Pre-aged bottles at the store

Maybe since its a Whole Foods but if its a smaller/independent I would say they just cant get through their inventory quickly.....or at all.

 

Yes. It's not uncommon to hear about stores here in Chicago pulling out great beers from the cellar to sell for special occasions. (Castle Vav most notably on black friday, also did it for the 121212 vertical epic release from what I saw, West Lakeview Liquors did it as well for Zwanze day)

 

Wow that is cheap! I've not seen this, but at some of the bottle shops I frequent once in a while they will put a beer on the shelf that was cellared (but not the quantity you're talking about). Were they just in the regular walk in beer fridge that they have? If so that is too cold for cellaring beer, it should be stored at roughly 54 degrees to be able to mature. I'm pretty sure that fridge is around 40 degrees. Plus it's flooded with light all day long. Would be cool if they were actually doing it right. Did you ask them how they were going about it?

 

Wow, great prices!

 

whole foods injects hormones into their beers before aging, don't be surprised if you grow tits.

 

Yeah Archer Liquors in Chicago does it sometimes as well. It's pretty cool.

 

There's a few places in the twin cities that occasionally bring out stuff from their cellars. It's usually only the big guns that do and it's always interesting when they do.

 

Bine & Vine (previously South Bay Drugs) in San Diego does that sometimes. They do it right.

 

Man I still know a place that has 15th anniversary I wonder if I can get it for 6 bucks?

Those two 2008 RIS are a great buy. I had one last year and it was beyond amazing

 

There's a couple places near me that will do that. They'll take a couple cases of age-able breed once in a while and stash them in the back of the basement. I don't know the exact conditions down there, but I know the beer manager and trust him to tray it right. They'll pull bottles out for tastings revert so often and put some out for sale occasionally.

 

This can be a little hit or miss. I know of stores that carefully set aside particular beers with the intention of selling them aged. I also know of stores that over-stock beers they can't sell and consequently end up with "aged" beer. You can end up with some great stuff, but buyer beware. The quantity of dust on the bottles is usually a pretty good give indication of whether the beers were intentionally aged or have just been sitting on the shelf for a year.

 

It wasn't intentional on the store's part, but I picked up a couple 4-packs of 2010 Brooklyn Monster and an '09 Great Divide Yeti off the shelf. All were fantastic.