2015 Michigan BCBS & Black Friday Thread

No info for this year, but if I remember right, Champanes did their release on a day after Black Friday last year. And then it was just for one bottle of BCBS for something like $5.99 and there were 90 some bottles available. They sent out an email with the announcement. Would guess this year would be similar.

 

Yeah, save for the price, that's pretty typical. I think I paid ~$7-8 bottle, and every place I found had a one bottle limit except for one place that did a lottery for...wait for it...two bottles.

As for variants, I've still never seen anything but regular or BW in a non-lottery situation, and even then I've never actually scored anything but the Regular in 3 years of looking.

Of course, this is all based on the old system where Reg/BW were in 12oz bottles. The move to 16oz could exacerbate these problems.

So, with all this in mind, I doubt we'll be an "official" anything, and your best bet might be to have some friends back in Illinois pick up what they can for you, and just relax on Black Friday rather than driving around for hours to get 3 bottles of Reg for ~$40.

 

All the variants (other than prop) were around here last year, though the Vanilla didn't come out until maybe a month later due to a label issue, from what I understand. Obviously, they're a lot harder to get but they are out there, and I'd expect Rare to be here in some very small quantities, but probably *that* will be in a lottery situation.

 

@Holiday1072 Any info?

 

Yeah, it's a huge bummer. BCBS might be my single favorite beer, and it seems like it's scarcer here than almost anywhere else in the country, and I'm not really clear on why, given that Michigan practically borders Chicago.

 

Because Michigan doesn't sell enough Honkers Ale

 

Personally, I'm done trying to score a few $10 bottles of regular BCBS in the Detroit area. The only places that don't gouge sell single bottles, maybe 2. This year I'm going to Odd Side for the Hipster Brunch release to pay a very fair price for an outstanding beer. And maybe trade a few for some BCBS.

 

The reality is that we have so much amazing beer in Michigan that we don't buy Goose Island beers very often. People fall in to the Bud/Miller/Coors crowd or the drink local craft crowd in Michigan & if you grew up in MI then your first craft beer was likely Bells or Founders. The Michigan Brewers Guild does a great job of highlighting MI beer all around the state so even new craft beers drinkers are going to drink MI craft vs out of state craft

 

Try Philly...just as scarce there last year. Not chasing this again like I did last year....

 

I was in Kansas City last year and had the best Bourbon County haul I've ever had--two 4-packs of regular, a 4-pack of BW and (*gasp*) a bottle of VR about a month later (with much thanks to the beer guy at my old bottle shop for thinking of me and holding one of his 6 bottles!).

Given what I'd heard about BCBS release in Michigan, I was worried about going from riches to rags, so to speak, but it looks like I'm going to be back in the KC area for Thanksgiving and the following week, which will be nice because I know more or less what to expect and shouldn't have trouble getting some. It will be interesting to see how things change with the use of the 500 ml bottles this year. As long as I can get a few bottles of regular and BW, I will be a happy camper. Hell, one of each would honestly be good enough.

 

What are you basing this on? A few people on a forum saying that they personally didn't find very much in years past?

 

It's less about the quantity of the great beer (although there is a ton when you consider Oddside & Shorts are MI only & pump out a new beer every couple of weeks) but more about the pride that people take in drinking MI beer. Oberon is completely meh to beer geeks but SO many Michiganders can tell you how it was their gateway beer into craft. CA has tons of amazing beer but the overall percentage of the population in CA that drinks craft (specifically local craft) vs the percentage of Michiganders drinking local craft is, in my guesstimation, much much lower...I have zero quantifiable data to back this up. GI has told retailers that the amount of year round GI beer sold does have an impact on the quantity of BCBS that shows up so that backs up the theory

 

I will throw my name on a BCBS list or two but I won't chase after it on Black Friday. Oddside, Founders and Dark Horse will host events between Black Friday and March 2016 to sell their barrel aged stouts. And I thought the latest Black Note bullshit was that it would be released this winter. There are too many excellent brewers bottling too many excellent barrel aged stouts in Michigan that I won't waste my Black Friday running store to store to pick up one bottle at a time - for an inflated price.

 

I wish that I had some insight on BCBS but last year I went to LP Binny's & the year before that I scored 2 bottles all year