Stumbling Upon Hidden Treasures

I walked into one of my favorite shops to find 3 bottles of Sump a few months back. I bought two and the buddy with me bought the third. It was a good day!

 

You never know what you'll find at the small shops. The shop that's been providing me with all 5 bourbon county bottles from last year all year long still has 2012 Madame Rose sitting on the shelf under a layer of dust. Support you local mom and pop shops! 2 months ago he went in back, handed me a prop and said have a nice day no charge!! Needless to say I bring him bottles every time I go in.

 

Walked into a local place in Providence and came across Eclipse, just sitting there on the shelf.

 

How do you think I got to try Heady Topper, it wasn't because I drove to VT and waited in line.

 

I love these stories, there is another long running thread on this but too lazy to look for it.

 

Speaking of Ecilpse, got a buddy who runs a shop with a treasure trove of 2012 Eclipse that no one ever touches!!

 

Walked into the local small town grocery store and saw 2 bottles of Yorkshire Stingo on the clearance rack for $4/each. I grabbed both and have tried one so far. It's the oldest beer I've ever drank and it was very good. I've seen it for $12/each at other stores.

 

That's often caused by the prices they want for that beer, no?

 

Old BCBS where the AB-InBev distributors should never have delivered it anyway (cashiers asked, "What beer could be worth $20 for a four-pack?"); Golden Blend because it never sells at $22-26/375ml; Savant Blanc at $23 again because it's too rich for most people's blood; lots of pre-aged goodies like two-year old Expedition and Third Coast Old Ale at places that don't move $16 sixers; BA Alesmiths because they're anything but a household name in Wisconsin and the price scares away most people; three-to-five year-old World Wide Stout, Olde School Barleywine, and Raison D'Extra that a local liquor store used to break out around GTMW time; a full and current selection of TG pales/IPAs with no limit because it isn't in a beer-geek heavy town; no-limit Backwoods Bastard, BCBS, and Saison DuPont Cuvée Dry-Hopped at Whole Foods since they don't really move big ticket items like that but do have people that know beer running the store; I could go on, but it mainly centers around beer that's too expensive for the typical clientele.

 

This past August 31, I went to the town beer distributor to pick up a few bags of ice for my son's birthday party. As I walk upo to the counter to pay, I see this Goose Island display just beneath the taps, and smack in the middle of the bottles of Pere Jacques, 312 and Matilda is a four-pack of KBS. So I got a birthday present, too!

And the funny thing is that my wife actually gave me grief over going there instead of the grocery store to get the ice. "You're just going there to look for beer, aren't you?"

Yes. Yes, I was.

 

Very true but he's even dropped the price to $20 a bottle and they still don't sell

 

I bought a couple 2012 Eclipse a few months ago that were marked down 33% on the discount rack.

 

I really haven't had much luck in that regard. I found a 2012 Juliet once at a small local place, and last year a dumpy liquor store had a case of BCS sitting in the cooler..this was the type of place, better or worse, where the customers want a 30 pack of MGD for $15 and not four bottles of beer for $22.

I heard of a store in Darien or Westmont that had Eclipse for $15ish...apparently the store owner thought the cases he/she were buying had 24 bottles rather than 12, so they were marked half off. I heard a few people cleaned the place out.

 

I picked up a 2010 Old Guardian just last week at a small shop in Lexington, KY.

 

Walked into a store in Boston in June that had cases of BCBS just sitting out. Maybe that's common in Boston, but that is not common in Baltimore. The hole-in-the-wall across the street from me got a case of Terrapin Imperial Pumpkin Porter which no one bought except me because all their other customers buy BMC.

 

I go into my local store almost every day. Randomly the other night next to the standard hoppin frogs was one bottle of 2013 bourbon barrel aged Boris. Wasn't there the night before. Snagged it and drank it.

Another one had a few boxes of 2013 DDBA over the summer. Man I wish I bought more than one.

You never know what you'll find.

 

Social media has crushed my hopes of stumbling across anything

 

I'll be in Southern IL on Monday.

 

Unfortunately the shop is in northern Illinois