Bourbon County Help

Trip to Chicago?

 

It is tough over in Chicago for sure, especially since you won't have any go-to stores where people know you. You can always go super early to the bigger stores, and be guaranteed at least a couple of the variants.

 

You can also do your best at getting some sought after local brews and do some trading...

 

What type of trades were you looking at? People hold on to vanillas and props like they are gold, but there are people willing to trade for quality brews they can't get in the Chicago area.

 

That seems like a solid trade. BCBS and BW are the easier ones to get in my opinion/experience. You could probably get 2-4 coffees for a darkness depending on who you ask (or who sees it).

 

The trick to all this is supporting one store and buying lots of shit from them. I was able to score three 4packs, because I am a great customer. Stores don't like people who knit pick (only come in to buy the hard to find stuff)....stores that sell a lot of craft, but also a lot of Bud products are mostly likely going to be the stores that get the most...

Or you can spend 50 a 4pack on *....

 

Do like the guys in the pics do, go out with friends to truck chase and then put all of the haul together in one pic.

 

Ok you could buy a bunch of Central Waters instead for less money and still have an amazing beer that ages very gracefully. I hope you enjoy BCBS more than I did this year. The only variant I liked was the barley wine. I bought a ton of each and just traded it all.

 

I'm not a huge fan of lining up for beer releases (partially because it reinforces the precedent that all hard-to-get beer should be lined up for), but realistically, coming in to Chicago for Black Friday is one of the best ways to go. It's not a coincidence that a lot of the people at the front of the line at LP Binny's this year were out-of-towners.

If that's not your cup of tea (I can't see myself camping out at a Binny's on Thanksgiving, and I really like Binny's, and BCBS), as others have mentioned, get as much trade bait as you can. Darkness is my favorite non-BA stout (the BA one this year didn't blow me away quite as much), so I'd of course say that's a good start, but anything you can get that's hot (trendy, not containing high concentrations of alcohol/pepper) is going to go a long way.

The tough thing if you're looking for variants like '15 Prop and a Vanilla Rye equivalent is that they get overvalued. While I'd rank '13 and '14 Prop as possibly my 2 favorite BA stouts (take with a grain of salt; I still have many to try), it seems like a lot of people don't trade based on what they value, but on what the "hype value" of a beer is, which makes your task tougher. If you've got lots to trade, cool, but otherwise it might make more sense for you to make a trip down here; you not only get a much better shot at grabbing bottles of the variants you don't get in MN, but you also can float on over to GI Clybourn and drink BCBS and its variants all day (this year you could also drink Cthulhu, which is at least on par with most BCBS, I'd say).

 

Stop viewing the 'hauls' **** and your compulsion for 'a huge haul' will subside!

 

Honestly (and I say this slightly tongue in cheek, but only slightly), find a few local bigger stores which get a descent amount and start chatting up the beer managers there. Figure out which ones are willing to be bribed (bribed with beer seems to work great) and get them to put some aside for you...

This year I met people who were in really organized groups with mules, I met a truck chaser who was friends with the delivery driver (they picked up 4 packs of coffee at a ton of stores he was telling me) and people camped out overnight. If you want to compete with that you will probably have to fight dirty...

Or, get some coconut flakes, toast them up in a non-stick pan and use a french press to make your own version of Prop out of almost any nice barrel aged stout (I use CW BB Stout, but any will do).

 

As others have said your best bet is to seriously start buying lots of beer from a local store. I know when i worked at a liquor store in college that we had 6-7 beer guys who got stuff put on hold for them with out even asking because they were such good customer. It is really the same method to get any sort of rare (insert item x). Support the business who has what you want throughout the year not just when big items are hitting ie pappy, BCBS, black note ect.

 

@pagriley I have heard about people toasting coconut flakes or french pressing coffee, but not a lot of specifics. Can you provide more? I have a ton of CW BB Stout (made the trip up there for 17) and would love to try changing up the CW BB Stout.

 

^ This is very true. The "Latest Haul" thread is the equivalent of teen girls buying Cosmo with the models plastered on all the pages, who then start to wonder why they don't look like that. Come to think of it, it is likely only a matter of time until people start photo shopping in extra bottles like some North Korean propaganda photo shoot. There are a ton of amazing beers out there, and while I love BCBS variants sometimes it is better to focus on the drink in your hand than worrying about the ones that haven't even been made yet. Cheers!

 

Sure. The way I do it is:

1. 1 ounce of unsweetened coconut flakes (just plain dried flaked coconut without added sugar)
2. toast in non-stick pan over medium heat until edges of the flakes turn golden brown
3. put coconut into little single serve french press and quickly pour over half a bottle of stout
- note you have to do this quickly - the heat from the toasted coconut helps the oils release
4. Put remaining half of stout in fridge (you want it nice and cold)
5. Leave french press on counter (stirring occasionally) for 20-30 minutes
6. After 20-30 minutes press the coconut firmly in french press to squeeze out the goodness (oils etc...)
7. Pour into glass, then pour the refrigerated half in pretty hard (to mix and get a good head)
8. Enjoy porntastic coconut awesomeness.

It takes a few gos to get it the way you like - I practiced a few times with just a regular nice imp. stout (I used bells expedition) to figure out how much coconut to use and how long to leave it sitting. The above works perfectly for me, but I really like coconut, you might like it with less time steeping.

 

Awesome, thank you so much!!!