.

 

This is true. They're doing everything in their power to make things right. I reported my two infected coffee's on Wednesday. Called about my unopened BW today and was offered a full refund for all three bottles. Only provided the batch time for the two coffees, she didn't ask me anything about the BW other than where I bought it. Checks take about 4-6 weeks to arrive.

 

Infected bottles happen. I didn't even consider doing anything about it, so I didn't keep the bottle. If I run across more infection, I will definitely follow up.

 

Is Target Character Drift a euphemism for infected? I kid

 

I work for a huge corporation and see the examples of refunds to people for ridiculous stuff. Lots of times we do nothing wrong, but in order to save face, we give the customer refunds or something along those lines. I'm pretty sure GI and their parent company know that if they turn people down just for not having saved their bottle or receipt, they will get ripped apart. After all, they are getting ripped on some already for seemingly doing the right thing.

 

Full refund of any Barleywine or Coffee.

See details here:

 

I called and they asked me to send copy of my receipts or a pic of the credit card transaction from my statement and they will reimburse me for the entire purchase. I must admit, that is some great customer service. They provided me with a reference number to e-mail over with the pics.

 

Very true - you're probably right. I'm probably going to crack one of my BWs tonight and see how it is. If it's awful I'll call.

 

It's great if you kept the receipts... haha... I did not.

 

Who keeps a receipt from a beer purchase in November? The CC statement is odd since it will only show a purchase amount from a store. But at least GI is offering refunds.

 

Apparently not a problem. Scroll back up to the first post on this page for a report by someone who already called.

 

Glad to see they are handling this the way they are. I was somewhat butt hurt that I was out of town when this was released in Texas (variants didn't get approval on time), now not so sad.