Refunds for 2015 Regular BCBS and 2015 Prop

My weekend of BCBS "testing" continued last night. I opened a Nov 9 bottle and it was fantastic. I also decided to check my inventory and it turns out I had a whole case of Oct 22 bottles. I still have more Nov bottles than the Oct bottles, but it does suck knowing I've got 10 beers that are most likely bad. I'm gonna keep popping those Oct 22 bottles over the next couple weeks until I get a good one or until they're all gone due to being dumped (most likely the latter).

 

I have purchased a little over a case of the standard BCBS. I have consumed about 4-5 of them. All of them have a bottling date of October 2nd, 2015. All of the bottles I have consumed since November have been spot on. No issues whatsoever.

 

It was $12 a pour here in November/ December. I had two and it's a bit pricey to be sure, I also got ripped a bit I had two on an empty stomach. Glad my wife was in tow, I knew what was in store.

 

I've never had Proprietor's prior to the bottle I consumed tonight, but I'm almost positive it is infected. It was quite tart. Not a drain pour by any means, but I'm extremely disappointed considering what I gave up for it. Stamp is 16SEP15 1606.

 

A local beer bar in my area recently put BCBS on draft to little fan-fare. There was no limit and price was very reasonable as well. It just struck me as odd since it's not usually a beer that pops up on draft in the early summer. I'm wondering if GA has instructed distributors to move access inventory - kegs included.

And if you're wondering, the beer was delicious with absolutely no sign of "off flavors".

 

Didn't GI say more information was coming in some kind of interview? What ever happened with that?

 

The squeaky wheel gets greased guys. I am out a bunch of $ after this fiasco, you bet gi has heard from me multuple times on this issue and the previous two.

 

You might just want to start whining now (that's assuming not whining at all isn't an option for you ), because I can't see any chance of them clearing this up in a week. They seem to have some hard-to-nail-down stuff occurring right now, so I'd venture it'll be awhile for them to do extensive research. I still plan on sending my note to them soon letting them know of my recent sour/tart tasting bottles (I haven't contacted them before since last weekend was my first bad experience), but don't expect anything definitive for a little bit still.

 

Yeah I agree, I'm not holding my breath. I guess where I'm at is wondering what else they need to know in order to decide what to do. In the podcast, they already acknowledged that a bunch of the bottles have "abnormally low pH," which is fancy talk for "they taste like shit." Not sure why it matters what exact strain of bacteria caused it, just make it right. I understand it makes it difficult when there's so much bottle variation, but my patience is running a little low. I think it's pretty clear that they aren't going to be able to nail down a certain batch or anything--it's all over the place, and if I were a betting man, I'd wager it's just a matter of time before they all turn. So they're either going to have to offer to refund/exchange all of them, or tell us tough shit. This "we're looking into it" stuff can only go on so long.

 

Perhaps my patience is a bit more at this point since my clock of having an infected bottle just started this past weekend. But, knowing how long it takes at my company to look into problems (and they aren't scientific/chemical/whatever like GI's are with this problem), I can understand why it would take so long.

Your comment about it being just a matter of time before they all turn...I know that I'd agree with that (although at this point I wouldn't put money on anything, and I really don't know jack about the science of it all). The good bottles I've had have had no issues with them, not the slightest. The bad bottles seem to primarily be from a couple days in October, don't they? I thought it was Oct 21 & 22. I didn't have my first 10/22 bottling until this past weekend, but I'd be curious to know if anyone had a bottle from those bad dates shortly after release and had a good experience with it. That is probably tough to know, as people most likely weren't noting dates & batches of the bottles at that time because they didn't think there were any potential issues.

A few days ago my plan was to start cracking open all the 10/22 bottles so I can get them out of my way (and help solve my inventory problem), but now I'm thinking I should just hold onto the remaining 9 in case they do any sort of refund/exchange.

 

Ok Squeak. what kind of grease have they sent your way?

 

There certainly seems to be a concentration of bad bottles from 10/21, but there have been multiple reports of bad bottles from a variety of dates and locations at this point, so I certainly wouldn't feel "safe" with any of them. I am also holding onto mine to see what happens. I'm fairly certain they are all crap now anyway, so nothing much to gain by opening them. And I did open several 10/21 bottles from November-December that were great, best fresh batch I've had actually. First off flavors were in January/February, and by early April they were undrinkable, so again, my money is on none of them being good in the long run.

And I hear you about the timing thing, and I'm not up in arms about it...yet. But I would feel a lot better if they just said "We know there's a problem, but hang tight and trust us, we'll make it right," instead of "We know there's a problem but don't know what or if we are doing anything about it."

 

Checking in to say the Nov. 4 bottle of basement-cellared BCBS I had earlier this week was the best BCBS I've ever had.
Party. Bonus.

 

After reading this thread, I figured I'd better crack mine open now. Purchased off the room temp shelf two days ago in sunny Southern California, bottled 10/30/15, it is lip-smacking delicious. My first BCBS, and I'm happy it's as good as they say it is.

 

I was very concerned about my 10/22/15 bottles, so i threw them in the fridge. I cracked one last night expecting the worse, and I have to say, it was one of the best i have drank. I still have 3 more from that bottle date and hope they are just as good. I will be drinking these sooner than later.

Cheers

 

I'm curious what the time stamp was on your bottle, if you know it. My bad ones were 0729, 0828 and 0920. Considering my 10/22 bottles were all from Whole Foods in the city with similar timestamps, I have low expectations.

 

Has anyone attempt to return their unopened bottles that they believe are infected? Either to the retailer or by contacting a distributor?

I ask because I saw a comment on Goose Island's instagram where someone was recommending that people just return their unopened bottles like he had.

 

My 05NOV15 0745 bottle is infected. Tart, solventy. I had another bottle about a month ago that wasn't too bad, but this is terrible.

 

Goose Islands most recent statement/comment (posted on their Instagram):

We share info to the public as becomes available. This is where we're at. We've been pretty transparent during this whole thing. Why stop now? And if you've been following along, we made things right for BW and Coffee. Yeah the return policy had an end date but the return policy was very lax. We weren't even requiring receipts! And we allowed people to return empty bottles at the tap room for bottles of BCS. So now we're in this new situation and we've been trying to do right by our fans by releasing as much info as possible. It's easy to think that since we're owned that there is some sinister plot to screw over our loyal fans. Not sure why that's the sentiment. Make no mistake. The team here in Chicago knows that BCS is in demand because of loyal fans who wait all year only wait in line hours to purchase. This isn't a bs pr statement when we say that it is truly humbling for the team here to see that. So please, wait a little longer and we'll have more info for you. Thanks for following.​

 

I've decided not to open any more of my '15 BCBS bottles with the hope I can exchange them for something - credits, tokens or heck, a closet full of ill-fitted Bourbon County t-shirts.