Goose Island BCS

Probably the big chain beverage barns (Bevmo, TW, etc).

 

I’ll second this. A good strategy is to look for the retailers that move the most GI product, and around these parts that seems to increasingly be the big chains. If allocation amounts are similar to last year, Regular should be on shelves for quite a while.

And if you haven’t yet had the opportunity, please do try the barrel aged offerings from Fremont, Reuben’s, Kulshan, Wander, pFriem, Block 15, Fort George, Pelican and many others.

 

Look anywhere Budweiser is sold.

 

I saw BCS on the shelves at Fred Meyer (the local Kroger affiliate) and Whole Foods around Portland last year.

I vaguely remember there being a few Black Friday BCS events around Portland in recent years, including one at Arch Bridge Taphouse in Oregon City.

I can't give you any details about variants. The last BCS I bought was a glass of Vanilla BCS at Growler Guys when the Craft Brewers Conference was held here in 2015.

But if you aren't in Portland, this info might not be very useful to you.

 

if you are in Portland, i saw 2017 or 2016 regular BCS at West Coast drinkery last night.

otherwise, it will be everywhere on black Friday

 

In Seattle, Bob's Liquor in Lake City usually gets a good amount of variants and swag. You should be able to find the regular for up to a week or two after at various QFC's or Fred Meyers, so no need to bend over backwards for the OG stuff.

 

A lot of the dedicated bottle shops in Seattle (Chucks and Chucks CD, Beer Junction, Bottleworks) refuse to carry InBev product anymore, so we saw a METRIC TON of regular BCBS sit around Safeway, QFC and Fred Meyer for a long long time last year.

 

Is fred Meyer/safest suitable places to look for variants? Had plenty of regular BCBS, but pretty interested in the coffee barley wine. Expect lines at a place like Freddy’s?

 

Thanks for the info--I'll be staying with my wife's family in Beaverton, but I'd be willing to take the trip into Portland proper for a decent shot at some variants. I'll check out Arch Bridge

 

Since you're staying on this side of town, you might keep an eye on ABV Public House over in Hillsboro. They're like a pub/restaurant with a bottle shop wrapped around it, and strike me as the kind of place on the west side that might get some variants. Worth a look. Maybe Orenco Taphouse as well.

 

Cedar Mill Liquor as well, they update their bottle list online pretty regularly.

 

Johns market in SW portland will get a bunch as well.

 

Your concerns are correct for the most part. I shop there every other week or so and I'm familiar with a lot of the employees, and yes, I've had to ask for Fremont BA stuff that they then pulled from the back.

On the other hand, they often put a case of something rarer than Rusty Nail at the register for anyone to purchase a bottle of. And as far as BCBS, last year they had cases stacked up near the register of regular and one of the variants, can't recall which. Probably went fairly quick,

 

I get over there quite a bit. i like the new bar install, and they put cool stuff on tap. 2 min from my house also helps

they do put "special" stuff in the back cooler. i go in there enough to where i usually ask one of the regular employees "got anything cool back there" and they gladly tell me what came in. Because of the volume of customers that come through there, I do think they run through certain releases faster than other places do, and because they move so much product i think a fair amount of the staff is pretty laissez faire about "special" stuff so you will sometimes get vague answers. I remember during the summer they got a bunch of DeGarde bottles and one of the main employees that is always there was like "where the hell did this come from???"

Ive never seen BA Fremont beers on the floor so my guess was that they have some in the back. I didnt even think to ask since those beers are so easy to obtain nowadays.