So I found out this weekend that I'm visiting my wife's extended family for Thanksgiving this year. What are the chances that I can find some BCBS or even (gasp) BCBCS in the Hudson, NY area?? Any suggestions for good bottle shops? I'd like to bring back some decent east coast goodies to my friends here in Arizona... thanks!
If it's anything like last year, I would say your chances are pretty good. I'm further south than Hudson but my local beer store in Fishkill - which has an ok craft selection but would never be mistaken for a beer mecca - had plenty of both. As others will tell you, Half Time in Poughkeepsie is a great bottle shop, maybe a bit pricey. But that's about an hour from Hudson. Someone will probably have some suggestions for the Albany area.
Try Beer World in Catskill, NY. I went there in July and they had still had maybe 10 cases of BCBS sitting around along with all sorts of other seasonals from various breweries (Including Big John and other GI; no varietals though). It was really quite surreal; like shopping for every seasonal at once. The store itself is baffling as they don't seem to have a rhyme or reason for how they stock their shelves. Just check the bottling dates on anything you want fresh. They had Flower Power in like 9 different spots throughout the store with bottling dates ranging the course of 4-5 months.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the brewery release for BCBS is Black Friday, andd for BCBCS, sometime thereafter. Hence, unless there's anything leftover from last year, you won't be finding any of it in bumcluck upstate NY at Thanksgiving.
You are not wrong, but as I stated, as of July there was an abundance of 2012 BCBS in bumcluck NY and he can probably still find some.
