Passing up hard to find beer

Nothing worse than seeing a beer you would have liked after the fact. Or seeing a beer "on deck" (to be tapped next) that you want badly, but the place is out of town beyond a reasonable drive.

 

I'm an old man with a bad prostate. If the length of the line is longer than the time allowed by my prostate, I find a shorter line. The real skill is finding the hard to find beer before it is hard to find.

 

Yeah, Just last week I spent 5-10 minutes scanning the vast beer menu (at a popular local alehouse franchise), only to accidentaly choose from the "on deck" page (doh!). Then naturally I choose a beer from the correct page, and it was no longer available. Waitress was frustrated with me and I was getting frustrated as well. For the record, I have well over a 50% failure rate on my beer of choice from a menu not being available despite establishments having a 20+ beer taplist showing the beers available. Yet another reason I prefer to drink at home over out in public. No beer nerd likes to be teased with the prospect of a quality brew of choice and then have the rug pulled out from under them.

 

Recently drove across the state to visit a brewery since they had three beers I really wanted to try. Usually, they only have one or two at a time, so it was a great opportunity for me. I walked in and saw a group drinking a bottle of what I wanted, so I asked for one of those, and was told "that's the last one". I damn near walked out and just drove the four hours back home.

Fortunately, my story ends well, as someone on the forum here had ordered one to split, but dang was it close.

I don't understand why the waitress could get upset with you for picking a beer that has been kicked...? Isn't it their job to maintain an accurate list of what's available? Unless they had marked it as 'out of stock' or something.

 

I had a similar thing happen. Went to Goose Island for a special holiday stout tapping. Got there somewhat early and the bartender tells me he just poured the last one. I proceed to sigh. Then I asked if there was even a quarter pour. He pulls the handle and the glass foams up with head. After 3 minutes of waiting I damn near had a full glass. The beer was amazing too. I believe it was a BA marshmallow stout.

 

Sometimes those foamy last half pours are the best, knowing that at least you got some. Usually they come free too (in my experience)

 

You'll get the Cassian. It's readily available at least in MN and WI, and if not, they'll almost assuredly do it again next year. I prefer their BA Scotch Ale, BA Quad, and the regular BA Stout, but CW does a nice job with pretty much all of their barrel program. If you ever get a chance to get to WI and the brewery, you'll likely find some weird stuff on tap, too. The one time I was there I had a tequila barrel aged imperial stout with coffee and cocoa, and their Rift IPA aged in orange Curacao barrels.

 

If I ever make it that way I'll surely hit them up. Sounds like some very interesting in house beers for sure. Not a terribly far trip from michigan either

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

^^^^
That right there.

Not being disrespectful to you or Three Floyds: Zombie Dust is decent, you can trade to get it but beware of "opportunistic traders". I'm a musician also (weekend warrior kinda thing), you made the right decision, passion and friendships last a lifetime - seize the moment! (Beers come and go and that one especially, won't be going away anytime soon.)