2016 BCBS Chicago Release (Black Friday & Beyond)

Good experience at Mokena Binny's. Arrived at about 7:15 was able to get the full allotment minus a rare which went a few people ahead of me. Shot over to the Frankfort Jewel and grabbed 4 more regular. Glad this was a quicker hunt this year.

 

Nice hanging with you in line at Binny's. Thanks again for the snifter!!

 

I think I'm the only one who chose '14 BCS for their vintage bottle (after the good stuff was gone, of course). Haven't tried '16 yet, but '14 has been my favorite so far (I've had 12-15, and 16 tonight ). $10 a bottle is pretty solid, if you ask me. Sure, it's more than it would've been 2 years ago, but I still appreciated the pricing at Binny's.

 

Anyone pop anything yet? Going to open a regular tonight with a friend who has never had it and is in from West coast. The '16 Coffee I had on tap this morning was fantastic.

On a related subject having a BCBCS at 7am is a great feeling. On a semi-related note, having a BCBCS at 7am doesnt feel so good a few hours later.

 

Can't complain with my Goose Island grabs this year.

2 Prop and a Rare from prop day.

Went to the Jewel by me at 830, limit of 1. Decided to give Algonquin binnys a shot,got there at 9 and still got 2 regulars and 1 barley wine. Heard Woodmans got stuff and literally there was ten of us that kept circling the line, could have walked out with two cases but was satisfied with 3 more regular and 1 barley wine. I know my plan next year, so many small stores getting stiff next week.

 

From what I've been told by the many people working at Goose over the years; BCBS was originally made in late 95 or early 96. I believe the story goes that Greg Hall knew a guy from Jim Beam and decided to age a high gravity stout (has been dubbed Cook County Stout) in spent Jim Beam barrels. He sold it in pints for $5 back then before realizing what kind of liquid gold he had.

 

Loads of 16' BCBS and 16' BCBBW at Kenwood Liquors in Oak Lawn as of 30 minutes ago. $9.99 for regular, $11.99 for barleywine.

 

Decided to bite the bullit and go to LP this year. Got there around 6am and was 515 (I think) when they handed out tickets. Got the full allotment, Rare, and '13&'14 coffee. Very pleased overall.

 

I hadn't even planned to hunt to day at all. Happened to be up early and decided to try Jewel just for the regular. I had no idea they had variants, so was a nice surprise! Got there just around 6:00 a.m. and there were only 20 or so in line ahead of me.
I was very happy to stumble upon this unexpected beer booty, but Jewel did come close to blowing the whole thing. The Jewel ad and SM posts said everyone would get at least one of each variant, but about 30 minutes before the sale started, someone, I don't know if he's a Goose guy or a Jewel guy or a distributor, started going up the line saying that Goose just called him and said it was going to be 3 regular and choice of 1 variant and that was going to be the case at every Jewel.
Everyone just nodded their heads, but not me! I opened my big east coast/lawyer mouth and said that the ad clearly said that it was a full allotment and that many of the people in this line would have probably gone to Binny's if that wasn't the case. He muttered at me, but I insisted until he finally called "Goose" back (I don't really know who he was talking to), and I heard him say "she has the ad on her phone." He then reversed himself and it was back on to the original one of each plus regular. He announced it to the line and actually said, "you should all thank this lady back here," lol, so yes, everyone at the RF Jewel, you're welcome! I think it would have been really crappy, though, to post an event like that and then change it just before the sale when it might have been too late to go elsewhere.
Another Jewel fail: they had 12 bottles of Rare for sale at $129.00 a piece. That's simply ridiculous and I was actually rabble rousing and encouraging people to NOT fall for it. There was one bottle left when I got my turn, when they asked if I wanted it, I said, "sure, for $65.00." They said they'd sell me half a bottle for that and I said, "yes, let's open it." Didn't work, darn!

Since the Jewel release was so early, I decided to venture to the Binny's nearby and same light line, about 25 people. So, I waited again. Missed chance to buy Rare for $69.00 by two people! Also managed to snag some regular at Costco.

This was BY FAR the easiest, breeziest Black Friday for me ever. I don't know if it's because they had more (though it sounds like many places in the city had less) or that fewer people came out, but I was thrilled to have such an easy time and really thrilled to have avoided overnighting it in the freezing temps! Cheers to all you who braved LP Binny's overnight, would have loved another bottle of 2014 Prop, but not enough to have gotten there last night!

 

Wife and I got in line around 6:30. We slept in a little later than anticipated, but I thought we'd be even farther back. Ended up 593 and 594. Wasn't until I was in line that I realized why. Everyone else was at Jewel. After 7pm the line definitely exploded behind us.

I was pumped we had 2014 Coffee as our vintage choice. The couple behind us got the last Rare. We passed since we still have plenty from last year. Based on how many I saw in the warehouse last week during Prop Day, they're going to have enough for the next 10 years. Seriously, there had to be 10k bottles still on pallets.

People are definitely making this more of an event. I've never seen so many dead soldiers and the increase in tents is remarkable. My wife and I had one of two tents in line when we started doing this just 5 years ago. I'm betting somebody pulls up in an RV next year.

 

Thanks for the heads up. Was 5 minutes from there. Scored 4 regs 4 bw.

 

My only critique is that we went around and got 2 rounds at other spots and took the leap of faith at LP Binny's without a ticket at around 10am. Our estimates put us around 1160. They knew what they had and shafted a number of people waiting in line for 2 hrs and could have counted off and told us we were SOL. We knew we were probably not going to get the full allotment but maybe something. In the end we were just killing time until LO opened.

 

And of course CL is flooded with bottles right now.

 

By the way this new snifter is dope. This high quality Speigelau glass brings wine and beer snobs even closer together.

 

Does it have 2016 on it? The ones they sold us at the Binny's out my way were just generic, same good quality glass with BCBS and logo, but no year.

 

Hopefully yours was swag. Because at $30 where I was, I decided that would bring me closer to a level of beer nerdom than I was willing to accept. You know you're a beer snob if the glass you are drinking from costs way more than the beer that is in it...

 

You know, there's no date. I didn't get one last year so I may have missed the first glass upgrade.