BCBS Pittsburgh

Bah, no Bourbon County glass? The tulip is cool but on second thought I will keep my $40 and save myself the trip.

 

Well, once other bars/shops joined the "let's sell beers that arent distributed here for a huge markup while losing track of old inventory" game (that arent in meth-filled neighborhoods with creepy regulars) Ho1kB really won't be able to compete much longer.

 

We have the Stout, Coffee Stout, and Barleywine and will be selling it Feb 15th & 16th during our big beer and Barleywine weekend until they are gone on a first come first serve basis. Hope this helps all you Bourbon County Fans

 

What are the prices? And how much do you have available?

 

$10 per bottle 1 bottle per person and we are unsure how many cases because we are expecting more in but have one of each at this moment.

 

What time on saturday feb 15th does the big beer and barleywine weekend start? also, are you guys having some other specialty beers on draft or in bottles for this weekend? Just wondering about the details for this because I am planning on coming up.

 

Pretty much anything but this (minus the BCBS on draft!).

You make your price and limit, and put it on the floor. Email blast, twitter, FB, even text customers you like. Hold for one day for you best customers. Sell the product and everyone goes home, w/ or w/o the beer, but no one gets asshurt and blows up BA.

I really can't imagine that administering a lottery is really the most efficient thing to be working on in a (busy) bottle shop or bar. Maybe they can cut the dead weight on labor and not need to charge so much!

 

Whether the GI beers on tap are "mediocre" or not is subjective (at that point, they will have Ten Hills Pale, The Illinois DIPA, & BCBS), but just to be clear, they are not "mystery" packs - it's not like people are going to fork over $40 without knowing ahead of time what they're getting.

I've shared some of the feedback voiced here with those in charge at Ho1KB. They took them into consideration, but are still sticking with the plan outlined above - they feel that the price & method of distribution are fair given the demand. Whether you agree is entirely at your discretion, obviously. Like KJ2013 said: if you're down, show up; if not, don't. If, at the end of the day, the owners are left with a bunch of Bourbon County bottles, they'll know it's time to reevaluate.

 

So stock it, promote it, sell it. I'll have to ask if they thought of that.

Kidding aside, I think they want to create more of an "event" around it. People know when & how the stuff is going to be made available, they can plan accordingly, there's no mad rush to get there only to find out it's gone (which, in my experience, also creates plenty of asshurtness); everyone who shows up agrees to the rules, & who leaves with beer is determined (mostly) by the luck of the draw. In the meantime, people hang out, drink beer, socialize, rather than the "bag-it-&-breeze" approach. They've done this in the past with high profile releases (KBS last year, for instance), I think it made sense to them to do it the BC stuff. Probably not the most efficient way to do things, but I think they're okay with that.

I'm finding myself explaining/defending, which I didn't want to do, so I'll try to keep the reins on that...

 

Then don't. Do they pay you to defend them on here or are you just a loyal customer?

As for our focus group here on BA (https://twitter.com/ho1kb/status/426392787542495234), here is my bottom line. This is a thread of how to get BCBS in Pittsburgh. House of $1000 is selling some for a lot of money. Get it there if you wish, I'm going to pass for sure. I literally sent money to someone in a different city, had them buy me some BCBBW, pack it, and send it for cheaper than what the house is charging. So before I waste my time drinking beers for a CHANCE to buy BCBS overpriced, I'd advise to trade or buy from a different market. If you are new to trading, send me a BM and I can give you some pointers. There is a TON of BCBS out there and it's going relatively cheap. You could probably get a 4 pack for 8 fresh head hunters or so.

 

Well, since you asked, I have worked with/for them (along with being a loyal customer), but I'm not on BA for the purpose of representing or defending them. I happen to have a different perspective based on my experience as an associate & a friend of the store, & I occasionally try to offer a little context when I think it's warranted.

 

Good advice on the trading. I was able to get a 4-pack of BCBBW & 2 coffee for a Gratitude & a couple of nice extras to even out the $.

 

Jesus Christ this thread.

I get that 40 for three bottles and a glass is expensive. Fuck, sharp edge was charging 13 a bottle. Bermuda 10. Beer Nutz had both variants last week for 8.99 a bottle (and BCBS on draft for 17 days).

If ho1kb just tweeted a date and time there'd be fuckers camping out and a mad dash in the morning to get the bottles. It's these people that ruin releases by forming lines 12 hours before open.

Craft has become such an entitlement based shit show. By all means, have someone goandpickitupformebro. Good luck getting coffee.

 

Putting the Lottery method aside, I am still confused on why it has to be sold for $40........

 

This is why we can't have nice things

 

They are usually overrated IMO

 

At first the thought of $40 for 3 variants and a GI tulip glass sounded outrageous to me considering you could spend around the same amount to trade for 4 bottles. Plus I'm not a fan of "buy this beer you may or may not want for a chance to buy the beer you really want." Some might call it gimmicky, others might call it creative, but I fall somewhere in between.

Now knowing that other retailers in western PA were selling singles for $9 - $13 this doesn't seem too bad if you think of HO1K selling each variant for $11 - $15 (rough estimate) depending on how much a GI tulip glass costs, if you really want the GI tulip glass, how many of the draft beers you purchase, and if you really want to purchase those draft beers. This is still on the higher end compared to other western PA retailers which means you know you're paying even more than you should but in my opinion it isn't out of line for western PA (more on that later).

If you like the idea of this type of release then go. If you don't like the idea of this type of release then don't go. You can voice your opinion online all you want but the strongest voice is your wallet. This particular release isn't for me but I'm not entirely against it because it's so different that it might actually work. I'd rather see a lower cost per bottle, 1 bottle limit per person per variant, 1st come 1st serve, with no announcement so there isn't a major shit-show (kind of like Bell's General Store releases) but there's no such thing as a perfect release when demand is so high and supply is so low.

What I'm looking forward to is a future where PA won't be subject to alcohol laws causing western PA beer bars to act like bottleshops (typically good beer on tap/atmosphere/food with crappy beer to go prices), bottleshops to act like beer bars (typically better beer to go prices but still higher than average, hit or miss beer on tap/atmosphere with crap food), select grocery stores giving us the "convenience" of purchasing 6-packs/singles with our groceries, and beer distributors thinking they're untouchable. Obviously that last run-on sentence is an over generalization of the western PA retail beer scene but if you think about the places you frequent it probably isn't too far off unless you grew up in western PA and are used to this system or are a transplant who has become ok with it over time. Until some changes from the top down take place western PA will continue to be a crappy place to buy beer and bottles of BCBS/KBS/Similar Beers will continue to be sold and purchased for > $10/bottle. Just my $.02

 

Well said. I agree that our system out here is, for the most part, terrible. What I have a hard time grasping -and I am not a business owner- is the outrageous mark up on beer. There are some shops out there that could care less about craft beer and care even less about how many people get to try a certain beer, so they will sell a $15 bottle of KBS or BCBS.

HO1K, at least I assumed, was not one of these shops. The people who work there seem to genuinely love craft beer, and try and get a lot of great bottles for their customers. Having said that, I still do not see the necessity to mark up a beer so high. Doing so, at least to me, seems like a F**K You/slap to the face.

I wonder when all of this will stop? Will the same deal be $50 next year and then $60 the following year (maybe more $9 cans of Heady too)? Just because you can charge that much does not mean you should (again, I can see shops that do not give a shit doing this). The sad thing is that people will buy the beer for this amount, because they may not have any other way of attaining it and they are sort of backed into a corner. And what's worse is that bottle shops know this and take advantage.

 

I'm sorry, but you make it sound like we're talking about insulin or generators here. If someone feels like they're forced into forking over $40 on three beers & a glass because their life presents no other alternative, they need to take a serious look in the mirror. I'm not saying that I think that pricetag is reasonable (& never did), but maybe part of the responsibility lies with beer consumers to keep their fetishizing in check.

 

Back to the real point of this thread. I saw 4 bottles at McStealy's behind the counter for I believe $15 a pop.