Bourbon County 2018

Yeah, that's true. It's just that 1) I'm mostly against purchasing bottles in a taproom (I like getting stuff on tap, and I don't like their bottle prices) and 2) I'm usually there hoping to drink stuff I can't get in bottles in the first place (taproom one-offs or BCBS variants). I'm not really criticizing the taproom for their handling of beers, but it's a pain (for me) nonetheless.

 

Yea its nice but its much easier to have that stuff on draft. They have the beer. If they wanted it on draft the could have it on draft. Its tough to justify 100$ for a KH or a VR when a draft pour would be 15$ tops. Obviously those are the biggest hitters but I think their bottle pricing is way out of wack. a 400% mark up for a house made product is ridiculous.

 

Kind of odd that Prop is so straight forward when they're also doing two pastry guys. Based on the past years I would've expected the neapolitan to be prop and then they'd have "chocolate reserve" or something.

Oh well, I'm excited.

 

My issue is I don't want to pay taproom bottle prices, but the BCBS variants bottles have been scarce for me so I would consider them stuff I can't get.

Seriously. If they want to pack Clybourn, don't give out kegs of BCBS variants to bars. Keep rotating them in the brewpub. The GI sites would instantly become the must go to brewpub for any out of town visitors "Yeah, Corridor and FR are great for NEIPAs, HA you get good stuff, but where else are you going to get a BCBS variant on draft?"

 

Just go to FOBAB, you can try them all there and avoid the black Friday silliness

 

My guess is they want to get the Neapolitan out nationally as opposed to the chocolate, so that's why one is the prop and one isn't.

I for one am very excited for neapolitan. I never got to try bramble or vanilla, so those would be fun as well, though I'm guessing those get kegged instead of bottled.

 

I wonder how they made Neopolitan. Wonder if they took some extra Prop 18(aka chocolate) and extra Vanilla, blended them and just added strawberries or if this was the base stout they just added all 3 to.

 

Like the looney birds down South, same way anyone else with a French press would: Nesquik!

 

that's an interesting thought. take some barrels of P18 and some barrels of OG18 and just dump in strawberry puree until it tastes right.

 

I like that they're going more simple too. It seems a lot of locals are pissed about it, as if less adjuncts = less hype = less return on trades/flips

Then don't buy it. They're still charging 1/2 of what the market price is. That's not unfair at all. I've had several friends visiting Chicago in the last few months that want to go right to Goose because it's a hell of a lot easier than paying $200 on secondary or lining up for something flavor of the month bullshit they hope to flip for one.

The price is fine if it keeps some bottles available all the time for visitors. If they charged $30, it would sell out whatever supply they had in a very short time period and they'd never have any around.

Curious, when was the last time you saw King Henry available for a draft pour, outside of a festival or event?

 

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that all the stout variants are based on a single base stout, with the other flavors added after the beer is withdrawn from the barrels and blended (with the exception of something like Rare or Reserve, or the Rye variants, which utilize specific barrels).

 

I do like that Fulton has the bottle options available. Prices can certainly be steep but to @Ferocious point, I've never seen King Henry on draft and I had given up on being able to trade for one for quite some time. But after I was able to order a bottle of it there... man was that a treat! One of the best beers I had and I finally was able to have that long time 'want' checked off the list.

As for draft option, yeah, I'd like that too. I'd like every option I want.

 

AFAIK this has always been the process for coffee and has more recently been the process for everything. BCVS and Cherry Rye were both adjuncted in the barrel IIRC; not sure if either of the first two Props were. At a guess I'd say they've all been adjuncted after barreling since 2015 for sure.

 

The first Prop was adjuncted in heaven, transferred to the barrel right after.

 

an illegal secondary market should not set a price for a brewery to sell their own beer. Would you be ok with Side Project charging $1600 for an onsite bottle of OWK because its half of the secondary? Don't be dense. A brewery charging 4x retail for a beer they brewed is absurd. 50 or 60 bucks sure but 100 is ridiculous. Have I bought them? sure. Doesn't mean I think their pricing model is good. There is literal tons of VR, Prop14, Prop 13, and Backyard in their warehouses. I am not advocating for them to give them away for retail still but there is a better price point for all somewhere in the middle. Its not like the beer is going to continue to get better indefinitely. At some point it needs to get sold.

 

Yeah, this is how I feel about it. Price above MSRP, although annoying, is perfectly fine, partially because bars do it, and partially because these are cellared beers, so they're "special." But too much above MSRP and it feels like I'm being taken advantage of (I don't particularly care, and don't buy the taproom bottles, but the current pricing ensures that I probably won't in the future, either).

 

Seriously, still?!

And, like soon!

 

So true.

The best variants focus on the barrel or one additive.

There’s always an exception to this (Cherry Rye sucked but Regal was excellent), but overall that seems to be the case.

 

What??

Cherry I thoguht was excellent and Regal was meh at best (below average for a variant)

 

As others mentioned, pricing off of secondary feels like it means they really only want their taproom to have those bottles for their wealthiest customers. If they priced them at $30-$50 they would sell quickly each day, but they can continue to only sell X per day. They give as MSRP for a reason and don't want stores to charge secondary prices, maybe they can lead by example.