When I lived outside DC, I was lucky to get one bottle and a growler fill of Founders Backwoods Bastard each year. When I moved to Arkansas just over five years ago it was easier to get during the annual release. I bought a case each time it was released the first couple years I was here. After all, I love that beer and enjoyed drinking it regularly over the next few months and stashing a few away to age. Now that it's available all the time I buy far less than a case a year. I still love it just as much, but when I see it in store I figure "I can get it next time." This is probably true for KBS also. (The variants are a different story, but then, they're limited release.) I don't think this has anything to do with hype (or loss of hype) but more likely FOMO. I need to get the beer I love before it goes away. Has anyone else noticed this? Is there a widely available beer you love just as much today as when it was limited, but you buy far less than when you had to hunt for it?
BCBS. I used to go stand in line for this every year for a limit of two non-variants. Still love it, but I just don't buy it any more unless I see it on markdown. There are plenty of other ones out there that aren't AB.
FOMO has led me to forsake great beers that are.always on shelves for fast moving locals and nationals. Sometimes I regret it. Sometimes I don't. But FOMO certainly plays into it. Ten fidy was always in rotation in my fridge, but the last few years it has been mis for other beers I never see regularly.
Like you, I am a lover of Backwoods Bastard and would buy it every year when it was released. After it became year-round I bought it the first time that I saw it, but then realized that it's always there. I haven't bought it since KBS is kind of the same deal, but I have so much of it in my 'cellar' that is getting too old (along with several other BBA brands) so that I have not bought any of it either except for the variants. I don't like drinking the high abv beers too often, so my stash is only disappearing slowly, and it will be a while before I buy more KBS.
Backwoods Bastard and KBS are both year-round. That's part of it. Also, the 'scarcity effect' is gone. Further, there are just a ton of really good beers. KBS and Backwoods Bastard are still excellent beers. But they're not head and shoulders better than everything else like they used to be. Another contributing factor, IMO, it wasn't that long ago that you couldn't walk into just about any old grocery store and find barrel aged beers. They were seasonal releases, and not that many breweries doing them.
I will say backwoods is a style that hasn't proliferated the beer world, and I still grab it fairly often simply because there are not that many BA Scotch ales out there.
Love the BB, nice to see it on shelf all the time. Although I've been drinking mostly lower abv so don't buy often. I did drink cellar down except for Bigfoots I think Founders did great to get good beers on shelf, but by time they did they competition expanded faster than market
Slightly different, but I think of Sierra Nevada Celebration the same way. I don't drink a lot of IPAs, but when I'm in the mood for one, I want a good one. If Celebration were always on the shelf, I might not turn to it when I needed my IPA itch scratched. But if a hop craving comes on in late November/December, I am going right to a 12 pack of Celebration. In fact, I saw 12 packs of Celebration when I was at the store this week and I resisted buying it because it's not quite Celebration season in my brain. I want hold off slightly (maybe Thanksgiving) so that I will enjoy it even more. I do the same with Octoberfests. I love Octoberfests, but I hold off on drinking them until it's a little cooler outside.
