BCBS Sightings - Chicago

Interesting - I had thought all the kegs were supposedly fine, but obviously that isn't the case. I was debating whether to order a BW on tap tomorrow night at an event.

 

Cuvée of sourness 2015

 

Yeah, that works better, thanks for tightening it up!

 

As of last night, Hopleaf has regular bottles (I think it was for $40) and Rare for $75 (confirmed since I had one ).

 

WTF. We spend all this time waiting in line so we can get limited bottles, then we drive/hunt all over the area for other bottles, then they turn out to be infected. SMH

 

It's not like GI can control the amount of time and effort you put into attaining their beer, and I highly doubt they intended it to be infected.

 

I view this as one of the hope for the best, but expect the worst, kind of deals. While I'd like Clybourn to remain a great place, as they ownership is consolidated with the mothership, there's really no reason to think their business practices won't be identical to those of the taproom.

 

Sure they can. If they wanted, they could limit the number of outlets at which BCS is available and avoid this truck chasing to every mom and pop store in a 50 mile radius. Probably not a good business move, since BCS allocations drive sales of other InBev products, but they could certainly concentrate the supply.

 

To a certain extent that's true, but it's not only an unfair expectation, but one that wouldn't solve the problem, really. The lines at each place would be worse, and people would still be running from place to place (albeit to fewer places). Getting a bottle of Spiteful's BA Chocolate Caliente was almost impossible, and their distribution footprint was like 3 feet, so it's not just about # of stores (and yes, I realize they also only made like 200 bottles). If GI released only at Binny's, for example, every Binny's would probably look like LP, with people from all around the US camping out during Thanksgiving dinner (which honestly sounds worse to me, not better).

I'm all for that sort of change, but I think the blame for the way rare beer releases are handled falls much more on us, the beer nerds, than on anyone else. No one could charge $150 for a bottle of Rare if we (collectively) didn't buy it, and GI doesn't owe us consideration (in terms of the effort we need to make to grab their beer) when they release their stuff.

 

Binny's LP had tickets available for their gigantic allocation well after other Binny's had opened. The pre-Christmas second wave at Jewel lasted for a good while in comparison (a few days vs. a few hours). This doesn't even get into the Costco allocations, which sold through due to no limits more than limited quantity.

And, yeah, BA Caliente isn't a fair comparison. BCS hits major markets nationwide, so there's plenty to go around. There's also just the Chicago factor; apparently regular is turding it up on NYC shelves right now (check Beer Menus...)

 

I had a whole post written, but my browser crashed on me. I'll just say this: If GI decided to distribute solely in Chicago, yeah, I think it would solve a lot of the issues for us in Chicago, but I think the issues people outside Chicago have getting the stuff, and the lengths they'd have to go to to get it wouldn't change much, if at all. I'm trying not to look at this from a "me, in Chicago" perspective, because I don't think that's fair (just as I wouldn't want Californians to keep me from getting a bottle of Xocoveza Charred or Enjoy By Unfiltered). But as someone who STILL hasn't gotten a bottle of Prop or Rare (the two I really wanted), I'd be more than happy to have GI make that move!

 

Sounds like you saved yourself a ton of money not having the chance to buy a bottle of overpriced disappointment in a (ZOMG!) fancy box.

 

I actually really like Prop (although it's too sweet), and when it comes to Rare...Well, sadly I like to collect stupid shit like wooden boxes, so it would've been right up my alley...

But yes, the expenditure of $60-80 (wouldn't have gone higher, which is why I'm Rareless) definitely makes my wallet happy, and my shame in collecting silly crap a little more bearable!

 

Should've gone to LP Binny's; full allocations to people who arrived *after* hitting up other Binny's.

The Chicago issue I'm talking about is this city's crazy demand, which is not the same as demand elsewhere. (Again, Regular is sitting on NYC shelves right now...) I'm not saying distribute solely in Chicago; I'm saying allocate in such a way that you don't need to chase through half the city. Which is really a really shitty strategy from a business perspective, but decent from a consumer perspective.

 

Yeah, I know, but after the year before (where the weather was brutal), I didn't want to do the whole Black Friday at LP Binny's thing this year. Believe me, I was kicking myself when I later found out they were stacked, but by the time I found out, it would've been too late either way (I slept in that day ). And yeah, I'm very aware of how bad Chicago is for beer releases (I've commented on this before). I just honestly can't believe, given that fact, that GI really has it in their power to make it "easy" for everyone to get their share. I could be wrong, but I would imagine that the less they distribute, the larger and larger the group of travelers from afar that would come into the city. A staggered release would certainly help quite a bit, but at some point that goes from being "a really shitty strategy from a business perspective" to "not even worth considering." But I get what you mean.

Also, pretty sure you were in line at WF right in front of me (when the one on Halsted got it's allocation), so you know the struggle of getting the variants you want!

 

Monk's wasn't too busy at lunch today (no busier than a normal lunch IMO) with Regal Rye on tap. I had one, and it tastes good to me sometimes and other times the fruit is too much.

I'll be at Fatpour later today to check out their tapping.

 

I saw that and almost went over to Monk's myself. And yeah, also agree on the bipolar nature of the fruit in Regal.

 

It was a tough decision between the Regal Rye & High West-ified. If I could've managed a longer lunch (and perhaps a sleepy afternoon!), I would've gotten both.

 

Ah, yeah, that's right... forgot that was you I ended up getting that extra BW later on from a Jewel, so it turned out OK

 

Oh, nice! You looked pretty distraught, especially for missing out on my least favorite (now) variant.