2014 Bourbon County Brands release - Chicagoland

I don't understand your bitterness. I've shopped there regularly for years. They've held limited releases in the back for me and other regulars for years. Smaller shops often take care of their regulars to maintain good relationships rather than selling those beers to people that only come in a couple times a year trying to get the limited stuff. Seems like a smart business move to me.

 

A true beer advocate.

 

Dear god no, you couldn't pay me enough to be a beer buyer, I prefer not to be paid and treated like shit at the same time.

Not really bitter, and it would seem to be a good business move. However, I wouldn't really like people dictating to me what beer they are entitled to. And I think criticizing a liquor store because they wouldn't accommodate said entitlement shows poor class.

 

I know we have been mad at just about everyone, shifting blame from the brewery to the distributor to the buyers etc, but now I'd like to give a big fuck you to the delivery drivers. This is not an isolated incident, as I witnessed it personally on 2 occasions the week following Black Friday, and been told directly from other store owners the same thing. Delivery drivers dropping off BCBS variants are telling the owners "Hey just so you know, you can sell this stuff at $50 or $60 a bottle easy. It sells for $100 on Craigslist. "

Several shitty shops that were expecting it in and were going to charge reasonable prices are then charging $40+ a bottle because of the drivers. My local store told me it was going to be $30 and he would let me buy a few bottles. He gets it in, I hear the story, now he won't sell for less than $40 and I can only have 1 even though no one else has stopped in asking for it (hes a very small out of the way store). He had never even heard of the damn beer before before I asked him to order some. When I send a friend over to ask for it he says "what is this stuff and why do people pay so much for it?" basing the price entirely off the delivery driver. It seems like the manager of every single smaller store that got them in says the drivers said the same to them.

I don't know if the driver's think they're helping the stores or purposely fucking over customers (maybe because of truck chasers stopping them all the time?) but its pretty damn shitty.

 

Time to move on. I guess it's special but really ?

 

I dont normally say things like this, but as someone that has dealt with many drivers from many distributors over my 5+ years of buying, please do us all a favor and kindly shut up. These guys put in long, brutal shifts and are unequivocally the unsung heroes of the industry, and i simply cannot abide your terribly disrespectful post.

If you're still trying to buy a bunch of beer from what you patronizingly refer to as "shitty shops" weeks after you've clearly already bought some, then i'd hazard a guess and say it's not the drivers that are the problem here.

 

pedantry ahoy, but they're actually 765ml bottles.

on a side note, does anyone know why goose uses a completely different, weird bottle size than the rest of the entire beer/wine/spirits industry? maybe @Vav has some kind of insight?

 

Quick google search revealed this:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...765ml-matilda-sophie.47491/page-2#post-606883

 

I refer to any shop that over charges their customers by over 100% as shitty. There is simply no justification to treating your customers in such a way. It is shitty. They are shitty. Defending them is shitty.

While you are quick to defend the drivers, who I definitely agree have a hard job and are probably paid far too little, you aren't actually commenting on their actions in this situation. Why are they doing this? I really want to know if they think they're helping out the shops, purposely trying to fuck over the beer buyers, or some combination of both. There is no reason to drop off a beer that costs the shops $25ish and tell them they should sell at double the cost (or to just keep it and sell it on Craigslist...really wtf) just because they can, even though its way above MSRP. Underpaid and hardworking is no excuse to act like a complete asshole.

 

They could have been joking/sarcastic, remarking on the craziness of the situation swirling around these beers these days. Even if they had been serious, it was the owners' decisions to actually charge more than elsewhere, regardless of how they came across their information. Maybe the drivers were looking out for their owner friends by trying to maximize their profits (sorry they weren't thinking about your feelings, by the way, consumer, but they don't know you, so...), but it's still up to the owners to decide what to do. God forbid they (the owners) take advantage of the fact that Chicago-area beer nerds are goddamn stupid concerning how much they'll shell out for certain beers...

 

Sad thing is owners are probably laughing while reading this thread. Only.thing.we can do as consumers are leave all of them on the shelf and contact GI.

 

Remember when people were complaining about the price hike at Binnys?! Oh how things can change in a 23 page thread...

 

You guys I found 4 packs on shelves for $27 today you guys.

 

Just landed in town for the holiday. Can anyone recommend a spot in Chicago that may have any Prop or Vanilla for even just price gauging on site bar consumption only? I'll be in the city on Saturday. Appreciate it! Merry Xmas!

 

Honestly, good luck, man. I live in the city and its been tough. One Walgreens got Prop in yesterday and was sold out within 10 minutes. Your best bet is to follow Prop on beermenus.com, and charge when you see it come in to a place. People have had luck with numerous places throughout this thread, but who knows who will get it now. Good luck, and Merry Christmas! Maybe I'll run into you on the chase.

 

Anywhere I could easily score regular BCBS or BCBBW in Chicago next weekend? Is it still lingering? Will be there the 2nd through the 4th of Jan. Any chance on varients?

 

Almost no chance on the variants unless you get lucky walking into some small liquor store that has it behind the counter for a huge markup. As for reg and BW, honestly haven't seen or heard of much hitting anywhere with any consistency. So likely same odds with those. Best bet would be an IP trade while you're in town if you've got some goodies.

 

Even when someone posts a tip online of a spot that has variants, the place sells out within minutes to an hour. It's insane.