Black Friday stories

Well, I guess it depends on the hobby in question and the hobbyist's approach, but yes, it kind of is usually necessary to spend a lot of money to enjoy a hobby. Sure, collecting cars will cost more than collecting coins. Hiking locally is cheaper than hiking in exotic locales. But when people really get into a hobby, they tend to spend more and more money on higher end equipment, more rarified experiences, etc.

Tbh, it doesn't bother me people spend a lot in money and effort on beer. And it doesn't really bother me that this can limit the quantities available for others. If people prize things more highly than I do and are willing to pay more in time, effort, mpney, then why shouldn't they get the rewards? Personally, I'll just enjoy the many great beers I can get in line with what I am willing to do for them.

 

By the time I got to the store, all bottles were sold out. They did have a keg of regular though, so I was able to get a growler. My wife was with me, so I could have gotten 2 growlers, but there were still a lot of people behind me, I chose to spread the love.

A few hours later, my buddy calls me to tell me he stumbled on a case of regular at a place we would least expect it. He picked me up a 4 pack.

I believe in beer karma!

 

Colorado front range. I hit up 3 stores about an hour after each had opened Friday morning. First store nothing. Second store had regular and barleywine 2 bottle limit for each. Last store sold me 2 more regulars for a grand total of 4 bottles of regular and 2 bottles barleywine . No coffee, no variants, BUT no lines, no mobs, no getting up crazy early, and in fact there was still regular left at the second store as of saturday afternoon. They still had 2 cases. I shoulda grabbed more but oh well share the love right.


(edit: I also found a few Christmas Bombs at one of the stores! Bonus!)

 

Friday morning was great; hit up a local liquor store (was visiting my parents in the Milwaukee burbs for the week), waited in line fifteen minutes with a dozen people, and walked out with a four-pack of regular - no variants, but as a first-timer I wasn't about to complain.

SATURDAY, however - I think I may have just won the idiot of the year/BA forum award. Went to another early morning release to grab a 4-pack then got a raffle ticket. The store was raffling the sale of a huge amount of stuff, everything from a load of BCBS varieties to KBS, barrel-aged Narwhal, etc. My number got called and I went up to hopefully get some barleywine...but it turns out my sleep-deprived brain had been paying attention to the ticket's first three numbers (you know, which everyone has the same of) and not the last three! Plus I'm like 99% sure that my "actual" number had been called shortly before. There was a chance of getting some extras afterward as there was more beer than people showed up, but at that point I had to get back on the road and figured I'd cut my losses anyway. So I grabbed my four-pack and left.

Still, getting two easy 4-packs as a relatively cheap newbie is pretty damn, so I can't really complain.

 

Wow, so much butthurt here. I think @MrExit23 kind of nailed it. Seems like there's two separate issues here. First, there are geographic areas that got very little allocation and had very stringent limits. That's unfortunate but completely unrelated to the behavior of other customers.

In areas where there was sufficient product, I have a really hard time understanding the mentality that any person with even minimal interest in getting some Bourbon County should reasonably expect to be able to roll out of bed at whatever time and swing by the store to pick up whatever limited variants they want. Obviously we're dealing with a limited product in high demand, and anyone who isn't an idiot should realize that said product would sell out pretty quickly. Those who were most interested in acquiring it got up early, waited in line, and bought it. So if someone does that routine at 2 or 3 locations before the minimally interested consumer bothers to show up, they're a bad person or selfish? I don't get that at all. Even if you were really interested but had to work or something, that sucks, I get it, but how is that the fault of other consumers? I can't tell you how many beer releases I've had to miss while working, but it's never even crossed my mind to get mad at the people who showed up. I would never expect them to buy less than the bottle limits so that I could go by after work and get some.

I think we can separate people buying a lot of a beer they love from outright rude or deceptive behavior (changing clothes, line cutting, etc.), but being called greedy for simply putting in effort to play by the rules at multiple locations I just don't get at all. You don't have an entitlement to purchase a desirable, limited product at any time and without any effort. If you weren't up early and putting forth the effort, you clearly didn't care very much about getting said limited product, and in my view, you look petty for criticizing those who did.

My own experience on Friday was very positive. There were 3 stores in my area with decent allocations of variants, which was obviously fortunate for us. Stood in line from about 6-8 at the first place and shared donuts, coffee, and laughs with my fellow customers. Everyone was well behaved and orderly. Then I drove to two other stores and saw many of the same people, again, all good natured and respectful. All in all, good times were had, beer was purchased within the applicable limits, and I was home by 9:30 to chill with my family and get our Christmas tree. If you think that makes me a bad guy because someone wasn't able to roll up to the store at noon and buy a four pack of coffee, so be it.

 

It's still beer we're talking about here, people. No matter how limited or delicious. This has got to be the ultimate example of first world problem.

 

A case of high abv beer for $25? sounds like a bit of an exaggeration. if not I need to know where you shop

 

I didn't bother going out on Friday to try to score any - but on Saturday I stopped in my local shop where they had about a dozen cases of the regular BCBS - I remember it sticking around for quite a while last year - I was told the Barleywine sold out quickly Friday morning - while I was out later on a hardware run, I decided to drive another 5 minutes to check out another local distributer - they had a Bourbon County Black Friday poster on the door and a 6ft high stack of BCBS inside - when I asked about the varietals I was told they had the Coffee and Barleywine in the back - 2 bottle limit on each - $8 per bottle - I acknowledged the jacked-up pricing (not too bad) and forked over $32 for 2 bottles each - at least I got some to try and to share -

 

This is either a fantastic troll or unintentionally hilarious. I suppose we all have to use that knowledge we gained in "Governments of the World 3001" someplace.

It's very, very clear from your posts that you're very, very new to the beer scene, so let me give you a hand with a few things.

Sure, there are those who are entitled & whining & annoying, just like there are everywhere. But what you seem to have missed is that "special releases" seem to bring out the worst kind of behavior in people all across the country. Just check this thread for a few examples (changing clothes to get around bottle limits, asking random strangers to go in & buy you more, etc.).

This is simply incorrect. Those of us who've been around have seen all sorts of additional stupidity: last-minute line cutting, multiple mules who clearly have no idea where they are, physical confrontations, & all manner of asshatishness. There are a ton of ways to accumulate "volumes" of a beer by skirting or ignoring the rules.

Totally agree with you here.

If you're interested, I'm no Millennial, I'm probably old enough to be your father, & I got up late & am very happy with my one four-pack of BCS. Does everyone "play by the rules"? Of course not. But I, & many of the people I drink with, have swapped/shared bottles when someone is shut out, away from home, working, or otherwise couldn't get the highly sought-after beer of the moment.

Call me a commie, but I find that trying to play nice with others leads to a hell of a lot more fun in the long run.

 

Your age is very, very clear from your posts.

 

Interesting some folks are saying the barleywine sold out so quickly, at my event yesterday it was by far the slowest seller compared to coffee, vanilla and the 2013 packs.

Also phwoooar there are some really intense people here, and I say that as a regular poster on various heavy metal and music production forums.

 

If anyone else wants a darkness I would love a vanilla. With all the craziness on the ISO page most trade offers get lost in the wash.

 

I woke up late, because I forgot to set my alarm. Rolled into my liquor store about noon and missed out on the Vanilla Rye and Barleywine. I got a 4-pack of regular stout, and got to talking with the store owners. He had some year old KBS, so I got a bottle of that. Then I went to a different store and bought some Rochefort and called it a day. I didn't see one other shopper at either store, so I'll call it a success.

 

I feel like both @MrExit23 and @maximum12 are actually getting down to the same issue even though they are different points of view. In the end if you obtained your beer by playing by the rules (waiting in line, not taking more than the allotment, etc) then more power to you. If you gamed the system to get more (cutting, changing clothes, bringing in random people off the street, etc) then that is wrong. The problem is seeing some people get a ton of BCBS and whether they worked hard to get them fairly or not. It is especially hard when certain markets got very little and folks had to search just to get the regular BCBS while other markets got much more and thus everyone was able to buy more and get the variants. Then you come on to BA and see all kinds of great hauls and the assumption is those people all gamed the system to get that much and that is why you didn't get any.

I will just share my black Friday for some perspective. I arrived at Whole Foods at 6:30am and was 8th in line before they opened at 7am. They received 1 case of vanille and 2 cases of coffee and barleywine. No issue on the regular as they received about 40 cases there. I ended up getting 1 Vanilla and the two bottle limit on the coffee and barleywine along with 1 4pk of regular BCBS (I think you were allowed to by a case if you wanted to). Some people that showed up a bit later were bummed they could not get the vanilla but did not complain as they realized they should have gotten there sooner. For reference last year I was told by these people they were able to show up at this Whole Foods and grab backyard with no issue and no line through the entire day, so the demand was definitely up from last year even though the amount of beer the store received was about the same. I then drove to my other local bottle shop and was able to grab two more bottles of coffee and barleywine before heading home for the day.

I think the real question comes down to this: say you arrived 1st in line at a store and they did not put any bottle limits on the beer and you bought all of the stock because you could. Some would say shame on the store for not limiting people to a certain amount and others would say shame on the person for buying out everything and letting others get a shot.

 

I don't like to post so soon after I have already said something, but some people need to understand what beer is really about. Our hobby is still in its infancy, and when you go out of your way to horde a beer that could really change a drinkers mind about what beer can be, that is putting yourself in front of the future of beer. I am not upset in the slightest with my haul on Black Friday considering I put a minimum of effort in (I got lucky because all the IU students were still out of town), but it is not very auspicious that people would treat this beer like some secret club and horde it to such extremes.

There will be more Bourbon County next year, why can't some of you be content with the bottle limits, and instead spread the word around about a beer? Also, what is up with making this some political conversation or comparing it to some professional sport? You were greedy and its not the socialists coming for you either.

 

I got two cases of regular and no variants. I don't feel bad about buying two cases either. My gf and I were the only ones at our local spot as they opened, although as we checked out a few more walked in. I happily passed on to everyone there all the locations I had researched that would be getting them and said I hoped to see them there. I also recommended the beer to people shopping that did not know about it but were curious about the hype. I will be giving away one full case to friends and family - some beer drinkers, some not, in hopes of converting them. The other case will be shared between myself and my gf and used in trades.

We all have different reasons for buying different amounts, I try not to judge too harshly. I made certain to not double tap any location and break any rules on customer limits, I simply drove to a few spots I had planned out. I honestly could have easily doubled my take but had no need for more. I think that there is a strong chance that the bottles that ended up in my hands will be enjoyed by people that have never been exposed to this (my favorite) beer before, and so I won't miss any sleep at night. I can almost guarantee that people on here complaining have bought or traded for, in excess of a single bottle of some rare release at some point in their life and are not the purist advocates they claim to be. So long as you aren't being intentionally deceitful in your methods, i.e. Changing clothes and putting on a fake mustache, then enjoy your spoils and hopefully share your love of this beer too. Cheers comrades!

 

The guy who changed his clothes to get three 4-packs is an amateur!

Here we had a two 4-pack per person, plus 2 bottles of each Coffee and Barleywine, and one bottle of Vanilla. I got in line way early, but the wife arrived later and hopped in with me right before they opened. Whatever bros, she had to sleep in after all that turkey and mashed taters the night before.

We both got our allotment, quickly changed clothes, hopped back in line for another go-round.

Then we figured they'd recognize us even if we just changed our clothes, so I shaved my neck beard and my wife dyed her hair blonde and we dressed up in a nice dress and tux, respectively.

Then we weren't sure what to do to get our third go-round, and they were out of Vanilla at this point anyway, so we both shaved our heads and put on gym clothes and sprayed each other with a water bottle to make it look like we were sweating. No Vanilla this time around, but got our allotment otherwise.

From there, we headed to a few other stores with 4-pack limits of Regular and Barleywine, and 2 bottle limits of coffee. Pretty pissed nobody else had more Vanilla for us though. Bunch of bastards wouldn't hold it when we called. Like I'll ever frequent those dumps again!

We were pooped at that point, so I called up my Grandparents and asked them to head to the shops in their middle-of-nowhere town because I had heard rumors from my distributor buddy that there was a shop there getting a case of Vanilla. They went in and it turns out there was no limit on the Vanilla, and a case limit on regular, but no other variants (damnit!). They got their allotment and dropped it off for our Saturday Thanksgiving get together.

All in all, it was a decent haul with the following:

18x Vanilla
128x BCBS
20x Coffee
24x Barleywine

Hopefully we can return to the stores that had the 1 bottle limits today and grab a few more of the Coffee and Barleywine since the beers tend to last a bit longer at those sorts of places.

Looking forward to when my hair grows back and I can do it all over again next year.

Black Friday, bros!

 

Really was hoping to get VRBC but AZ just got the reg BCBS. Which I am glad to have been able to pick up. Crossing my fingers for BCBW or BCBCS.

 

At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.