Bourbon County Draft (Boston)

I went yesterday but had a full flight before remembering there were bottle options. So I just had the OG on draft. Could always stop by again on the way out of Maine today, but more than likely we'll squat at Barreled Souls for a pop while picking up my bottles.

 

That’s says a lot about the jacked up pricing on Reserve.

 

The base beer is fucking fantastic this year. It's pretty much always great, and maybe I'm just having it on the right night, but it's really hitting the spot.

 

Regular > coffee

Coffee was not bad at all, but not worth 2x the reg.

 

I've yet to find any BCBS in the Berkshires at all, draft or bottle. Gotta say, it's pretty infuriating.

 

It's pretty shocking to me that we haven't seen any BCBS on draft in and around Boston to date.

 

Giant bummer on Hugh O'Neill's this year. People asked about it on Instagram too and no reply. They're focusing on World Cup, which is understandable, but it seems like their beer program has tanked lately. Stopped updating their lists online and not clear what they even have on draft.

 

Agreed on less of a focus on the beer program.

Regarding Bourbon County, I can’t blame them too much. No one has received it in MA yet, at least not at my usual spots. Nothing at Lu Lus, City Tap, or Five Horses either.

Luckily I went to NYC and had all the variants we got in MA in bottle on tap. A 5 oz. pour of each. If it makes people feel any better, they all kind of blended together and were quite sweet. For example, I couldn’t really distinguish which one was the coffee.

 

That's interesting. The coffee is clearly the easiest to distinguish in my opinion, very coffee forward. Much like the Cola and Cherrywood last year, the Biscotti and Sir Issacs (fig) are not as distinguishable to my palate.

Having been in Chicago this week, the Prop is okay for what they are trying to achieve but just not my style. The 2-year Barleywine is the winner of this year's bunch, IMO.

 

Completely random but it would make someones day who is close to me if this has been spotted anywhere retail who put old vintages out?

Wondering if anyone has seen even 1 bottle of 2020 Carmela around the NH/MA are? Being one of the least favorite thought there could be a chance.

Thanks!

 

Three weeks later this continues to blow my mind. How did Boston not get any kegs this year?!?

 

According to untappd, Harborpoint Liquors in Dorchester may have it. It says added in 2020, but they appear to update their beer list at least as much as adding new additions, so it seems possible they might literally still have it and it’s been sitting on the shelf for 2 years. Worth a call, probably!

 

Thank you! I’ll give them a call tomorrow!

 

Drizly (can’t guarantee accuracy) is showing two bottles at Norton’s Liquors in Cambridge.

 

There still aren't any bottles at all in Berkshire county. None. Not distributed.

 

Big distributor for the city of Boston is a Budweiser house primarily. Depending on how much goose island product they sell outside of the bourbon county stuff is usually what the allocations are based on. Strictly speaking from dealing with the south shore area distributor, I know they had cut a lot of goose island stuff from their offerings and we only saw regular and coffee being delivered to stores and hadn’t heard of any kegs unlike last year where there were a few around of regular.

 

Breaking News!!! BCBS Biscotti on tap at The Merchant. It's a holiday miracle!

 

Did we just get the one keg nobody else wanted?

 

I've seen a lot of positive reviews on Biscotti from the Midwest thread...many have called it their favorite variant this year. For me, it's good not great. The anise definitely pops as it gets warmer, but it's definitely a little thinner than I expected (as is the case with most of this '22 BCBS) and not as much barrel as I would have liked.

 

I had a bottle. I think it comes down to if you like anise or not.