Bourbon County 2017

I really like triple barrel, but I think it’s super easy to decipher between the 2. Benthic is so coconut forward and sticky sweet, while Baptist is much more restrained.

They’re both awesome, but pretty different.

 

You may be right. It’s interesting what you said though because TBB was more coconut forward than in my expectations. God, I love stout season.

 

Triple barrel has a rum barrel component, no? That rules me out. I really love Big Bad Baptista but not really to the level of Benthic or Prop 17. Obviously completely different stouts.

 

Saw about 8 cases of regular out on the floor at Whole Foods on Roosevelt in the South Loop yesterday. Amazing how much of it there is this year.

 

The Reg usually lasts into the new year, especially at places like jewel. I know I’ve been able to find it fairly easily in the past, even when it was in 4-packs.

As of 5 min ago, Jewel at State/Grand has about 8 cases, and probably more, as on Friday they only had 4 left. I’m guessing they have more and just keep re-stocking as need be.

9.99. No limit.

 

They need to send some a little farther north. Its a bourbon county desert around here

 

Indeed, the regular is always plentiful, especially after the 2nd drop that usually hits in mid-December.

Binny's LP still had cases upon cases of Regular on Saturday, as well as a handful of Barleywine cases. I believe it said limit 5 per person. There could be more in the back as well.

 

If you’re willing to come a little south of the border, I can tell you a few places. PM me if you’d like

 

I would hope that A, Goose makes more margin on the variants and B, they start to realize that and channel more of the regular supply into variants...

 

My house. I can trade up to a case of reg for some variants.

 

And how fucking good it is too. Seen a few naysayers trying to pick apart various things about the quality, etc of BCBS over the past couple years, but they are conveniently silent, at least in this thread.

 

The Whole Foods in Evanston is selling BCBS regular by the case

 

They nailed this batch of regular, it's delicious.

 

People get so worked up over variants, I guess it is human nature to want something that is in short supply or considered special, but the regular, especially aged regular is as good or better than the variants. Recently I have had some of the older regular and it was divine.

 

Agreed. Reading that reminds me of a comment the head brewer of Jackie O's made recently about the demand for increasingly wild and crazy flavors.

"All adjunct stouts from us have increased the usage of said adjunct this year. Some we even doubled. As the larger beer audience continues to demand beer that doesn’t taste like beer but more like something we may have enjoyed as a child, we have slowly brought our levels up. People still find “no coffee, no vanilla, no maple, ...” in our barrel aged stouts. Tact, balance, and subtleties/nuance has been lost in the new wave of aficionados and enthusiasts."

 

I am certainly guilty of this, which is crazy considering how much I love regular. It's the most consistent/best beer I have that is made year in and year out. I think part of the reason for the variant craze is that when GI nails them, they really nail them.

 

Or maybe it's mankind's need for adventure and exploration? If we were happy with the everyday mundane we wouldn't have BCBS variants let alone "discovered" North America....

 

Personally, I enjoy adjunct stouts a good bit because they are different rather than something that reminds of what I had in childhood. Non adjunct stouts can be quite good too but so many of them taste very similar to one another these days. It really takes a very good one to differentiate itself from the pack. BCBS regular is a very good example of one that differentiates itself from the pack which is why I like it every year. And I like that sometimes they have a variant that's BCBS aged longer (Rare) or in a different barrel (Reserve).

 

I personally generally prefer variants to regular, but I'll also say that one of my absolute favorite stouts these guys do is the inevitable "extra-aged" version of the base stout (Rare, VSOD, etc). So it might be more accurate to say that I like an extra-aged version of the base most, then certain variants, then the base.