Infected Bourbon County Barleywine 2015

As in a previous comment I hope none of mine are infected, but this is promising to me if I do end up with a couple bad bottles. Thanks for sharing Mandark, and awesome username btw.

 

I have opened multiple BW thus far and all have been world-class IMO. I will pay attention to the dates from this point forward, however, and report back accordingly here.

 

So on the supposition this was caused by cost cutting and sloppy QC(I don't agree), but where's the cost saving to be dumping tons of beer that retail for say $15 a bottle. Seems a foolish trade off on risk vs reward with a flagship BA stout line. IMO it's a shit happens kind of deal nothing more. If it was cost cutting he'd be fired. But staph infections are common in hospitals, they're obviously dangerous and hospitals go to great lengths with their infection control programs to minimize the risk , but still it happens.

 

This one I can contribute too. Did a 2013-2015 vertical on Dec 27th didn't look at the bottle date or time stamp. But the 2015 bbbw showed no sign of infection and was as expected even compared along side two other years. So nothing out of the ordinary from any of my bottles so far.

 

I do love to see the calm, measured responses, made when all evidence is in, that we have grown used to seeing here on B.A.

 

Just cracked one of mine (28OCT15 1523 for those taking notes)

Exactly as expected - a little alcohol heat this fresh, but otherwise all the caramel, bourbon, dried fruits and sherry phenols I have come to expect of BCBBW. I had a vertical planned to compare 2013, 2014 and 2015, but I feel a cold coming on so I might just re-cap the bottle and enjoy this throughout the week.

I will say I think it is a little bit thinner and a touch less sweet than prior years, but I checked the ABV, and this year is about 1% higher than the prior 2 years, so I would expect it to loose some of the unctuousness with the higher alcohol. Frankly it is a good thing - some years it is so sweet out the gate that it needs 12 months in the bottle to settle down.

So far in the past month or so I have drunk 2 bottles of coffee (and had on tap), had Prop, Regal Rye, 3 or 4 regular and now this bottle of barleywine. All of them have been excellent, so whatever is causing the bad experiences for some people is certainly random and patchy... I am not discounting anyone's experiences, just sharing mine.

 

I don't want to argue with a poohbah but comparing Shorts brewery,at that time, a mere rookie at bottling to goose island now, the so called pioneer of barrel aging seems a tad unfair.

 

I don't care who you are, you don't tell your customers they are wrong, then tell them it is our fault for not storing the beer right, and be in denial, before deciding oh well, too bad for you, but you were right. Bad customer service like that is what it is, no matter how big or small you are.

You have been here long enough to see which breweries have done the right thing, and I have been unlucky enough to experience it first hand, twice from Short's with two different beers, and I will never drink a Short's beer again. If ABI doesn't do right for folks I will never drink one of theirs again either.

 

Not to be contrary, but exactly what can ABI do here except do the study and fairly report on their findings? It seems so sparodic there's no way for them to compensate. As I asked before do they withhold cases in house just in case so they can research it? Seems they would have to for batch control to have any meaning. Maybe they can isolate it to date, batch, but anything more than admitting an issue not sure what else they can do.

 

Money back, send checks.

 

Damn straight - even if this is turns into a disaster and half of all the bourbon county eventually goes south my opinion depends entirely on how they choose to handle the situation.

They basically have 2 options to provide good customer service:

• Offer refund (reasonable, but people will still bitch like hell)
  • I would guesstimate that 10% of the refunds they end up giving are to dicks who had a perfectly fine bottle but just wanted $13 back
• Offer to replace bottles
  • I strongly doubt they would have held back anywhere near enough bottles to do this on any wide scale, so would have to be able to identify very specific bottling times and know for sure what the problem was
  • OR they could offer a coupon for a free bottle of next year's batch
  • Either way, I would guess 40-50% of the replacement bottles would be to dicks who just wanted a freebie and the bottle they drank was perfect. I doubt I could underestimate the douchebaggery that would ensue if they offered free replacement bottles...

I do see one pretty big problem for them though which is that any solution they could offer that is genuinely going to solve the problem and replace bottles is going to leave them hugely exposed to douche bags looking to exploit the system and get something free...

Given this, they really don't have any option but to give refunds, and people are going to bitch like hell about how long they stood in line etc... Goose is in a tough spot. Also, people paid way more than recommended retail at some stores, which shouldn't be Goose Islands fault, but they will bitch too...

 

Has anyone contacted GI and received a response?

 

If they can isolate this to batch numbers would they ask the buyer to return the bottle as proof of purchase? Seems reasonable.

 

Mine are batch 1220 and are fine

 

Yup - it would also be reasonable to ask people to return the bottle to the store they bought it at with a receipt for a refund so people got back what they paid, and Goose dealt with refunds with the help of their distributors and retailers... The beer traders would be screwed under this system, but it is perfectly normal for a lot of products. If the milk I buy at the store is off, I return it to the store, I don't call prairie farms and expect them to mail me a check...

 

Source?

 

Seems reasonable. But I'm sure most couldn't produce a receipt, but might would be able produce the bottle. Should be good enough. Bring it to the retailer and then let the distributor handle it from there. At least locally the distributor is the one and only any retailer could facilitate the refund thru the distro guys. Given the price involved, seems like In Bev should support this.

 

If they can isolate it to batch then proof of purchase would be to surrender the bad bottles that are marked. Should make it easier.

 

True, but you underestimate the douchiness of some people... and some stores... There was a place by me that was selling Coffee for $45 a bottle - I am damn sure they aren't going to take your word for it you bought it from them, but at least a dozen people did (or more if they had multiple cases). No idea how Goose is going to handle that - probably not at that level of epic gouge, but I am sure it happens.

 

That would be the ideal certainly - that or just take people's word for it and eat the cost of douchiness.