Backwoods Bastard 2015

Exactly - Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

Not trying to add any flame to the fire and honestly skimmed most of what was said in the past few pages, but the product I'm ordering is coming in 4 months old before even being tapped. All Day specifically. Definitely a frustrating thing.

 

Clearly we can't trust these craft brewers to always stick to the letter of their own release schedules. Early release of Backwoods is slightly disconcerting. I had planned to run through the rest of my remaining stash from last year before the new batch came out. No problem though. Now I have an excuse to finish them all off.

Meanwhile. another personal favorite, Lagunitas' Brown Shugga, is not out yet. Supposed to be an Oct. release. But where I am on the Mass. frontier, we're used to getting stuff late.

 

It was $14 all over SE Michigan, your store was gouging you.

 

Was $13 here too (Chicago) last year.

I can't imagine people paying $20 for this beer...considering it sits for months collecting dust.

 

Totally!...I wish they would just stop sending beer to Illinois altogether

 

Just had a 2014 last night! (Wish I had drunk them all last year).

 

Well, I see my question started a shit storm.. I never meant for that.

 

Where in SE? I don't think I saw it for less than $16 in Ann Arbor. And I did see it as high as $20, but only at one place that's always ludicrously overpriced.

 

I bought 4 packs at 4 different places, 20.00 at all of them.

 

just saw a bunch in CT near UConn Campus (Storrs) this weekend.

 

Maybe just don't bitch and moan in general?

 

I can understand some frustration, but this seems over the top with demonizing Founder's because they have their company's best interests in mind.

 

It may be short-sighted, though. The perception, fair or not, is that Founders is more interested in cash than serving their core, beer nerd customer on whom they grew their business in the first place. That's why they're now pumping out huge amounts of All Day instead of giving their core customers what they want - more KBS, more barrel-aged backstage releases, etc. As beer drinking gets ever more local, will these craft breweries that expanded on the backs of IPAs survive as more and more people are finding they have excellent IPAs being made a stone's throw from their houses? And if not, will Founders be sorry that they lost their way as a specialty brewer and focused more on the more profitable end of the business?

I understand why as a business owner you'd want to cash in on trends and grow your business, but the thing about trends is that they end. If you chase dollars without a long term goal in mind, in the end it will be bad for your business.

 

Has anyone else heard about more of Founders' barrel aged stuff becoming more available? I was talking with a guy at Binny's last week about BB, and he said they'd be getting it in a couple weeks and are expecting more of it this year. I hadn't heard of any expansion from Founders, but I'm definitely not in the loop with a lot of that stuff.

 

Hiller's, Meijer, Bev Cellar (might have been $15 there)

 

Wow we have some off base Founders bashing in this thread. For one, the Backstage series is done so that the brewers can experiment and brew styles that they want to do, giving them a chance to brew something other than their "money makers" that probably get boring day after day. They brewed Blushing Monk and CBS as a thank you to their loyal customers, but I guess for some that is not good enough. They need to continue to churn out low profit margin barrel aged beers because some people on BA are butthurt. BTW, they put plenty of Barrel Aged beers on tap at their brewery.

At the end of the day a business is about making money. Like it or not, Founders has found a way to balance money making and creating great craft beer.

 

No sightings in here in NEOhio yet.

 

Ah, I'm never lucky enough to find this stuff at Meijer's. I was referring to "bottle shop" prices I guess.

 

Meijers here in Lansing pretty much kills it with founders. Always on the shelf, and almost always on sale. If I know i want a 4 pack of something, then they have the best price. As soon a FBS was on the shelf it was on sale for 9.99