Black Friday Bourbon County release

This was not the case in all of Mass. last year.

 

https://www.beeradvocate.com/events/info/81759/

Looks like there's a Black Friday event at Hugh O'Neill's in Malden. Some good stuff from their cellar plus a Bourbon County vertical.

 

interesting I picked up 8 bottles all from the Burlington area, I've opened 7 with no infections still have one in the fridge. I split a bottle bought in ma that was infected

 

Can also I throw a little bit of love Hugh's way? I went to their Black Friday last year to avoid what I felt would be a zoo at Foundry (although folks do say it wasn't a bad deal and they did have prop. blend.) Hugh's FEELS like a stout to me - sorta dark, sorta quiet, a lot of exposed wood, etc. I remember having the coffee stout on tap and really enjoying the low key feel of it all. I also love Mystic down the way from Hugh's and Idle Hands around the bend. Malden may be a great retreat from the Burlington & Square One malls come Friday.

 

Pretty bold move by InBev/Bud to go up in price about $3/btl this year also. With such a fiasco with infected bottles, you would have thought they would keep the price the same. Guess that's one way to pay for all those refunds and tee shirts they sent out....

 

Yup, as I detailed in my post above, Foundry was very chill. No lines, got bar seats, ordered whatever we wanted, plenty to go around.

They did not have Prop last year though, just Coffee in bottles, vintages of the regular/barleywine (plus 2016's obviously), and Regal Rye on tap.

I was confused about the Hugh O'Neill's one though. It says it starts at 11 am when they open, Foundry's event last year started at 5 pm. I'd much rather swing by there later in the day. Was it packed/beer kicked early?

 

Where are you seeing the price increase?

 

From the Bud pricing sheet. Took me by surprise!

 

I'll be in Rochester VT for Thanksgiving. I was wondering if there were any liquor stores along 100 south from Waterbury you thought might get BCBS or Barleywine. If the Alchemist is open, I may head to Stowe on Friday, and I'm sure I could find something.

 

I was at Hugh's the following Sat and everything, including Coffee was still pouring. Looks like a fantastic event this year though do wish they had coffee again.

 

I contacted Foundry and at this time they're not planning on having an event.

I may roll the dice on Saturday at Hugh O'Neill's and see what's left. Either way, I'd head over to Idle Hands afterwards, so it's a win-win.

 

The reality is that we (our market) is not that important to them. Maybe the goal is to up the price and say next year that "it didn't sell". Their IPA is vastly below in quality to what we can get in NE (and yet sadly usually the best beer I can get at a stadium or a non-craft bar due to the InBev relationship). But the non-BA drinker is happy to see Goose IPA and has never heard of BCBS.

Ironically, I just cracked my first two 2015 Bourbon County (NE purchased) bottles this week. One was the Barleywine (awful ... and that is usually my favorite) and the other was a straight up Stout (delicious as ever). I'd never heard about infection for 15 but it was obvious in the Barleywine. The reason this is my first cracking is that I'm lucky that a good friend who lives in Chicagoland makes our house a regular stop with his family back home for the holidays and I had only previously some of the exotic varietals that we haven't ever heard of here in the NE.

If infection was really rampant here, the price uptick (if true) will be a non-starter for a lot of people.

 

Gordon's has confirmed they got Regular, Coffee, and BW this year, in significantly lower quality than last year.

Last year Coffee was spoken for by those in line at open, and regular lasted maybe a week, if I remember correctly.

 

My local store was similar. I was walking on the treadmill at the gym and noticed they tweeted out that they had some Bourbon County. I figured it was just up the street, so I got there maybe 15 minutes after they opened. I'm not a huge stand-in-line-all-morning guy, if it's convenient enough for me I'll try to pick something up.

All of the Regal Rye was gone, I got the last bottle of Coffee, and then snagged a Barleywine too. People were waiting for them to open in the coffee shop across the street. I would say if you get to a store later in the day, you MIGHT get some Barleywine, but as always the regular shouldn't be too difficult to obtain. And then Coffee...forget about it unless you're there very early in line before open.

To be honest, I split one bottle of the Coffee with a buddy at Foundry last year, and had one full bottle to myself at home. It didn't knock my socks off. I had it on draft (probably 2014's) and it was excellent. I'll probably head to a bar like I said earlier, and see what's on left on tap. Might snag a bottle of regular for a Christmas party if it's laying around. I like the Barleywine too, but I'm probably not going to out of my way to find it.

 

I'm hoping i can get a barleywine this year, I only sort of stumbled upon a place with BCBS last black friday and they didnt have any variants. Unfortunately I recently moved and so i dont know which liqour stores around me might get it.

 

Where are you living now?

 

Watertown. While i'm in range of Boston, i'd rather not drive in to the city for a beer when there might be closer options

 

Gordon's on Main St in Waltham will definitely have bcbs. Dion's on River St also had all the variants last year.

 

I didn't see any variants in Watertown last year but Gordons on Watertown St. had regular bcbs on the shelf well into January @10.99 a pop.

 

Anyone have any Lowell area shops they would recommend that might get variants? I realize Lowell itself is kind of a wasteland, but surrounding towns?