'16 Bourbon County Lineup

Seen some rare adverts for sure here in SC.

 

Whole Foods in Seattle aren't getting Coffee or Rare this year from what I'm being told, even though they were full up last year. Does anyone have any insight on to why this might be besides the beer buyer's preference? Possibly due to yield?

 

Wow. I've never paid $20 for regular in SE MI. Picked up a bottle of regular today for $10.99 at my local bottle shop. Granted, I had to win a lottery to do so. In any event, the best strategy in the area is to follow the major craft beer stores on Facebook to find release info and to hit local mom and pop liquor stores that don't carry a ton of craft, but do carry GI. You're not going to find variants, but should be able to muster up a bottle or two of regular.

 

My guess is yield plays a part, but gi went strong in the pnw last year hoping to see the market for the other goose beers. A lot of retailers said "thanks for the rare stuff suckers" and didn't follow through on supporting the goose brand. I don't know if that was the scenario for whole foods, but as I understand it, that really dampened the love from gi this year.

 

I have no idea wtf they are thinking. People want cocoa, vanilla, berries, cherry, coffee, coconut, yes pretty much everyone thinks these are good things. Double Barrel would be good, sure. Maple syrup was an okay idea, but skip the other bs.

I do stuff like Abraxas/MC/Huna but I'm not really into peppers without the whole shebang of "mexican" spices. I'd actually be into smoked (malt) BCBS. I don't want 4+ of the things I listed in one extremely hard to get and /or overpriced 16oz.

This year is gonna be the same for me as last year (since I recently my $350 credit for roughly 2 reg +1 BW cases basically all infected). Snag as much regular and BW as I can from harris teeter and wegmans @$8.99. No chasing. 1-2 fingers of coldbrew + regular bcbs tastes exactly the same as coffee.

They really f-ed up a good, really fun thing to do with friends in town after thanksgiving.

::has one Backyard left, saves just to remember the gold ole days::

 

What do you think of Prairie Bomb? Peppers w/o the 'Mexican' spices.

 

"Bomb! is an imperial stout aged on espresso beans, chocolate, vanilla beans, and ancho chile peppers" which is "mexican hot chocolate."

It's pretty good, but should be about 1/2 the price if not 1/4 $/oz. I possibly did not articulate, but cocoa, hot peppers, and maple syrup don't really ring any bells as a nod to any dish or cocktail. Seem's like an "and the kitchen sink" approach, and I'm merely expressing that I like beers with "themes" if you will.

 

Come on now, it's not "mexican hot chocolate" without cinnamon.

 

Excellent question and I have the same curiosity.

Here in Seattle, we had an early bottle release the day before Thanksgiving on November 23rd at a local bottle shop. 2016 early release sales along with the above mentioned allotment of the 2015 BCBS Rare.

Not gonna lie, I was extremely hesitant to purchase the 2015 Rare at this early bottle release. Appeared to be 2-3 cases of the 2015 BCBS Rare and it sold out FAST! Yes, i purchased one at approximately $65. Gawd I hope this decision doesn't come back to haunt me.

Do you really think bottle shops, retailers, and Goose Island would continue to send out 2015 Rare if infected? If so, that is downright shameless!

Also noticed that a lot of places around the country are advertising 2015 bottles will go on sale during the 2016 release sessions. Somewhat confused with this....

 

I am not aware of any Rare infection issues. I had one a few months ago and it was fantastic.

 

Rare was not infected (nor was Regal Rye) so no cause for concern other than spending that much money for a bottle of beer that IMO isn't all that noteworthy.

 

Pretty brutal around Columbia SC. 1 bottle limits of regular only was all I saw. No variants at all. One place had a raffle for a chance to "win" the rights to purchase a growler of Barleywine. Lol.

I haven't been following at all this year, but heard some guy in line saying they lost 40% of their yield or something. Waaaaaa. Steady decline in all things BCBS since AB In-Bev took over. Don't care what anyone else says it's true.

 

@StrongRepublican... HaHa. You're right, I shouldn't have bought the 2015 Rare. Immediately had buyers remorse. The option was to purchase one bottle of 2015 Rare or one bottle of either 2016 BCBS Coffee or Barlywine. Should have went the coffee route.

In fact, the 2016 Barlywine wasn't selling very fast. Wonder why.....

Most places around Seattle are doing a one bottle limit on regular BCBS and giving the option to purchase one varient if available. Will likely result in more people getting creative in order to build up a case of BCBS. Saw plenty of mules and girlfriends/wives (wink wink) purchasing 2016 BCBS the day before Thanksgiving at Chucks Hop Shop in Seattle.

 

My 15 Rare, opened at the beginning of summer, was terrible. Straight cherry juice. Buyer beware.

 

Yes sir. Mom and pops are the way to go. Just scored a 3 bottle per person limit at a no name LQ store. All the big stores are 1-2 and there is a line

 

Sounds like there was a problem with the cap on your bottle or the way it was stored, possibly before you purchased it

 

Not many options around the SE Michigan area. And very few bottles at the places that did receive them at that. The place I went to had regular and barleywine available with a 1 bottle of each limit. Disappointing, but I'm happy I at least got a couple of bottles. The bottle shop I was at also had bottles of Rye BA Old Rasputin out, so I was happy to pick that up in addition!

 

Was barely 6 months old! I reached out to GI and they responded with a corporate company email saying sorry, but that was it. I followed up and received no response.

 

Hit a couple spots in Ann Arbor. Lot of places didn't get it. Found a gas station that was charging $20/ bottle. I left without buying any. Disappointing to say the least.

 

Places out here release it before Black Friday. Got my 2015s a few days before Black Friday and this year I got my regulars before Black Friday. Didn't get my variants until today. The places here all got their shipments almost a week befor Black Friday but were asked to wait until Black Friday to release. Some listen, some don't.