How accessible is Bourbon County in your area?

Won't find it in Ohio either . . . Over the 12% abv cap

 

Somewhat accessible for regular, the only variant we get is BW. A few stores will get 1 case of each(reg and bw), a few restaurants will have reg on tap around the release. Some friends and I picked local grocery store chain clean of 4pks, but it's a real struggle to chase. Most places limit to 1 or 2 bottles

 

The store I go to is not generally known as a high end bottle shop, but it has a good selection. In 2013 I saw cases of the Stout. In 2014 I saw a comparatively small amount of both the stout and barleywine. It was gone very quickly this year while it hung around for months last time around. I'm at the very edge of the southern Boston suburbs.

 

Oh its here all right, for about a day. Is it worth a year of supporting average beer? Probably not, most of the bcbs buyers aren't even gonna blink at other GI products and help you move them.

 

Over the past few years I've been able to get my case of the base stout, it helps to know two store owners. Last December I walked past stacks of cases of the base in Peoria, once at Super Liquors and once at UFS.
It is too early in the AM to get me started on the scarcity of the variants in my area.

 

bcbs can be found on the shelf year round in Mass, not at every store and not by the case. But you can find it if you go looking. Coffee is gone the second it gets released, my main store didn't even get any and only got 2 cases of bcbs this year. No BW or Coffee, or Vanilla. I've heard stories about people finding Vanilla in the oddest places. I don't hunt for beer any more. I do, however, enjoy theoretical discussions about it.
BW can be found randomly too, not quite as available as BCBS though.

 

Not accessible enough. Single bottles, sometimes crazy lines, etc, etc...

 

Hard to get even in Chicago. You pretty much have to comitt to camping over night if you want whole four packs and all of the variants in my experience. Although I also only know of one store that allows you to buy a "full set"

 

Man, I'd hate to be the person who buys GI year rounds all year thinking it will pay off only to be hosed come Black Friday.

 

Not at all. When it hits it's gone pretty damn fast, limited purchased obviously I got 10 bottles last year, traded for a bunch.

 

Grabbed two 4 packs of the regular with minimal effort. The variants were very limited though & VR didn't even come to VA.

 

Ridiculous in metro Philly. Was able to get 1 bottle at two different places of BCBS and that's it. Also found 1 bottle of BCBBW. Excellent stuff but not worth the chase anymore. At least Founders offers a well-organized, ticketed release so people have a chance to obtain KBS. Bourbon County is just "hunt at your own peril"...

 

This times 10

 

I know that it was a clusterfuck getting BCBS in this past year, even in Chicago. I know some smaller mom and pop shops that were threatening to stop carrying GI beer based on how ridiculous distribution was. The amount of beer carried/sold in order to carry Bourbon County is pretty high, but the allocation itself was really low for most places.

As a huge BCBS fan I can only hope that the expanded warehouse they have will fix a lot of these issues, but the A-B/InBev sales model probably won't change that much, unfortunately.

 

I used to be able to grab it off the shelf. Now it's a pain in the ass to get, must wait in line deal. This as much as anything has me buying less Goose Island. Add the AB/INBEV piece & I'm no boycotting them, but rarely buy anything from them any more. Plenty of other brewers actually getting the products I want on the shelf...

 

Regular is fairly easy to get in Chicago.

From what I gather it seems like expanded distribution is what spread the supply pretty thin last year.

 

Inaccessible

 

If you got some in Ohio, someone was selling it illegally because it is all above the 12% cap. Would be curious to know how a store would get it in the first place.

 

I have never seen any here in Ithaca.

 

Not very accessible. I only got 4 cases myself last year.