Goose Island BCS

My last time buying it (and first time getting variants) was the Rare year. Rare was a good beer (but didn't stand out from the crowd) and while I liked my first sip of Regal Rye by the end of a glass I thought it had a disgusting cough syrup flavor. It was the last straw for me. Then the recall happened so I happily got some money back and a t-shirt to remember the occasion.

The year after I was in a relatively new store a few days before Thanksgiving and the employee recognized me and asked if I wanted some Bourbon County. I kindly told her I won't buy anything from ABI and she just looked at me confused saying "They're not Anheuser-Busch, I thought they were from Chicago." As she was ringing up my order I finally looked up and there was a sign behind her advertising a Goose Island tap takeover a couple weeks later. Made my day.

I won't say BCBS is a bad beer but it's not nearly good enough for me to give ABI another dollar. KDS is out, BBIS release just happened, Abyss is sitting on shelves, BBOMB comes out tomorrow with variants after that and my "cellar" is full. It's not exactly difficult to boycott BCBS.

Did you move?

 

John's has carried BCBS (I went to bottle releases in 2015 & 2016 I believe) and I managed to buy CBS there in 2017. I have no idea how things have changes since they've been sold. Also, I was a big regular from '97-'08 when I lived in Multnomah Village but don't make it there more than 2x/year now that I'm in SE, so no "regular" status.

 

I love that picture for so many reasons.
Also they've got it framed and hanging on the wall at the brewery. Claasic.

Yeah thats' kind of how I feel about it. I'm not going to support and buy stuff from breweries that have gone that route. I'll still drink it if it's given to me (and it's something I want to drink), as has been the case in a couple of BIFs I've been in, but I'm not going to support them myself.
Hell, moral questions aside... why would I? It's not like we're starving for world class options from right in my own back yard. I've always been more of a 'homer' as described above in the try to buy local sense anyway.
Cheers and hope you're all enjoying your wolfenoot!

 

John, your visit to Minneapolis jogs a couple of memories.

We visited Minneapolis regularly when our daughter was there for 5 years (before moving to Duluth). One year, maybe about 2010, I read on the MW forum that a bar was putting BCBS on tap. This was before they were distributing the bottles at all widely, before the sellout to AB/InBev, in short it was the good old days. Mrs. Vashon Guy and I hied ourselves out to this bar, and had BCBS for the first time. OMG it was good. It was the first bourbon barrel aged beer I ever had. If I remember, it seems like it was about 15% ABV. We shared a snifter, and grinned at each other. I don't buy it anymore, of course, and now we have the Fremont masterpieces and other great stuff in the NW. But you always remember your first time ...

The other memory is of the Town Hall Barrel Aged Week, which I attended in 2014. This was a cornucopia of Town Hall's own barrel aged beers. The standout was Project 3106, a bourbon barrel aged imperial brown ale, with an incredible mix of flavors. It would still make my list of the ten best beers I've ever had. If you ever get the chance to visit MSP in mid February, be sure to get by the festival. They release their best beers one at a time throughout the week, so you need to check the schedule, to make sure you're there when Project 3106 is on tap.

 

Apparently, the Specialty Beer Store here in town was letting folks buy cases. Then they started a 6 bottle limit, then 4, then one. my friend got there at 11:15, and it was all gone. The store had opened at 10am.

 

Managed to not buy any this year.

 

Skipped it this year. Too much good shit out there to worry about BCBS. I liked the 12oz / 24oz format with old school labeling 1000x more. Base beer has always been solid but there are so many options out there that compare favorably or better.

The Rare a few years ago was excellent and while not “worth” the price tag, it was one of the finest beers I have ever had.

Wondering if any of the variants this year were super good???

 

Meanwhile in the NW, my local has 13 (I counted) bottles of BCBS from last year, 3 years of abyss (the cognac variety from last year too) and all varieties of KDS chilling on the shelf. No lines.

 

I guess we're just not hip enuff for the hype.

 

From my chats with friends who did some hunting: in Seattle there were quite a few lines, quite a few places where no line formed. No variants lasted more than a few hours around town but a lot of that was probably the same group of people going around hunting for them.

The days before Black Friday the bottles were put out at the nicer grocery stores in town including Vanilla/Bramble and other variants; people hunted those down fairly quickly as well.

Still hype, but compared to the rest of the country where still to this day people start camping out in the middle of the night it is definitely different here.

 

Some variants were still on the shelves at shops in Seattle as of yesterday.

 

Yeah I guess I should say: very little bramble and vanilla lasted long.

Couple places actually waited until days later to release as well, like Downtown Spirits.

 

Tried the 6 different ones offered to us in WA. I have to say all the variant flavored ones were in your face and bold on that flavor. Referring to the Orange, Vanilla, Berry, and Coffee. Although good, they do hide that classic Bourbon County base flavor.