Bourbon County 2017

*whispers*..... the burbs have always been the place to be.

I love the hype LP gets. Makes it easier everywhere else.

 

Not 2 years ago. Showing up at DG at 4 am didn't pull rare and barely got prop, while people showing up at LP after 9 got everything. I'm convinced every year is a bit different, with this year's wrinkle being different allotments for LP.

 

Ding Ding Ding we have a winner.

When LP does something Big (the original vintage releases, huge allocations this year, almost guarentted rare) the burbs are the place to be. When its a "normal" year LP is the place to go. Have successfully secured a full allotment every year (knock on wood). Moving between LP and the Burbs depending on hype.

 

This logic makes sense, and I live extremely close to Ashland/Wellington Jewel which is what I went with last year since I had to travel later in the day and they opened earlier than binny's lp. It was about as non-drama as you can get and they had a decent allotment (I'd say 5-6 cases of prop?). Got my set for the year and done by 8:30.

Still waiting on the Jewel announcement for this year, but the peace of mind that comes with showing up at Binny's LP at say 6 am and knowing I'm going to be guaranteed an allotment takes a lot of anxiety out of BCBS releases. The fact that I basically get two allotments this year there for the price in waiting time of 1 should trump nearly anything. The wrinkle this year, is that I think people trying the Jewel/Binny's LP double down might get shut out at LP. There are clearly plenty of people greedy enough to pull that move, so I suspect if you get to LP at a normal BCBS hr, say at minimum an hr before open, you should be good. But y'know, Chicago... so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

On second thought, disregard everything I've said.

 

They didn't want to pay all those shipping cost to stick the suburbs with too much of their infected beer that year....

 

Never done DG. Many burb locations are extremely reliable. I’ve never once been let down.

 

The double dip is definitely a tempting plan based on the early reviews of Reserve.

 

As I’ve said previously, Oak Brook was just as bad that year. My buddy was like 25th in line and didn’t get prop or rare. Just coffee.

 

This is from a couple of years ago. Notice the time stamp on the tweet and how many are left.

 

What time does 25th in line translate to? Just curious as I'm on the fence for LP. I'd prefer to stay out of the city, but do want a Prop out of the whole effort for sure...

 

I did the double dip last year, and I highly doubt I'll try it this year. I was at Ashland/Wellington Jewel early, probably around #20 in line. By time I got out of there and drove down to Binny's LP and got in line, it was about 8...and I got ticket #850. No way I'm banking on still being in the first 1,000 based on that timeline. Of course, I'll wait and see what the Jewel release is like before deciding for sure, since that Jewel is much closer to me as well.

 

2 years ago, you could have showed up at LP at 10.30 and still got the full allotment.

Last year, you needed to be in line by around 8.30 or so when they opened.

I think he said 6am or so. However, I’ve also heard last year was better, but I can’t confirm that.

 

Completely agree. But if a Jewel allotment is only 1 of each, I'll be too scared I'll miss out on the quantity at LP.

 

I was there between 4:30-4:45, and thought I was about 25-30th in line. Maybe I was closer, don't remember, but I got everything including '15 rare. A lot of people passed on the rare though, probably being $70 didn't help.

 

Yeah I agree. With the LP allotment what it is this year, it's not worth the risk to me. Comfort in knowing you're guaranteed > greed, in my view.

Just hope the tasting event at clybourn is a reserve bottle at this point given the allotment #s.

 

Additionally, I'm not foolish enough to believe Jewel will have their house in order enough to even state the allotment prior actual Black Friday. It's going to be a crapshoot, given last year the communications were X locations will have all of the variants for sale, similar to say a suburban binnys.

 

And I hope it's not, so those bottles get spread around to other places!

I'd agree normally, but I had really good communication with my Jewel last year with the guy in charge and knew pretty much exactly what they had. If you're a regular shopper there, you've got a couple weeks to find the right person to talk to.

 

Yeah curious about what the bottle at the tasting event will be too

 

Probably Prop like it’s always been. But Reserve would be a nice surprise.

 

2015 Barleywine ....