2016 BCBS Chicago Release (Black Friday & Beyond)

Appreciate the conversation and info here. I'm going to be in the Chi area too for Friday. Down by me it's relatively easy to get the full allotment (minus prop), and getting regular won't be a problem when I get home on Fri or Sat. Up there I'm out of my element. I'll likely be in Carol Stream, also a chance it could be Palos/Orland. I'd really like to get a bottle of Prop to share with my downstate friends. Anyone have experience in those areas, what time are people lining up? Am I better off just going to LP? Thanks in advance.

 

There a binny's in bloomingdale and in orland park but I don't know what they'll have.

 

I wish I had that problem over here. This is my favorite beer and would buy every bottle I see to get me through the year. That's why I was planning to come over to chi this year. Wife put the kibosh on that plan due to other things going on. Of course after I bought the BF tasting ticket....

So I keep hearing rumors over here that there is much less going to be put out this year. Anybody else hearing the same? Is it a MI only thing? Maybe part of our distro is going to Ohio since they are now in the BCBS game. Or are they just ignoring the fact that there are only 3 variants this year vs. 5 last year (IE, qty of regular, coffee, and barleywine is about the same)?

 

You could last year.

 

Got any trips to the NYC area planned? It sits on shelves for months there for some reason.

I only managed one bottle in SE Mich last year, but found STACKS of cases - below MSRP! - in NYC on like 12/30.

 

Costco should definitely be getting bottles. Last year they were actually selling reg for a dollar cheaper than Binny's with a four bottle limit. I have friends who work at several locations too who confirmed that they didn't sell out until about noon. A few locations also randomly got a single case of Regal as well.

 

Good luck if you can score multiple bottles of Prop on Black Friday without mules. Most of the other stores I'm aware of will have lines by the time you are done at Binnys or delay their release for a week or two to wait for the out of towners to clear out say they can sell these to their loyal customer base.

Walgreens or Whole Foods can probably hook you up with regular.

 

After all the bitching people have been doing all year about GI (including some pretty tactless comments on IG and Twitter, among other things), I'm going to be pretty pissed if I can't grab at least one of each variant (assuming similar levels of stock to last year in Chicago).

Either way, the upside to there not being a Rare this year is that I'll actually most likely be able to have all variants on tap at some point in the next 12 months, even if Chicago's BCS situation is...Chicago's typical BCS situation.

 

It'll be an interesting test to see how steadfast people are in their "I'll never by BCS again" position. I have a feeling a large percent will let bygones by bygones in a few weeks.

 

Yup, I'd be willing to bet a bunch of them will still be grumbling about how "this is GI's last chance!" while lined up at 5am on a freezing cold Black Friday morning.

That'll show 'em, guys!

 

You forgot to point out a certain free black T-shirt they'll be wearing while in said line too!

 

Check out the barrel-aged Odd Side thread to see how quickly people will give a brewery another chance after spending the better part of a year talking massive amounts of shit about it.

 

So which national brewery do we have in the deadpool for infections this Black Friday?

 

What are the options? These two are supposedly pasteurizing now.

 

I used to be an Odd Side homer. But how they responded after complaints of almost certainly the same infection as GI, I'm happy to avoid them. GI went above and beyond with their apology. Odd Side didn't even acknowledge there could have been something wrong:

"Beer is a perishable food product and its cellaring life is not guaranteed unless otherwise stated on the label. These few issues with BBAIMM have been brought up now, 5 months after packaging. We will not be taking any action regarding this issue. This is a debate over flavor not infection and how flavors change or fade over time."

Looking forward to drinking BCBS this year!

 

Yikes, that's a pretty weak-sauce response, and I'm generally inclined to take a brewery's word at what's up with their beer!

 

If I left a brick of cheese out on the counter for 3 months and then ate a slice and thought it was delicious. Then went and bought another brick of cheese and left it on the counter for 3 months and it tasted awful that's not the cheese maker's fault.

If I went to Odd Side and bought 4 cases of a beer with bacon in it and then left it in the closet for 4 months and it started to taste funny is that Odd Side's fault?

 

Do they seriously put bacon in their breakfast stout or just smoked malt to replicate the flavor? The idea of drinking bacon tea doesn't appeal to me.