Greetings all. I grew up in Phoenix/Tucson but moved to Colorado in 2009 for work. When I do go back, it's usually to Tucson or Maricopa/Pinal County Queen Creek. This time I'm coming to the north Scottsdale area for Thanksgiving and won't be able to go to my usual places for the Bourbon County release on Friday. I'd appreciate any info on the best places for me to score a couple of bottles- trying to keep my vertical from 2012 alive!!! I'm happy to meet up with anyone as well, buy them a drink and see how much things continue to change in AZ from when I left. If anyone wants to do any trading, hit me up. My Gots list is mostly current or if you are looking for CO/NM stuff, I'll certainly let you know if I have it or can get it. Cheers!!
i'd like to get some input as well. this will be my first black Friday trying to score some BC. I've scoped out a bottle shop in Tempe that will be open very early, and looks like a few Whole Foods will be starting at 7a. has anyone picked up from a Total Wine before? anyone's previous experiences or recommendations would be helpful
If you're just looking for regular, you shouldn't have any problems scoring some. Any Total Wine location should have plenty when they open, and probably a good while thereafter. Each location is different, but those I stopped by last year offered 4 regular and 1 barleywine per person. As far as variants go, your options are a bit more limited, particularly in North Scottsdale. For bottles, I would suggest you either go West and hit up: Craft Beer Hop Stop, 10am (Regular, Barleywine) Quick Stop, 9am (Regular, Barleywine, Coffee, Regular 2015, Rare 2015, Regal Rye) Or go South and hit up: Liquor Express, 6am (Regular, Barleywine, Coffee, Regular 2015, Rare 2015, Regal Rye, Regular 2014, Vanilla Rye, Surprise 2014 [Barleywine or Coffee]) Tops, 9am (Regular, Barleywine, Coffee, Regular 2015, Rare 2015, Regal Rye) [Tops also has an attached taproom that'll be pouring 8 different Bourbon County variants (including Vanilla Rye and Rare), as well as 4 sour sisters] Either direction will be a bit of a drive, but the 101 should help either way. That said, I'm not omniscient, and I'm sure there's many other stores releasing the stuff that aren't as active on social media, or that I am not familiar with, so don't take these as the only options in town. If you're looking for it on tap, Mellow Mushroom at City North is tapping the core 2016 lineup as well as Regular 2015 and a pair of sour sisters at 3pm on Saturday. I think this is technically Phoenix, but likely the most convenient source of Bourbon County to North Scottsdale.
awesome. thank you. I was thinking about Liquor Express, but man i'd be up at like 4.30 or so, really hoping to get a 2014 barleywine, pretty meh on a coffee variant as i have found i personally do not like coffee stouts nearly as much
Liquor Express supposedly has the largest allocation in town this year, for what it's worth. Not sure what that means as far as the 2014 vintage goes, though.
FYI to anyone keeping up, total wine Scottsdale had a 1-bottle limit on 15/16 stout, 16 barleywine, and 16 rare (in other words, you could walk away with one of each). TW desert ridge had 1-bottle limit on either stout or barleywine. went to liquor express close to 7p and no limits on 15/16 stout and barleywine.
The surprise variant at Liquor Express ended up being 2014 Barleywine. They did the Vanilla Rye raffle at 5:30, at which time there were 76 people fighting over 24 bottles, so everybody had roughly 1/3 chance of getting one. I lucked out - my buddy did not.
nice, congrats. ah the 2014 barleywine, that was the one I was really eyeing. I woke up around 3ish and just couldn't do it, ha. I was a big toasty cinnamon bun
Whole Foods North Scottsdale had a little over a case of 2016 regular as of a couple hours ago. Plenty of 2015 left 2-3 cases. 1 bottle per person. No variants. Total Wine Desert ridge is out.
8-10 cases still sitting at Quick N Shine on Gilbert Road. unsure of price. if anyone still needs some.
Gonna be in the Glendale area on 12/1-12/2. Any chance any places in that area still have any regular or variants of BCBS?
Honesty, outside of any BevMo or Total Wine locations, I'm not aware of any stores on the west side of the valley that got Bourbon County. Not to say nobody did, but there just isn't a lot going on in that half of the valley. Ground Control in Litchfield Park may have gotten some, but if they did I'd imagine it'll be long gone by then. If you make it across town to Tempe, some of the stores that got larger allocations (Liquor Express or Tops) may still have some leftovers. Variants are unlikely, but you never know.
your best best would probably driving to the skirts and hitting places around yuma or far out there. see my above comment about quick n shine, they are a likely chance. no where near your location though.
Liquor Express in Tempe is probably your best bet. I'd call first since it's about a 30 minute drive from Glendale but they still had a ton a few days ago. I think they still have some Backwoods Bastard too if you're interested.
