Bourbon County 2017

1000+ people ain’t lining up if regular is $25 and variants are $60.

It’ll still sell out. But that many people aren’t dropping $500 a pop.

 

It really is. I made sure to grab a pour of regular at prop day.

It’s crazy how good it is. I wish it was still
In 4-packs

 

Replace my word gouging with premium or whatever you want to replace it with, the meat of my post had nothing to do with that.

 

Exactly my point. We don't insist on pricing Corona or even Founders Breakfast Stout at a point where it sells out immediately everywhere.

 

Agreed. It's time to jack up the price, thin out the heard a bit.

 

So what's the word on Whole Foods beyond that they're releasing Friday- think it will be a shitshow too? Maybe it being a workday will help. I work right by one so I might try. Got a barleywine and unlimited regular at my local which I'm perfectly happy with but if I have a shot at a few other variants without absolute chaos it'd be worth it.

 

Wife was there at 430, still got shut out on reserve. They must have had like 2 cases

I woke up at 830, went to jewel and got 6 reg. go to local grocery store and get 1 reg and 1 bwine. go to local liquor store and get one of everything, call wife she gets one of everything.
Solid day

 

helps to know the beer manager. I had this happen at a local binnys a few years back and as the line queued into the store I walked up to him and explained the situation and they
refused sale to the offenders

Seems like you did the best that you could, you needed other people to stick up for you and join in on the criticism. but you are right there is only so much you can do

 

Care to share? And were they marked up at all?

It's nothing personal, but if not sharing then it just seems like bragging.

 

Anyone know How many casesvariants can be expected tomorrow at beer temple?

 

Does anyone know if the Fulton taproom will have variants on tap still tomorrow? Going to dinner nearby and would love to try coffee and/or northwoods.

 

For those that feel like being constructive, Binny's is actively soliciting comments about your experience and how to improve (within the privacy of their email inbox) [email protected]

 

Was just reading how Reserve apparently made it to many more states than IL/KY. I'm usually pretty defensive of GI and BCBS, but I find it shady to announce it as IL/KY only and then send it elsewhere. Why in the world would they announce that and then do something different?

 

One may ask why bother writing all this, I guess for the historical record so that other people can make an informed decision on this circus if the hype is as big next year. Also, I feel a little compelled to share this as a first time LP experience on Black Friday, and because many people around me who had done this for years seemed pretty shocked by what went down today. So here goes...

TL;DR - I'm a windbag. It's a recap, along with the good, bad, and the ugly.

I was in line at 6:10am. Probably took us about 10 minutes to walk to the end of the line. As soon as we jumped out of our Uber, some friendly folks pointed us in the right direction. On getting there the word was we were in the 900s or so. After an hour or so of sitting the line condensed very rapidly. At a fast pace we went from almost Best Buy up North, down Kingsbury, and up Willow until we stopped for a bit right in front of GI. We waited a while before the line condensed some more and by 7:30am had crossed Marcey and were near the corner of Marcey and Willow right in front of the store. At the rate that we were moving and how hectic the shanty town was, I have no doubt a lot of people jumped in line. More on that below. By 8:30ish we got word that the tickets hit 1000 roughly 200-300 people in front of us, but we had no clue because no one had contact with a Binny's employee until getting an ID checked when coming in to pick up 7 hours later. Only got reg and barley. They had glasses still. But who the f wants to buy a glass after that. I was paid and in an Uber by 1:30pm.

The Good:
- I got to spend 8+ hours with a good friend that I don't get to see that much, who is into craft beer as much as me. It was great. It became pretty obvious that I had a much more viable option and would've been done much sooner (w/ variants) if I stayed in the burbs, but he and I committed to this and I didn't want to ditch him in the city.
- '17 Regular is tasting fantastic. The one I popped is 14.7%. Any other ABVs out there?
- I got a red barleywine box
- I've met some great Ba's in the last year and a half. I think a few of my local ones are going to be able to help me out with completely striking out on variants. Very generous of them and helps round out a long ass day.
- Lots of good people around us. Got to meet a few Ba's. Good stuff. No obvious cutting around us that I saw. @eifster82 I always envision you wearing an assassin outfit. So I probably wouldn't have recognized you. I was just ahead of you in front of an empty storefront a few storefronts up from BB. The line was expanding quickly when we got there. Glad you had a good day all in all.
- Humans are a constant source of entertainment. From the guy selling his clearly underage child's ticket to someone for $100, to a pregnant mule, to abandoned chairs with nachos (so many abandoned chairs), to a perfectly good pair of boots in a plastic grocery bag, to the half bottle of BCBS '16 with a $125 price tag on it sitting in an abandoned chair, to the weather (I have some sun burn which I find hilarious) and best of all - watching luxury cars try to avoid the malfunctioning security gate leaving the Galleria - all priceless.
- The employees once you were in their were working hard. Things weren't moving slow because they were jacking around. The system they had set up just couldn't handle the capacity that was there in an efficient manner.

The Bad:
- The communication was non-existent. I didn't come into contact with a Binny's employee until getting in the building at 1:15pm. They weren't answering questions on their blog either (passed 10:30am), and ultimately have taken the whole Q&A part down. It would've been nice to get some insight while we waited. Do a basic count. Tell people that right around here you probably aren't getting variants and allow us to make an informed decision and save several hours of life.
- Sounds like allocations were not ready to go. Some were when we got in for 5 reg and 3 bw, but not bagged or boxed in any way. One employee complained that it was taking us all so long because we all needed boxes to carry stuff in. Welp, you're selling us 8-14+ bottles of 500ml beer. What was easily 1300-1400 people aren't all showing up with bags to carry it in.

The Ugly:
- People drinking to the point of needing a paramedic. Missed this in person, but when we got dropped off right around 6am there were people looking pretty drinky and passed out everywhere in the shanty town area. Which leads me to my next point...
- Shanty town reminded me of Lower Whacker when they filmed Batman here. I saw at least one person literally having an open campfire, but I'm pretty sure there were more.
- Trash everywhere. Chairs, food, trash, camping gear, boots, gloves, hats, and bottles. The place was a BA bomber graveyard around the entire perimeter. I feel for the employees that have to go deal with that mess after busting their ass all morning.
- Crazy line(s). Pretty certain lots of weird stuff happened somewhere in the middle when it all condensed. They need to get tickets out earlier and try to manage this in some capacity if they are going to continue to go this big with it.
- The line moved incredibly slow. 4 POS on the inside, and occasionally sending people in to the register was pretty shocking to me. And made perfect sense why it was all so slow once I got in there.
- Not checking ID of those you are giving tickets to. Yep. Let that one sink in. And yes, I know this will take time, but they can have employees out working early doing this and giving out actual sequential numbered tickets.
- I almost dropped my allocation while waiting for check out. If you saw that guy. It was me. Nice to meet ya.

I think that's pretty much it. Complete opposite end of the beer experience spectrum - I was in and out of Beer Cellar with my Neckbeard Nectar allocation and did a proxy for a fellow Ba in less than five minutes. It would've literally been 1 minute if the guy in front of me didn't pull out and check all 10 of his allotments he was picking up. Looked like a real fun time, but I lost so much time at LP, I had to just grab and run back to the family. I think next year I'll bounce locally and hit Beer Cellar up at noon assuming I dig the beer. The Blanton/Weller barrel aging sounds very promising this year.

 

Nobody likes a braggart

 

I'm bummed that Reserve is the one I missed. Well Northwoods too, but I'm not bummed about that. I'll have to find a pour somewhere.

 

Not gouging, then taking advantage. Forget Craigslist also, people buying and reselling there are asshats. Not trying to beat you up, just disagree on all levels. Sounds as it was a zoo where perhaps they might have manged it better.

 

Was near the end of the line.

Good news is we got 2017 Prop.

Bad news is that it was in the form of a banana bread sample.

 

Asshats or not, people aren't reselling Bud Light. That's because its price point at retail is close to where supply meets demand.