Bourbon County 2017

Yeah Monkish is pretty unique in that the production runs are so small, the market is so hot, and it functions as high level trade bait. If you are trading a 4 pack or are bringing it to a beer share, I guess you don’t really care what it costs.

 

Yes, they seem to be an outlier in terms of price and hype, but all it takes is one like that to then potentially spread. At this point I see $20 so much and these styles selling out so quickly that it seems inevitable that we will see something in the $25 range as well.

 

Who is Monkish's local competition? If FR started doing that pricing we'd all just go buy from Corridor and vice a versa.

 

I walked to Smog City from Monkish when I was there in October - they're definitely not known for their canned NEIPAs, though, so not quite sure if it's "direct" competition or not.

 

Monkish is south of LA near where the Chargers are playing. So traffic makes it a destination trip from LA. But, the sheer population in the area is much bigger than Chicago so they draw from that. Also, Monkish 4 packs are scarce enough that they are the most sought after hoppy beers including Treehouse. Not to belabor the point, but they are equipped to get away with that pricing in ways that few others are.

 

Beer is a luxury good that does well in a good economy. Remember that bourbon county sat on the shelves collecting dust at $20-24 4/pack during the last financial crisis. This was a time before long lines and special releases blanket nearly the entire country every year.

We haven't yet witnessed how a major market crash and the bad economy to follow would change the availability and sales of all these special and limited beers. Most of us will certainly get to see it happen in our lifetime.

 

On a happier note, I really enjoyed the Brasserie Noir. If that was a Black Friday release, I suspect it would have been very popular. Tart cherries and chocolate.

 

While I wasn't blown away, I was pleasantly surprised with this one; it was a better "fruit" stout than Northwoods, although I believe no fruit was added to Brasserie Noir.

More of a raspberry flavor than cherry to my stunted palate, but certainly enjoyable.

 

That makes me wish New Glarus would throw some of their lambics into Bourbon Barrels and then give them to GI for 3rd use with BCBS.....

 

BCBS and BCBBW ($11.97, $14.97 respectively) at Binny’s St. Charles if anyone is looking for any. 3-4 cases of each on the floor no limit.

 

Has anyone heard of Bourbon County Cherry that is not Cherry Rye? In one of the facebook groups some guy is looking for Bourbon County Cherry that was auctioned off last night at Raise a Glass for Reggie. He said it was a bottles of Cherry (non rye), Violet Hour Manhattan Bourbon County and some rare Off Color bottles.

 

Not a bottled version, but I'm sure they've done kegs of it. Manhattan for sure was just a keg-only version, I've had it at a few fests before. So maybe they bottled some for special occasions? Seems odd though.

 

Yeah I've had Violet Hour before but he claims they were bottles for employees. Just never heard of this and couldn't find any info about these being auctioned off yesterday. This was his response when I asked if he was essentially looking for a 1 of 1 bottle:

"employees bottled a few back in the day. One raffled tonight along with a Violet Hour BCS and some rare off color bottles for a total of $375, or perhaps an implied $100-150 a bottle. I have already traded in the past for an employee bottled VHBCBS, trading an Elmer T Lee and a plus, for example"

 

Edit: went back to originally post and looks like the guy who won them also saw his post: Here's a (tiny) pic of the bottles

 

I haven't heard of it, but there is an entry for it on here and it predates Cherry Rye by a year and a half. Clybourn used to make all kinds of fruited BCBSs.

Also, how much did these ancient beers sell for?

 

$375 for the Cherry BCS+Violet Hour BCS and some Off Color stuff

 

There were a bunch of BCS variants before the InBev buyout that were one offs at Clybourn or beer fests. Every once in a while the employees bottled a couple for themselves, but they never hit retail, or even labeling.

 

Yeah, I've had Cherry BCS out of a bottle before. An employee brought one to a share I was at in 2011. Pic taken with my potato smartphone back then.

 

B.

Although this year after seeing the lines at binnys we ended up staying home. I have picked up 2 Northwoods, 2 Coffee, 2 Barley, and a few reg. Was disappointed for about an hour. For the record I liked everything this year but Im glad between the GF and I we dont have 2 full LP allotments.