BCBS Sightings - Chicago

Amen. There is so much jerky behavior infecting the beer world these days that it just really bums me out. And in this event, the poster bemoaned that it seemed really hard to find the beer while simultaneously indicating he used a mule to double his allotment, and there was no indication that he was connecting the dots between these two separate statements. Sheesh.

 

Don't hate the player and all that... I can't fault a guy for getting 2 bottles of BCBCS when there are stores charging $45 a bottle, and people collecting multiple cases for trade. Having your buddy grab one is the least of it.

The way the Chicago beer scene is these days your options to get a bottle of the highly sought after releases are:

1. Quit your job and become the beer buyer at one of the larger Binnys stores
2. Dedicate your entire life to standing in lines, running all over town and crossing your fingers you get lucky.
3. Cheat

Agreed - but that is like hating the sunrise. It is still happening tomorrow like it or not. Sucks, but reality often does

 

Stockpile 2015 BCBCS?

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

 

Yeah, the hoarders get their own comeuppance eventually.
Must be tough going trying to flip half a case of BCBCS right now

 

I don't want anyone to buy infected beer, but I will admit I've been unable to resist a bit of schadenfreude with this whole infected BCBCS thing.

 

It already sucks out there so let's make it worse is not a compelling argument, IMO.

 

I feel bad for the brewers who are having their hard work come apart at the seams. I have a couple of bottles of coffee left, which I am waiting to see what the GI response is before I open. I am hoping they can identify good vs not good bottle times so I can chose to age one of them (I like it best with a year or 2 of age). Worst case they suck, best case they are still awesome.

They were only $13 per bottle, so if you paid retail price you really aren't getting screwed out of much assuming you only have 1 or 2 bottles. If you collected a case and over-paid based on expected trade value, yeah, you are out quite a bit more...

 

Fair, but I guess I am not making an argument for or against a given behaviour - just observing reality. If you want these beers you either get in the game or accept your chances of getting lucky with a normal schedule and life (like stopping at the store once a week after work) are next to zero.

It is still a race to the bottom, but your choice is to participate or not - there isn't really a 3rd option of 'change the game' because there are too many others who don't give a shit and will do whatever it takes to collect their pokemon beers...

 

It's the whole broken windows theory. Are there people doing much shittier things? Of course, but they likely started out doing less shitty things. So, why not call out bad behavior before people get to fedora dingus levels...

I mean, I get what you're saying. The toxic scene really sucks for people just coming into the game. And, to an extent, I can't fault the guy either. We've all double dipped (or more) on limited releases. This just hit a nerve since we had simultaneous bitching about and causing the problem.

 

There is plenty that retailers and brewers functioning as retailers can do to get the bottles into as many hands as possible at the point of initial sale. I agree, though, that there is little (but not nothing) that can be done to stop reselling after that point.

On the buyers' side, we can certainly try to create a beer culture where gaming the system is viewed as lame, unacceptable behavior. We also need to really work on eliminating the whole FOMO thing that is becoming more pervasive in the beer community.

For the first time since 2007, I did not buy any Bourbon County this year. You know what? I'm not losing any sleep over it. I'll run into it at festivals or on tap along the way, a friend will inevitably share, etc. There's enough of it out in the world that I'll have it in a glass in front of me at some point. And if I don't? The sun will still come up tomorrow, and I will still have more amazing beer available to me to drink at any point in time than I could have at any point in human history.

 

That's totally fair - you can't bitch about the game and then simultaneously play it.

 

Fair, I guess I am just more of a fatalist; the behavior is so ingrained I don't see it changing, only getting worse. Would love to be wrong though.

I get you on the variants, but regular wasn't hard to get this year. Even before the 2nd drop, the Jewel by me had it for a few days with no hassle or lines at all. After the 2nd drop there were stacks at Binnys for 3 or 4 days (at least here in the burbs). I am OK with that level of effort - a few phone calls the day after black friday and swinging past my local grocery store.

 

Rumor has it some Tonys finer foods are holding cases of regular. Not sure why or when they will release it.

 

IMO, you owe it to yourself to try PS in bombers from Decorah.

 

I mean, I'm probably best off getting it on tap. But going from TG not being distributed near me to buying 4 packs of PS is a great first start!

 

Even the new Decorah PS bombers arent the same as a year or so ago in my opinion. Much better than the FL crap, though.

 

The Jewel at Grand & State has 4 bottles of Barleywine sitting on the shelf.

 

************ stole my line!

Also, whoever goes there next please hug Larry for me. I miss Larry.

 

I gave him a kiss on the lips for you. I hope that wasn't too overly assertive on my (your) part?

 

On other threads, so just adding here:
Letter from Jared at GI - offering refunds for Coffee and Barleywine: http://www.gooseisland.com/blog.html?id=post_11