2016 BCBS Chicago Release (Black Friday & Beyond)

Coffee isn't particularly easy to find, since it's possibly the most popular of the every-year variants. In terms of cases, I don't claim to be an expert (most places won't sell you a case), but you may get lucky at a Jewel (grocery store chain) or Costco. Most beer places/liquor stores won't sell you a case.

 

She will be going on a wild goose chase unless she has side pieces who owns a liquor store who would be willing to hook her up on one of their most lucrative beers. It is totally hit or miss, even for Chicago folk. Your best bet is to have her camp out at Binnys....

 

Lol. Most allocations in the city are a couple of bottles. 2 Regular, 1 Coffee, 1 Barley, 1 prop. It will take a ton of work/mules to put a case together.

 

Only if you want her to be your brother-in-law's ex-girlfriend.

 

I'd go so far as to say that from what I've heard, other parts of the country that get BCS have it better than us in some ways. They might not get Prop, but they usually have an easier time obtaining the stuff they do get (I hear about people purchasing cases of BCS outside of Chicago all the time, but you can't really do it here, unless you find someone who has no idea what they're stocking the shelves with).

 

Lol, how the heck did NYC already get their regular released in stores? I still want to hear the details on that.

 

He meant previous years, I think.

 

Hmm, that's weird. I'm actually surprised that it would even be in NYC yet.

 

Where did you hear this information? Rare is an every 5 year thing I think, 2010, 2015, 2020?

 

I'm unaware that they've even mentioned doing a 3rd run of Rare (it's certainly plausible, of course). The Rare they're talking about is either OG or last year's. It's one of the vintage bottles Binny's mentioned.

 

As far as I'm concerned there will only ever be one true "Rare," which was the first one. I had the second release and it really didn't even compare to the original. Those same barrels were used in King Henry too which was an all timer for me.

 

Rare is an "as they find large quantities of obscure barrels that they deem notable enough to make a special variant out of," kind of release. I wouldn't try to prescribe any sort of set schedule to future releases of Rare.

 

I never had OG fresh, but the two were definitely very different when I tried them. Last year's was somewhat similar to the 22 month Indignant from Haymarket (both very complex thanks to so much time in the barrel), OG when I had it (last year) reminded me of basically an idealized version of BCS (literally a "better" BCS). No idea how it would've been fresh, though.

 

It's last years. I heard there is some left and each Chicago area Binny's would get some to sell. Heard this from my Binnys beer guy last weekend while at the store. He wasn't sure how much he was getting, but heard he was getting some.

 

Rare ('15) was much more of a variant than something truly special. It's kind of like the Templeton Rye version of BCS than the original Rare was.

I don't know, with the price tag of last year's, it really just struck me as marketing more than a truly special release.

 

Hold the phone. I've never done the Black Friday thing, never had any interest in suffering through it or any other shopping scenario that weekend, as I usually just crawl into my bomb shelter and wait until the weekend's over.

Anyway, has the allotment always been this low? I always assumed it was relatively large because I've seen multiple people with full cases of BCBS in the past, and figured at least a case was offered to anyone in line at Binnys on Black Friday... ??

 

I think people go in groups and that's why you see the large amounts.

I agree though, I refuse to wait in line for beer, you're not missing anything.