Goose Island Bourbon County - 2022 (Chicagoland)

It would be interesting to see the annual total (all variants) yield of BCBS by year, and blended price rate per year.

Binny’s tried to pull a fast one in 2022, later retracting stating “oops they made a pricing mistake” when they initially priced a much higher margin than Jewel and smaller stores like The Beer Temple standard 30% ish rate.

The joke was they did not force “winners” to submit non refundable payment weeks before Black Friday, and they were exposed first by the pricing and then on Black Friday when it was clear you could get anything you wanted (pick and choose) and didn’t have to buy the package you “won”, especially the shelf turd “classic” package. There was also a substantial second BCBS shipment in mid December they are stuck with if they accepted.

Over the past three years, variant pricing substantially increased, and the share of people willing or able to pay these substantial price increases are decreasing. Retailers aren’t going to continue accepting large allocations if they have to sell a substantial portion at cost or below cost.

 

Who are you kidding? They can charge whatever they want and most of you will still buy in large quantities.

 

As the post you quoted said, try Jewel. Mine has variants for $5 off, large regulars at $9.99 and four packs at $10 off for the past week. With all that, the only thing they've managed to sell through is the two cases of 30th anniversary that have been gathering dust.

 

What's funny is that I haven't seen any efforts by Binny's to refund folks for their "pricing mistake". Anyone see anything like this? I'd be pissed.
Otherwise their actions just confirm their intent.

 

People were not charged, so there was no actual refund needed.

 

If price was not a factor I would have stocked up on this year's coffee. But alas price is a factor and I was one and done. It's turding up shelves which is absolutely unheard of for the Milwaukee area. I've literally never seen a coffee BCBS in the wild until this year and now it's everywhere (along with 30th Anny). If it was in the same format and price range as Crushing Mass I would have grabbed 2 whole four packs for sure but not at $20 for a single damn bottle.

 

With Budweiser's $ and distribution power behind Goose Island. The days of OG BCS and lot of the variants selling out right away is pretty much a thing of the past.

You can now find it throughout the year. Wouldn't surprise me that some places are trying to clear their inventory to free up shelf space by pricing it to sell quickly.

 

I thought Crushing Mass was much coffee-forward and had a nice balanced barrel character to go on top of it.

 

This years coffee in bottles tastes off anyway. It was weird and really not good at all. I wouldn't pay $5 for the bottle I had.

On draft it was lovely but the bottle was downright bad.

Cafe Deth & Crushing Mass were both great.

 

Strange, this doesn't match my experience at all. I didn't perceive any difference between draft and bottle, and I had them within a few days of each other.

 

I opened two bottles and both had a strange nutty off flavor. Very little coffee. I wasn't the only one either. Saw some Untappd check ins reporting the same thing.

 

This is the first I have heard of an off-flavor, but based on the comments on BA (mostly in the general BCBS thread, less so here), there is clearly, CLEARLY batch Variation. There was some discussion in that thread about how the old BCBS was effectively BCBS that had bottles “topped off” with cold brew. If that were still the case, you’d wonder if there would be batch variation. Makes me wonder if it was just sort of vatted together, and then as @HouseofWortship has mentioned, whether perhaps due to varying densities if there was variation due to the cuvée not being constantly stirred while being bottled. Which would make sense.

Not sure what to say about the off flavor though. Nutty is a common coffee flavor, but you’ve obviously been around long enough to know the difference between a normal and off flavor.

 

I'll agree on the "mostly" missing coffee. When a brewery puts "Coffee" on the label, I expect to be Crushed to Deth by it.

BCBS Coffee was my dead last pick in the whole lineup this year.

 

I didn't love Prop, but at least it reached for the stars and was "better than the absolute mess I expected". Coffee, for its price, just give me a regular because the notes were only subtle variation and not a better overall beer chock full of coffee. Not better in the lineup and certainly not better against the competition.

YMMV.

 

Any thoughts on what the big announcement tomorrow is for? Can’t post but it’s in their IG story that something with BCS is being announced tomorrow.

Wonder if regular will be made year round. Kind of like what Founders is doing with KBS.

 

My guess is they are announcing that BCBS will now be permanently on draft at all McDonalds.

 

My guess is the complete Easter egg pack with all the 12 oz Easter egg bottles. They did something similar 2 years ago.

 

At which point, the tap will consistently be broken down along with their ice cream machines.

 

I'll take a serious choice and say, Let's hope that BCBS is in 12oz bottles forever again.

 

Would be a great move. I doubt it will happen but I’d also love for coffee to be 12 oz again (and good). And go back to the OG barley wine. But this is a pipe dream I know.

 

In fairness, I only meant regular! Coffee in 12oz bottles is absolutely a pipedream. It pains me to say it almost as much as it pains me to say that I know that Roger Waters is an absolute asshole, but I'm a huge fan.

 

I had also guessed easter egg pack but I saw someone post on a FB group that they had already purchased a box in NC (???) that looked identical and it was a mixed 6 pack....3 regulars, biscotti, coffee, sir isaacs.

 

Its a mixed 4 pack + the snifter.

$50

 

Nice guess!

 

I can get suckered into this. Broke a BCS snifter while washing it recently (damn those things are thin) and need a replacement. A $50 snifter with 4 free bourbon county’s sounds as good as any excuse.

 

Also this 27th anniversary snifter is going to be worth money once they discover the printing error that says 30th anniversary.

 

It's the Billy Ripken card of snifters.

 

Need the white out version.

 

As a Baltimore native (an a card collector as a kid), I feel this.

 

I was just thinking this today. I'm loving the 12oz bottles. I bought a 2nd bottle of Barleywine this year, but I don't think I'm buying 2nds of any other variants unless I see them on super-sale. I am definitely going to keep buying 4-packs and drinking them until they aren't on the shelves any more though.

 

Prop ‘17 is on tap at Consume and I can still taste the nanners!

 

BTW, the thought just occurred to me that Goose should do a mixed 12oz 4-pack of BCS Coffee, with four different coffees in the 4 bottles. Might be a cool way to show the differences between different coffees.

 

I do consider myself somewhat of a coffee snob with a strong preference for African coffees. There have been a few breweries that have done this kind of thing and honestly I feel like most of the coffee nuance gets lost in the mix. The beers will be different, but not in the same way 2 cups of coffee from Ethiopia and Colombia will be when sampled side by side. It's a cool concept but doesn't seem to turn out huge variations in the final beers from my experience.



Just my $.02