How much Bourbon County will you buy this fall?

I buy local when I can , I try and use places like Lowes Foods when I can. They are a chain but they use local farmers for their produce. It's not much, but it is what it is, like most I find convince outweighs lots of things, plus lower prices. I'm a realist I suppose.

 

Of regular BCBS, I bought a case this past year. I'll aim for about two this year. The odds of all of this happening again are very, very slim so fingers are crossed!

I always buy as much BCBCS as I can since that is my favorite beer.

 

Too many great brews being made these days to chase down any one beer. If I stumble upon it I will buy it. Last year was 2 bottles and that was good enough for me. Luckily neither bottle had off flavors.

 

Let's see, bought bottles for $8 to $10 bucks, drank the good ones and will "sell" the off-flavor ones back to In-Bev for $15! As many as I can this year!

 

all that "i don't buy inbev" noise aside, good beer is good beer. if I can find it, I'll pick it up.

 

Wasn't impressed when I had 2014 on draught in 2014. Wasn't impressed when I had 2014 and 2015 on draught in 2015. Bought some bottles to give away, but that's the last time.

This beer sucks.

 

As much as I can possibly get my hands on.

 

I have never actually seen any in a shop to buy so I will not buy any. Also if the bottle is tremendously more expensive than other comparable singles I will not buy it.

 

But are beers that have "...developed flavors that are not consistent with [the brewer's] expectation of how these beers should taste..." good beers?

 

Like beauty, it's in the eye (or taste buds) of the beholder!

 

But seriously, I've never purchased this beer because I've never seen it for sale anywhere I shop. At the prices and waiting lines people have mentioned, I'll continue not to seek it out.

 

You've got to hand it to a company that implies that it's own products are a fad, insults it's customers as hipster-snobs, and as a cherry on top, sells contaminated product at a 50% higher price than 2014 - and still will have people lining up for it next fall. It just shows how delicious BCBS really is.
Thankfully, we have a few great BBA stouts in Michigan too. So I'll be fine without it.

 

none like last year. Though I did manage to get 2 bottles as a gift. After the whole black friday release, I don't buy into the hype anymore.

After trying KBS, there is no comparison. Heck there's way too many good imperial stouts out there that aren't BBA that are just as good if not better.

 

Here we go AGAIN!!!!

 

I have a history of getting a case of the base from a shop a half mile from my house. That goes back several years.

The variants tend to be difficult to find around here, and at least in 2015 problematic. Am I above trading for a couple? We'll see.

 

A case used to have 24 bottles. Now they have 12, 85 oz less. Of course, the only time I see a whole case is when the clerk reaches in and gives me my single bottle. At least now I have 4.9 oz more beer than before. What's a variant but a rumor?

 

As much as I can, like the last couple of years. I never can wait around for hours in the cold or take off work to get it, but I've always lucked out in the week or so after, in that the same store has had some.

 

Obviously not. But the chances of such a thing happening again are probably severely diminished; QC is going to be on high alert. Of course, there is the chance that it happens again, but 2 years in a row? I'm not a betting man, but I'll risk it, especially if they're willing to put their money where their mouth is and reimburse people.

 

Not gonna sweat it this year. Multiple shops around here still have regular on the shelves! I will grab 1 probably some time.

 

Well, if you want to be honest, the U.S. isn't a free market economy. Or, a "laissez-faire" economy. Like most countries, we are a mixed economy with some core elements of free market as well as important elements of command economy. So ABInBev's individual actions as a company really have no bearing on whether or not we exist in a free market. And most of the tactics you mention that they use to their benefit are neither "monopolistic" nor are they unique to large brewers.

The primary distinction, as it relates to lobbying, advertising, and even partner incentives, is the amount of money a larger company has to sink into those initiatives. I think it's an important distinction that the kind of incentives and shelf/tap space battles that we often discuss here on BA as harmful to smaller brewers aren't actually against any antitrust laws, but rather, violate specific regulations for the beer industry. Ironically, it is government control--i.e., non "free market" economics that helps to maintain what people are usually referring to when they talk about "free market", which is a generally *fair* market landscape for all players involved.

To the topic at hand...

I can't really say what will happen relative to quantities--but I can say that my purchase behavior won't fundamentally change with regards to BCBS. I will "hunt" the beer within the confines of what my schedule allows. The last two years I've been lucky in that I had some spare time on Black Friday to drive to a couple stores and pick up BCBS. But if I'm not available on Friday, I'll just see what happens.