'16 Bourbon County Lineup

i just bought 2 bottles from Westside Market near Webster Hall in NYC
They had a bunch of 2016 bottles... i was shocked to find them

 

2016???

 

Hey it's me, your brother...

 

2016 indeed
$12.99 a bottle

tempted to go back for more but have already exhausted my beer $ allotment for this year

 

I tried a 10/22 that I thought was fine. Unfortunately only 2 of my 10 bottles are from that date. The 11/4 & 11/5 bottles were disgusting. They claim the need a window to concentrate on 2016. My personal opinion is someone from AB was consulted to do a cost benefit. There are many other fine beer companies out there. Someone else will get the share I usually chase down.

 

Hello cousin... do you want to go bowling Niko?

 

Thanks for the tip, yup its 2016! Grabbed a bottle for the weekend.

 

BCBS was a game changer for me the first time I tried it several years ago. I hold it as the pinnacle for all BA stouts to be measured against - right or wrong, just my opinion.

With that said, with the infection issue last year, and early comments about the 16' flavor being off, or 'berry' like as posted ealier, these guys at GI better get it right this year. If they manage to eFf this up 2 years in a row, this will be some serious brand damage done that they might not recover from. They know this, so I cant imagine there will be 'off' flavors this year, but the flash pasteurization thing kind of scares me as Ive seen conflicting information on whether or not the beer will develop in the bottle with aging under this method ... Im clearly not an expert in this subject matter so I'll have to rely on these taste buds in the coming months/yrs.

I should say that my friend had a 16' BCBS within the last week and said it tasted great like previous years.

I myself have been doing doomsday prepping and loading up on 13-14' regular and coffee via trades as I fear these may be last great years of what I affectionately refer to as 'The County'. I hope I'm wrong ...

Cheers BA's!!!

 

You guys and your '16s have me in absolute awe... you have no idea how hard it is to get this beer in SE Michigan. Long Black Friday lines with 1 or 2 bottle limits if any at all, with prices from $11 - $25 a bottle. I can't imagine just finding this sitting on the shelf!

 

Im sipping on the bottle I just bought and I have to say its very nice. As good as last years if not better. There are some berry flavors going on but its very subtle. I was pretty pissed off at Goose, I missed the refund date thus losing about $120 in infected coffee and barleywine bottles last year, but getting a bottle 2 weeks early is not something I am going to pass up when I'm in walking distance from the shop.

 

Its crazy, there are still shops here in new york that have cases. I'd say trade for it.

 

Alright, officially call me more confused that usual. How are people finding 2016 already? I know sometimes shops release BCBS early (and then get spanked by GI), but I'm surprised that they even have it in their possession already. What am I missing here?

 

Me too man, @DLD29 said a local grocery had bottles out, so I went over to check it out. I was shocked to see them out so early, I heard about places in brooklyn putting them out early last year but never THIS early. This place had bottles of 2015 up until recently so maybe they didnt check the label?

 

Just the regular?

 

Yeah there were maybe 4-5 bottles left on the shelf as of 3:30PM.

 

im not one to load up but this place had no idea what they were doing
i easily could have purchased every bottle if i wanted to

ended up with 2.

 

There is nothing wrong with berry flavors in an imperial stout!!!!! Please stop pretending that it is some precursor to infection. Those beers were JUST bottled... think about that... the numerous panel tastings and sensory analysis involved, as well as laboratory duties... Having a sweet, dark berry flavor in a beer like that just shows complexity, whereas most BBA stouts nowadays cannot seem to come close.


Also, 12.99 MSRP this year? So a 30% increase in profit. Guess that's how they're covering their losses from last year?

 

Much like electronics, shoes, and blu ray releases, is there a concrete "street" date. or Has black friday always sort of been a made up hype event?

Some places just want to sell what they have and move on to the next beer release. For better or worse, I dont see how this can be enforced

 

Did the really increase it to $12.99? That's fucked. I thought it was the shops markup.

If it were a variant maybe, but regular bcbs will be everywhere soon.

Someone said above how goose island reprimand shops in they city who release early which is a total joke. There's this one grocery store here in Brooklyn that releases it early every year then lies to their customers. They have insane markups and are all around terrible in their deceptive practices. Last year goose island decided to have one of their migration week events there. I know I'm s hypocrite for supporting these people by buying their beer but they truely only care about money.

 

Interesting. They should thank most of these shops for selling enough GI products year round to even garner a BCBS/variety collection for sale. I don't know a single soul that buys their product by choice. The only time I saw a big time buy was around 4th of July when they did a buy 2, get 1 free sixer promo (I think that included Shocktop and Stella).. That and the occasional strong armed tap push to be the only "craft" "IPA" in a particular venue. God forbid the winner of 3 straight Brewing News National IPA challenge can't be on taps at some places. The parity is ridiculous. The last three winners have been from NM breweries. Yet they can't get into some venues?

They feel we should be the ones thanking them. But if they cant get this right this year with off flavors, they need to be the ones thanking us