Goose Island Amps Up Bourbon County Brands For Black Friday Release

Anyone know where this will be in Northern New Jersey?

 

Already released and vanilla sold out in one particular north jersey spot. More will follow suit. Vanilla is a bomber too if we hadn't already established that. Multiple ny spots released early last year and wouldn't be surprised if they will do same this time around.

 

I hope that GI follows through on shafting all these places releasing it early. More for those distributors and retailers that follow the rules next year.

 

Hey TREP your distributor happen to send beer to Indian Hills?! Im having trouble locating a close place to pick up the Coffee, would be nice to know if I can snag it there!

 

Unless I'm missing something you're kind of a dick...

 

That's what makes getting just regular BCBS so bizarre. Oh well, maybe they can be convinced to do something for Omaha Beer Week or something.

 

A 20-30% price increase in one year should dampen the frenzy slightly. I know it will mine, although I'll probably still buy my favorite variant if I see some.

Last year one local store had several cases of regular BCS sitting out on the floor well into the new year. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts if offered at a significantly higher pricepoint.

 

And no vanilla rye, coffee, or barleywine in TN at all. Had backyard and coffee last year, though in small amounts. Was really looking forward to vanilla rye and now missing out. Really sux

 

You're very perceptive, Daniel-san.

 

So much for 'national distribution' of Vanilla. Seems like there are multiple states not getting Vanilla.

 

Just found out goose island cut our allocations in Northern CA in half (excluding SF) and only Whole Foods, Safeway's, and BevMo's are getting some. Way to support the craft beer movement goose island.......

 

Ya know, that's the one thing I don't understand. If Vanilla is being completely held back from entire states that otherwise see full GI and Bourbon County distro, why not just say it's limited release--i.e., released in select markets--instead of saying all BC and variants will see national distro except for Chicago-only Prop?

The oddness of it has me hoping Dumb and Dumber style that the reports of no Vanilla in certain states are mistaken. However, it just doesn't seem that way based on everything I'm hearing.

 

Yeah, I wish they would hop on here and clarify things. They could really take a page out of @Sixpoint's book. Last year in MD, we had a shake-up in distributors, which seriously affected the release of BC and variants, which trickled out to stores up until the Super Bowl, when I was a bottle share and we left to pick up a bottle of Bramble at a local store, because a distributor friend said the state had gotten some a few days prior.

It seems like it is shaking out the same way this year. BCBS and BCBW on Black Friday, Coffee following the week after that, and then Vanilla some unknown time after that, if it even makes it out here. MD is pretty notorious for being extremely slow when it comes to new beers. We usually get stuff 2-4+ weeks after the official release. Apparently, some stores have even started selling BCBS and BCBW here, but no price hike yet, thankfully.

So, I will hold out hope until the Super Bowl, or at least until after Black Friday. All I can say is that distribution within MD is a mystery to me.

 

This is what always makes me curious about chain store sales, since MD (for all intents and purposes) doesn't allow them. I've been to states that allow them (which is most of them), but never around a big release. The convenience is nice, but I kind of enjoy the diversity of individual liquor stores. I can't imagine MD with chain store sales, despite various businesses working to get it implemented (i.e. Wegman's). For now, they exploit loopholes: Total Wine (grandfathered with different store names/owners) and Harris Teeter/The Cellars (physically connected, but the liquor license holder is separate). One Wegman's even opened up an 'un-related' liquor store in the same lot as their store.

 

The one thing I'm confused about is the fact that so many people are saying their area's allotment has been scaled back significantly, yet Goose Island produced more BCBS than ever before. That begs the question....where is all the BCBS going?

 

This is a good look for you. And I'm not being sarcastic at all.

 

The price was cut in half last year, so this isn't as bad as it sounds.

 

This is just a FYI from an article I read for those wondering about allocations of certain beers. Goose Island had 3000 barrels used this year for bourbon county, which is up from 2500 last year. The breakdown of barrels by variants goes:

1900 Barrels Regular Bourbon County
600 Barrels Bourbon County Barleywine
230 Barrels Bourbon County Coffee
200 Barrels Bourbon County Vanilla Rye
88 Barrels Bourbon County Proprietors

What baffles me about these allocations is they only increased the amount of barleywine and regular for their additional 500 barrels they got. Coffee is still super limited and Vanilla and Proprietors are the same allocation for barrels. So for those hunting down Bourbon County keep in mind Coffee is almost as hard as finding the Vanilla.

 

It sucks, yea... but dude, it's InBev. They could give two shits about the craft beer movement. It's more like movement of product.

 

I wish it was equal between the three. But I suppose keeping the beer limited increases demand.